I'm in love with outdoor kitchens. And this month's edition of Garden Design is full of outdoor entertaining info. I wish it were a 300 page edition...I'd read it all. I'd love to have a full outdoor kitchen, dining room table, and a big outdoor fireplace to relax around. Ahhhhhhhh... Check out Lynx Professional Grills and Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet.

I wish I had an entire week of todays. It was gorgeous. My outdoor adventure began with a little veggie garden brainstorming. Then I rearranged the deck furniture, moved the grill off the side patio to a corner of the deck, bagged some leaves, mowed and mulched both parts of the back yard, cleaned out my iris' and green onions, cut back what-I-think-is-a-blackberry plant, filled the outside ring of the firepit with a mix of lava rock and pea gravel, and started to replace the two front yard landscape light transformers with one 300w transformer. I need to run two new uplights and the last 18 tiered lights. I think I finally decided where to build my veggie garden. Right off the side patio is a small section of yard that gets a good amount of morning and afternoon sun. I'm thinking a 6' x 4' raised bed built out of bricks that match the existing landscape bricks. Jalapenos, cayennes, and habaneros -- yes. Onions, garlic, herbs -- yes. I'd really like to grow some tomatoes, but I've had absolutely no luck with them. Hopefully our neighbor will leave plenty of fresh tomatoes on our doorstep this year. Yums! I just hope we have more beautiful weather over the next couple of weekends to build my garden. I've been in serious slacker mode with growing edibles for the last couple of years. It's time to get back to work...or play in my case.

I've been wanting to create a northern back yard for a long time. I'm making progress, slow, but it's still progress. Did a bit of clean up in the back beds after work today. Edged and trimmed until both my batteries needed charging. Swept the back porch. Relocated a big toad. Hauled some trash to the curb. And I finally started to hang some patio string lights for the cooler weekend get-togethers. Working out a plan to string them above the deck in the trees. I can see it, I just need to make it work.

But to me, the big thing tonight was that our back yard really felt like a northern garden. The frogs were croaking, the insects chirping, and the leaves rustling in the wind. The smell of the decomposing leaves and the wet ground in the cool air was amazing. And it wouldn't have been complete without mosquito spray. Mmmm mmmm good.

I forgot these were Calla Lilies until one popped out a blossom a couple weeks ago.

And here was part of dinner on the 5th.

And some grilled cream cheese stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon on the 6th (before the grilling).

A little 'Superstition'...

Remnants of the leaf bomb...aka hail damage from the other night.

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While looking for a relatively inexpensive Japanese maple this past weekend, I found a relatively inexpensive beautiful dogwood instead. She's planted in the shade beneath the Cypress and the huge red Japanese maple. I also brought home a couple new hostas and two heuchera 'Citronelle' to surround the dogwood. This week, the dark pink azaleas started to push out some blossoms which looks awesome under the dark red Japanese maple and next to the bright green hostas and chartreuse heucheras.

Saturday morning I slept in until 11, and it felt great. I woke up refreshed and ready for a productive weekend. After some breakfast and yummy coffee, I grabbed my gloves, hat, and shoes and headed out to mow and edge the front yard. When I finished, I filled four yard waste bags full of weeds and dead leaves that I swept from the curb.

Sunday morning I jumped out of bed shortly after 9 and headed for The Container Store for their 25% off shelving sale. I picked up a wall mount shelf in "driftwood" I've had my eye on to try out an idea for storing my cds. When I got home, I planted a few of my remaining 'Bada Bing' begonias by the front entrance and some purple garden mums by the mailbox columns. I found out that I've been watering part of a neighbor's lawn for at least a month of occasional watering now. Whoops! I'm not sure how long it has been misaligned.

I try to make the rounds at least every couple of months to make sure they're all spraying where and how they should be. Regardless, it stopped rotating as it should have been so I went ahead and replaced it with an extra I had in the garage. And shortly before dusk, I replaced the faulty landscape light power pack in the front yard.

Clockwise from left:  Lady Fern, Cast Iron Plant, Lace Fern, Variegated Flax Lily

Sunday was nothing but a gardening day for me. Starting in the back yard, I swept the dead leaves from the back porch, trimmed the nandinas, pulled more overgrown lirope to let the hydrangeas breathe again, moved a silly frog, trimmed the tree ferns, and dug daffodil, iris, and grape hyacinth bulbs from their wooden deck pots. We've had such a mild Spring so far that the grape hyacinths are already pushing up leaves! I need to bury them in sand and hide them in a cool area of the garage when I get a chance. Then I can haul all the old wooden pots to the curb as they're finally starting to fall apart. After a trip to the Home Depot Landscape Center and Calloways, I moved to the front yard. I planted about 30 'Bada Bing' begonias and a couple white caladiums around the sidewalk by the front door, divided a Cast Iron Plant that was blocking one of the sprinkler heads, added an Autumn Fern and a second Lace Fern under the cypress tree, mirrored an Evergreen Giant Lirope to hide part of the brand new gutter downspout, and weeded the hell out of my azaleas.

I need more days in my weekends. The whole point of me going outside this morning was to mow the grass...which I didn't get done. I put it off once it started to get hot but by the time I was finished with the gardens by the front door, it was 9:00. Oh well, it can wait another couple of days. On come the sprinklers which hits me in the back of the legs with cold water, prompting me to quickly clean up my tools and head in for the evening.

My weekends seem to be nothing but yard work any more, which I enjoy, but I need about 3 full days to get everything done that I need to.

After having some foundation work done and a french drain installed last summer, we ended up with a drainage issue on this side of the house. We hacked out the old holly bushes weeks ago, but I finally had enough consecutive non-rainy days to level the ground and lay some sod. Well, not really level. The newly laid sod is slightly angled away from the house towards the french drain and angled away from the fence towards the camera. The french drain is a few inches to the left of the left white pvc cap stretching the length of the house. I'm exhausted, my hands hurt, and I have a length of about 12 feet of ground left to sod to finish the first two rows, but I'm happy I made it this far.

Once I finish laying the sod, the next project is to add a couple flower beds in rings around the oak trees. White caladiums, pink begonias, and ferns, oh my! And we'll be getting gutters installed on the 6th to further help divert water away from the house. I need more days in my weekends.

The first hydrangea I had was at my moms house... and I don't think it lasted the first summer. It bloomed, but it wasn't too memorable. I don't remember if it was blue, pink, or white. Something tells me it was pink, but who knows.

The previous homeowners left two growing in the back yard that were near death by the time our utilities were turned on after our move last July. I nursed them back to life over the fall, hoping that the winter wouldn't kill them, and now they're full of life and blooming!!! White so far...a little hint of pink in one bunch of flowers. I think hydrangeas are beautiful. I've always loved the heavy bouquet of blossoms and was really looking forward to seeing these babys flower.