our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

Our Yard & Gardens in May // Part 1

DenaMay 21, 2015

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

We have a love/hate relationship with our home. I could go on and on about the things that we dislike (the fact that it’s too small, the dirt basement, the fact that we’re on a main road, etc.), but I’ll save that for another time. Today I want to share one of the things that we love the most about this place — our yard & gardens.

Matthew has spent the past seven years completely re-designing the yard. It’s amazing how far we have come. Unfortunately I can’t find a good “before” picture at the moment, but believe me when I tell you, it was a wreck before. It’s our beautiful oasis now and we couldn’t be happier with it.

We’ve had gardens in the past, but they were usually haphazard. This year I finally got to install the larger gardens that I’ve been dreaming of. Throughout the yard I have planted evergreens, flowering bushes, vegetables, herbs, perennials and annuals. Earlier this week, I had a perfectly overcast day to take some photographs of what is blooming & growing this month.

There is so much going on out there right now, so I’m going to split this post up into two parts. In this first part, I’m sharing our flowering bushes and a peek at the yard & exterior of the house.

This is our rhododendron bush, located in one of the beds in the front of the house. I just love the deep, crimson reds in this one. The bush is presently full of blooms that are in various stages of opening. Within the next week, it should be in full bloom.

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

This is my favourite of our flowering bushes. To be honest, I’m not sure what it is called! It is one of the only original bushes that are still here from before we moved in. It’s a stunning bush that blooms every year in May and is covered with tiny, fragrant white blossoms. From a distance, it looks like the bush is covered in freshly fallen snow. It takes my breath away. There are actually two bushes and we keep our wood pile for our wood-burning stove between the two of them.

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

This is the view of the front of our house as seen from our driveway. The two decks (front & side) are new replacements that we put on several years back. Both of the decks were designed & built by M.

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

These are our azalea bushes. We have a few of them. These two are situated in the front of the house just in front of our deck. They have magenta blossoms. We also have another bush in the back, not pictured, that has soft pink blossoms.

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

This is a yellow wildflower. We have several species of wildflowers that pop around the yard. I love to pick them and put them in little glass bottles around the house.

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

Finally, here is a shot of our backyard and a little peek at one of our vegetable gardens. A few years back, the entire yard was excavated into sections and we had the stunning rock wall installed. M. laid out the plans so that the beautiful Japanese Maple tree would be saved. It is now a focal point of the backyard.

our yard & garden in may // livelovesimple.com

I’ll be getting into a lot more detail about the backyard and the gardens back there in part 2, coming soon. I especially can’t wait to share all of the vegetables & herbs that we’ve started from seed this year. It’s going to be an amazing harvest. I get hungry just thinking about it!

What about you? Are you into gardening? Do you have anything in bloom now?

Click here to browse some of my older gardening posts.

Vote for Us!

Comments (5)

  • Amber

    May 21, 2015 at 11:48 am

    I am so jealous. My heart yearns for a yard. I live in San Francisco and a yard is but a dream for me. This is just beautiful! Love that rock wall and the Japanese Maple!

    1. Dena

      May 21, 2015 at 12:40 pm

      Thanks so much, Amber. I hope that you get the yard of your dreams someday. I’ll best living in San Fran is so worth it though. 😉

      1. Amber

        May 27, 2015 at 4:24 pm

        It is definitely wonderful. But I always have this push/pull with urban living. It’s so convenient and I love it … but the other side of me really wants to live in a rural-ish area. Who knows where I’ll end up eventually 🙂

  • Tina

    May 21, 2015 at 1:24 pm

    Your home looks beautiful!

  • Eli

    May 21, 2015 at 6:59 pm

    I love the little misty last photo, I could sit and stare at the trees ahead. Your garden is beautiful.

    http://www.todaymyway.com

Leave a Reply to Dena Cancel reply

Prev Post

Two-Month-Old Marina Grace

Next Post

Memorial Day Weekend // 2015