Camellias + Boxwoods

{Camellias In Bloom}

While enjoying this warm weather & the abundance of Camellia blooms we got this year, we decided to add a boxwood hedge to the backyard. We purchased 7 small plants from our local Lowes and hopefully in a couple years will have significant growth.

All this work got Rawley tired and leaves us asking...

Where's all the grass?!

Looks like we'll be seeding in the next couple weeks!

DIY Burlap Runner

{No Sew Burlap Runner}

I love the look of burlap, especially in the fall! I currently don't own a sewing machine {this would explain why all my curtains still haven't been hemmed}, but after seeing a burlap runner at Pottery Barn with frayed edges, I figured we'd give this DIY a go. I picked up several yards from JoAnn's, cut to length and width, then removed about 5-7 strands from all 4 sides {photo top right}. I made two ~ one for our coffee table and one for our outdoor patio. This project took all of 20 minutes to make both!

Vegetable Garden

{Railroad Tie Garden}
We're excited to have our first official vegetable garden!
We planted the following:
Cherry Tomatoes, Heads of Lettuce, Romaine, Cabbage, Cucumbers, Jalapeno, Green Pepper, Red Pepper, Banana Pepper, Corn, and Strawberries
To see how we used the railroad ties click here!

Flowers in Bloom

{April Blossoms}

Weeknight Sunset...

{...With The Boys}

Railroad Tie Garden

We had this great idea to use railroad ties to build a retaining wall in the backyard to house our veggie garden. To say we were ill-prepared for the project was an understatement. Let's just say we completely underestimated their weight ~ on average railway ties can weigh anywhere between 100-200lbs each ~ allowing this project to span over a month.

In Phase One we purchased 9 railway ties from Lowes for $11 a piece. We thought this was a bargain, but the cost of our own manual labor quickly increased the sweat equity of this project. We first leveled the slope and set our first 'lincoln logs' if you will. Brian drilled holes then hammered in rebar to reinforce the foundation.

{DIY Railroad Tie Garden}
In Phase Two we stacked additional railroad ties one by one ~ this took a month! Once they were all cut and stacked the easy part was reinforcing the structure. Brian used additional rebar and galvanized metal tape to secure the frame from the inside. Once this was complete it was simply fill 'er in time. This isn't a project we plan to do again, but we can now fully appreciate all the heavy lifting.