Before And After: Hiding the AC Unit

I've had one yard project that just kept dragging on...never getting done.  It was to cover the ugly air conditioner unit.  I showed you a sneak peek a few weeks ago.

But you didn't see what I started with.

Bleh.

Here's my stash of 4x4 from Dad and the fence pickets from the ReStore.

Got the frame up - then it sat for a while.  Again.

I was finally DONE with it not being done.  A flurry of activity brought it to the point of your sneak peek.

Which looked good... waaaaay better than I started with but not yet 'done' enough.

NOW I'm done!

What do you think?

Linked at:
It really does work!

Cool Mornings...Busy Days

The first 10 days of June has had some incredibly cool mornings and low humidity evenings.  We've been taking advantage of that every chance we could (whenever something else was not planned).  We've gotten a lot done outside.  This work was to set up a framework that we can build upon with multiple small projects.

Here's a bit of it (we've also been working in the shed, but I'm not ready to show that yet).

Our garage entry area.  It was a mess... let's leave it at that, OK?  We cleared and cleaned and did a few projects.  We've also dealt with the weedy driveway issue since this photo was taken.

One of those projects was this screening of the AC unit.  Those things are just ugly and ours could win the ugly contest.  Seriously... why don't the makers of those things put a bit of style to them?

I got the fence pickets at ReStore for about .50c each.  The big 4x4s came back from my Dad's stash and the 2x4 are from my stash.  The pots of blueberry bushes are sitting on a huge, heavy piece of slab wood...that is sitting on huge 'L' braces attached to the 4x4s.  Between the weight of the wood and the pots, it's not going anywhere.

Still have to pretty it up with a rock border.

The other project was to make a walkway from the back door to the patio.

Himself leveled in the stepping blocks and then went back to add in the roof tarp (BEST weed block ever!).  Then he had to fine tune the block leveling.

Several bags of egg rock and it was ready to go.

Our under-the-deck patio and wee garden.

You can barely see it... there is black chicken wire around the garden.

Doesn't it blend in great from a distance?

The large pots on the left are my 'nursery'; trees and raspberry bushes to be planted later.

On the table are my bonsai in training.

North side of the patio in the lowest (#3) terrace.  As you can see, it was a hot weedy mess.  Himself has taken it personal and is clearing it out.

After: (View looking down from deck)  He's cleared out about a 10' wide area.  He moved the 2 surviving rhubarb plants into the bed with the spearmint.  It gets just a bit of direct sun and the plants seem to like that.

Now up to the front of the house.

Court yard.  Not much different than last year's set up.

Looking the other way (#1 terrace).  Cleaned up of leaves and sticks.  Also moved a bunch of roof tarps that will go into #2 terrace area.  Then this fall (or when it's too dry for mowing) our yard guy will fill #2 terrace with gravel.

The driveway has also been cleaned out.

Left view from the court yard.

We added that huge bird bath (given to us by a friend).  Most of the area from the bird bath down had no gravel.  Yard guy dumped in the gravel (here and several other areas).  Himself then had the chore of spreading it.  This is large gravel (2-4 inches) and doesn't move easy.

And the right view of the court yard.

Heading down the sidewalk to the front door.

We added that 4' wide strip of gravel to tie the herb bed walkway to the main sidewalk.

(Still working on the herb bed...95% done).

Front door.

Yes... another bird bath.  We have 4 of them.

Those hibiscus on either side of the door have a story.

On a WalMart trip, we walked past a couple of pallets of large plants marked 75% off.  Well that's worth a look!  They had been moved from the 50% off area.  There were several VERY thirsty hibiscus but they were still in pretty good shape.   

Original price: $20.98.  Alrighty then!

When I got up to pay for them, the cashier said she couldn't do the extra off.  I told her they were 75% and that was the price they'll be.

She had to call someone.

"Someone" came and told me she'd give me "a couple dollars off".  I smiled and said "No, they are now 75% off.  Got them off the last pallet."  Her reply... "Well, that's what 'Susie' has been giving."

With my smile now gone, I told her, "That is incorrect math.  75% off of $20.98 should come to the price of $5.25 for the plants."  She actually argued!  I was just getting ready to demand the store manager when she huffed and rang them out.

Sheesh.

I got them home and filled a big tub with water.  I plunged them in and let them sit overnight.

Next morning...HAPPY hibiscus!

Aren't those peach colored flowers beautiful?

Yard Tour: The Bird Cafe

Earlier in the summer I showed you the north side of the front of our house ( http://teri-gonewalkabout2.blogspot.com/2015/05/love-home-you-have-welcoming-courtyard.html ).  Before I could finish the south side... summer hit.

And this chickie doesn't work outside in the Tennessee heat!  SO not into saunas.

Then we had a wonderful weather respite last month and we were able to work a bit more.

This is right under the window for Himself's office.

He enjoys watching the birds as he works; so I made the area into our "Bird Cafe".  In the summer it is all about the hummers.  Winter will switch to the song birds.

We like to pick up/buy beautiful rocks on our travels.  Time to put them to use.

I'm not sure what the green stones are but they shine so wonderfully.

Hiding an old dryer vent is a piece of local sandstone and a Celtic lawn cross.

I drafted to use an old pot to hold our hose.  I think I'm going to do some digging in my stash to see if I have a larger one, but the idea works great!

Love this bench I picked up at Home Goods years ago.

The bowl is a discarded piece of pottery that was given to me by it's creator.  It's now one of six of our many bird baths.

The cat?  The birds don't care one bit about him!  LOL

Looking down from the porch.  (The grey strip is where we are putting in a stone walkway... you'll see that later).

Here's what it looked like before.

I moved the basil to the far end (you can see it in the first photo), then put down a heavy liner and the river stone.

Salvaged Slab Wood Garden Accent

One of our friends from church (and neighbor up the road) owns a portable saw mill.  And he has most generously offered to let us have whatever salvage wood we'd would like to have.

Free wood planks... well yes!

I have projects lined up in my mind!

The first one is this accent piece for our 'court yard'.

The space under the small kitchen sink window was just so empty.  I wanted something sizable to fill the area.

We took 2 planks and attached them across the back.  I love the rough look of the bark so we kept it on.  It leans against the house; we're not worried about it getting blown over.  That baby is heavy!

A bit of decorating with things I already had and it was done.  And for FREE!

Gotta love that!

http://knickoftime.net/2015/07/salvaged-wood-projects.html  

The Gardens at The Sticks

We've finally gotten all the plants for our gardens into the ground.  What a wonderful feeling!  LOL  We have made several areas into 'culinary' planting beds.

The herb bed in front of the house is doing well.  That grey mess in front is the ground cloth for a gravel walkway we are putting in... as soon as our yard dude gets some free time to bring his bucket tractor over to move the gravel in place here and several other areas.

All three of the rosemary (far right) made it through the cold winter and I added another.  We use a lot of rosemary.  Next over is the chives, garlic, and on the back onions.  After those is my oregano.  The beast is trying to take over!  Laying low to the right of the oregano are my sprawling thyme plants.  Only one survived the winter so I added those two freebies.  The other beast of the herb bed is the sage which is getting cut back hard next week.   Next is my French tarragon.  One made it through winter and I have put in five more.  They have such a hard time with the hot TN summers.  

And finally at the end of the bed I have my basil.  It was at the beginning of the bed but we've put in something in that area (you'll see soon) so they went down to where the tomatoes used to be.

Or maybe I should say... where the tomato IS!  That little volunteer came up and we are letting it grow.  I look forward to seeing what we get from it.

The rhubarb is doing great!

I've planted 18 of those free parsley plants all around the rhubarb bed.  (I still have 15 parsley left!  I plan on giving them away to my Sunday School class.)

The rhubarb is starting to color!

Next up is our vegetable garden...

This area used to be our rose garden... but the Japanese beetles drove Himself buggy so the roses moved up to my Mom's garden where the beetles aren't.

(Man!  I'm seeing a half dozen or more projects I need to work on in this photo!)

Another view of the veggies.  We hadn't planned on the fence (Thank you Geri for the chicken wire!)

This is why we have fence!  Those ungrateful deer chewed up two tomatoes and my two poblano peppers.  Thankfully they will survive their maiming.

Looking down from the deck.  The eggplant are doing well (top of photo).  And the bright green leaves at the bottom of the photo are on my sweet bay tree.

I need to start tying up the tomatoes.

Oh... here are the varieties I planted.

Cucumbers are doing well too.  They are loving the rain we have gotten (two inches on Monday!).

On the left side of the garden we planted five freebie spearmint plants.  The area is very rough and I hope they completely take over and fill the area.

Finally are our two (bargain clearance) blueberry plants.  They are going to be a focal point in an upcoming project.

First harvest!  LOL

We are looking forward to much larger harvests!

This is the start of our gardening.  I plan to add at least one new culinary bed each year.