Gardening Archives - Page 2 of 3

Tag: Gardening

Fall House Tour 2021

Posted on October 20, 2021October 20, 2021 by Lauren Lane

It’s FALL HOUSE TOUR day! I little peak inside our house this fall. And a look outside, as well. This is the first year I really decorated for fall outside, and our patio looks so friendly and fall-ish! Why didn’t I do this ages ago??

Harrison looooooves the addition of the skeleton that talks when you walk by it. I saved some of my gladiolus bulbs and realized that their dried leaves were actually the perfect addition to my front pot to decorate for fall. It looks a little like dried cornstalks. But not as big. And free.

And these cute little planters are switched out for fall…

Let Me Introduce Myself + Other FAQ’s

Posted on December 15, 2020December 14, 2020 by Lauren Lane

Some of you have been hopping over to my little corner of the internet for over a year now. Others just wandered in and may be wondering, “Who exactly is this person?”

So let me introduce myself. I’m Lauren. I’m a 35 year old, organization and list lover, mama to two little boys, who spends my summers wandering through my backyard garden and then posting pretty flower pictures. I’m so glad you’re here!

Here are some of the questions I get asked most in blog world and over on Instagram.

How to Arrange a Thanksgiving Flower Bouquet

Posted on November 17, 2020November 16, 2020 by Lauren Lane

I get asked a lot about how to arrange a vase of flowers. I usually reply that you just have to mess around with it until it looks right, which is true! But I thought it was probably time to share a more in depth “recipe” to the perfect bouquet of flowers and flower arranging.

First, use a large vase and put a packet of flower food into the water. Most bouquets come with a flower food packet. If you don’t see one, grab one from the flower section in the grocery store. They’re free! I always grab one or two extras to have in my junk drawer at home for when I’m cutting my own flowers from the garden.

Let’s Look At…How We Pumpkin

Posted on October 14, 2020October 19, 2020 by Lauren Lane

I’m currently sitting on my couch, holding a baby, and trying to type at the same time. If that isn’t a picture of life lately, I don’t know what is. If your’e new here, once a month, I link up with two of my favorite blogs (Shay @ Mix and Match Mama and Erika @ A Little Bit of Everything), to share a “look” into some little aspect of our life. Here’s a peak back at what we’ve “looked” at so far this year:

In January, we looked at our bedside table
In February, we looked at our winter wardrobe
In March, we looked at what’s inside our purse
In April, we looked at Easter at our house
In May, we looked at our weekends
In June, I shared where I was dreaming about vacationing
In July, I shared my very pregnant summer wardrobe

And I missed August and September adjusting to life with two kiddos.

Today we’re sharing how we pumpkin. So many directions I could take this, but I thought I’d share my outside decor for fall! Plus it gives me good motivation to get in gear to get all of my pumpkins out.

Patio Planters & Bistro Lights

Posted on July 28, 2020July 26, 2020 by Lauren Lane

About a month ago, Nathan came out of project retirement thanks to the boredom of staying home from COVID, and approached me with an idea to switch up our patio. He had always envisioned making the rectangular side of our patio more of a set aside space that would lend itself to an outdoor picnic set or table and chairs.

Per usual, I was terrible at taking “before” pictures. I just want to get to the end result! Here’s a look from last year at what this area looked like:

We re-homed both the hydrangea you can see on the far back left of the above picture, and the boxwood on the far right corner to new homes for this project. Then, Nathan built a couple of cedar planters to put in the corners instead.

Mid-Summer Patio Flowers Update

Posted on July 17, 2020July 16, 2020 by Lauren Lane

I’m going to do a little potted plant update today. I love having a lot of big potted plants around our patio during the summer. It allows me to switch out the types of plants that go in them every year, see how things fare and what I end up loving and what just doesn’t look that great by the end of the season.

I do in general keep the same color theme for all of the potted plants on our patio, and echo a handful of plants but in slightly different ways throughout all of them. Last year, I did sets of three of the same plants over and over, but this year, I wanted a bit more variety.

If you’re interested in how I put together a pot, I wrote a blog post on the four easy steps of that HERE.

All of my patio plants were planted in mid-May, so this is a little mid-summer update.

In May…

When I planted this series, I thought it was going to be my least favorite combo of the three sets of pots. I was soooo wrong. It’s in the running for most favorite now.

The zinnias fared so well, that I actually pulled out one of them and put it it in its own pot.

Plants in this series:

Large Pot: Superbells in Double Blue, Magilla Purple Perilla (coleus), Sweet Potato Vine in Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Lime, Salvia in Majesty Arctic Blue
Middle Pot: Euphorbia in Diamond Frost, Zinnia in Double Zahara Salmon
Small Pot: Lantana in Sunrise Rose

In May:

Also in the running for my set of favorites. The hibiscus wasn’t blooming the day that I took this picture, but wanted to show you how beautifully everything came in. And one of my favorite things to do is to use the creeping thyme in a pot, because it starts to cascade over the sides of the pot and looks so cool by the end of summer.

Plants in this series:

Large Pot: Superbells in Blue Moon Punch, Magilla Purple Perilla (coleus), Sweet Potato Vine in Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Lime, Salvia in Majesty Arctic Blue
Middle Pot: Hibiscus in Passion Wind
Small Pot: Creeping Thyme

In May…

When I initially planted all of these planters, I loved this set this most. And now it’s my least favorite 🙂

I think it’s something about the colors in the coleus against the million bells here that I don’t love.

Plants in this series:

Large Pot: Superbells in Doublette Love Swept, Sweet Potato Vine in Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Lime, Salvia in Majesty Arctic Blue, Euphorbia in Diamond Frost
Middle Pot: Magilla Purple Perilla (coleus)
Small Pot: Creeping Thyme

One thing remains true, this coleus that I’ve been using in my pots for years is a stellar performer. I’m getting to a point now that I cut it back in my pots just about every week so it doesn’t take over, but it is truly a beast. That’s one of the reasons I was curious as to how I would like it by itself in its own pot this year.

We’ve reached the time of a year in mid-summer, where I’m dealing with the most pests to my flowers, they need a lot of water (as in, I water these pots daily), and fertilize them once a week with a water soluble fertilizer. This will be the routine until early September when the heat starts to subside a bit.

Hope this was helpful to see how much plants fill out in just a couple of months! Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions! I love to hear from you!

Installing Drip Irrigation

Posted on July 8, 2020July 7, 2020 by Lauren Lane

Before I get to all of the wonderfulness of drip irrigation (which there is so much wonderful!), I just wanted to remind you to head to my Instagram to enter my giveaway for a $50 Nordstrom gift card!

Ok, now to drip irrigation excitement….

I have long been the person dragging a hose around all sides of the house watering my flower beds. I would spend an hour every other day watering. Somedays it was more! I prayed for rain and welcomed the relief from watering. This year, I decided I was finally going to invest the time to figure out how to install drip irrigation to the flower beds I hated watering the absolute most. Admittedly, I’d watched videos for years about how to install it, where to get the parts, putting it on a timer, and I just never pulled the trigger. It seemed too difficult and complicated.

But what I learned this year is GOOD NEWS! It really isn’t hard to install. And now I’m living the dream of just hooking up the hose and letting the water drip out into my flower beds for an hour while I sit in my air conditioned house and write this blog post.

Here are the supplies I needed:

Garden Path Tour Summer 2020

Posted on June 26, 2020June 22, 2020 by Lauren Lane

Our garden path holds a special place in my heart. After Nathan single handedly designed our entire patio remodel, and then built over three years through hours of digging with a shovel and laying stones usually BY HIMSELF, we went from a patio that looked like this when we moved in…

To this finished last year…

If you missed it, I did a whole post about our patio remodel HERE.

Friday Favorites {05.01.20}

Posted on May 1, 2020April 29, 2020 by Lauren Lane

Holy smokes. That does in fact say May 1st. This marks day 49 of quarantine for us. What day are you all on?

Harrison and I have big plans today. To stay home. :). Here’s what’s bringing me a smile this week…

I’ve got to brag on this little guy this week. Today marks the third week of potty training for little man, and he is doing so so well!

My Favorite Room In Our House Isn’t Actually a Room

Posted on April 28, 2020April 27, 2020 by Lauren Lane

Spring and Fall battle it out for my favorite season, but I think ultimately, spring tends to win out for me. The springtime when the garden starts to come to life again, birds return, there aren’t all of those pesky mosquitos yet that come with summer. So despite being stuck at home during this COVID-19 crisis, watching spring come to life has been so much fun for me this year.

Spring time in particular I have a favorite room in the house that isn’t an actual room inside our house. It’s a beautiful little sitting area outside surrounded by draping pines over one side, and greenery all around.

I’m going to include details of the plants in the first picture at the very bottom of the post for those of you that are interested in ideas for your own garden!