china shepherdess

Help me identify this flower, err, weed!

My backyard has more weeds than grass. Some of the weeds are actually beautiful little purple flowers.They mow easily and grow back quickly. I think I might just like to encourage more of these to appear and not worry so much about the lack of proper grass in my backyard.

Gardeners! Any notion of what they are and how I can get more of them to take over? Are there sites where I can just punch in a detail or two and it will spit out an identification?

Update: The consensus seems to be that they are wild violets, so no flame throwers are needed. Thanks for the advice, everyone!

Birthday Flowers of the Week Redux

I met up with some of my nearest and dearest last Friday for dinner and a belated birthday celebration. Along with great conversation and a bit of silliness, they brought along this purty bouquet that added a lot of color to my place during the grey weekend. I really love the crazy green, cushion-y flowers. Does anyone know what they are called?

A quick wishlist post: ferm LIVING's Squares Throw

This throw jumped out at me when it was first previewed on ferm LIVING's site, and now it's available for sale. It would be the perfect thing to lay across my bed or to add some interest to the basic loveseat in my TV room.That said, there are stairs to buy and other expensive work. Hopefully it will still be available when I'm ready to buy.

Flowers of the week.

I woke up early hoping to see the shuttle streak across the sky on its way to a landing at Kennedy Space Center. NASA had a change of plans so my attentions turned to my landscaping. The flowers this week were picked from my very own yard. I have to transplant the bulbs elsewhere soon, so I didn't feel too bad about chopping these blooms down.

I saved big money. Saved big money.

This trio of photos shows a highlight from my day. I purchased a lawn mower and mowed the lawn for the first time ever. There might be more weeds than gorgeous green turf, but it's mine and that is a wonderful thing.

Yes, I'm old school and bought a reel mower. My yard is small and I didn't want the hassle and expense of a fancier mower. It worked great and I got a bit of a work out.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the title of this post, it's from the jingle used in all of the commercials for the store where I bought my mower.

Planning for my Square Foot Garden

Slightly wild and untidy English cottage-style gardens are beautiful, but not for me. As you probably noticed in yesterday's post, I like landscapes with a modular style. This feeling is also going to carry over into my vegetable garden.

I've decided to go with the Square Foot Gardening method for my little vegetable patch. This is really fun for me because my dad built my mom a rather large Square Foot Garden in the backyard of the house we moved to in the suburbs. I remember watching the show with her and getting to plant my own small square or two. I wish she was well enough to take part in the planning of my first garden, but maybe I'll bring her to see it once it gets going and it will strike a chord and bring up some of her older memories. 

The square foot frames seem easy enough to build. However, I have projects aplenty and decided to purchase two directly from the Square Foot Gardening Foundation. The only thing missing is the fabled Mel's Mix and some wire mesh to put under the boxes just in case of critters that like to burrow (gross).

I've found a nice, mostly sunny spot in my backyard and now I get to decide just how I'm going to fill up all 32 of those squares! I'm a little intimidated by the whole process, so we'll see how it goes.

Wishlist: A modern outdoor living room

Front yard inspiration from Sunset Magazine

Garden from Domino (RIP) via Door Sixteen

An outdoor Room via The Cottage Cheese

Garden by Modular via Door Sixteen

Right now, my yard is an untidy mess. The images above are inspiration for the outdoor living space I'd eventually like to create. Realistically, this summer I'll probably just tidy up the yard a bit, buy a grill, plant my square foot garden and spruce up the table the previous owner left for me. That said, a girl can dream.

What projects are you doing in your yard this year?

Check out my clippings on curbly for more garden and patio inspiration. 

I've got the broken down USB blues.

My camera and computer aren't on speaking terms. This iPhone snapshot of this week's flowers will have to do for now. I do love Ranunculus. A few of the blooms were top heavy and snapped off, so I floated them in a soup bowl.

Here's hoping you had a wonderful weekend.

New Lonny

Like most of the deco/d-i-y blog world, I'm excited about the new issue of Lonny. I flipped through it with my morning coffee and found my favorite spread. I love the gallery wall and the way the vase and other tidbits are corralled into that tray on the top of the console. It looks personal without being messy.

Happy Easter

Happy spring everyone and a happy Easter to all who celebrate it!

This pretty little flower bloomed yesterday. In the background you can see some of the projects that will be consuming my weekends to come.

1. I need to fix the loose grout in my foundation.
2. The soil around the foundation needs to be regraded to protect my basement from water. I'm currently researching the best way to handle this.
3. After I regrade I need to figure out what I want to do as far as landscaping around the house.
4. My yard is not exactly in the best of shape. I'm not sure if I care that much this year, but I want to prevent it from getting worse. 
5. I'd like to power wash my house and touch up the exterior paint in a few areas.
6. My most pressing exterior issue isn't shown, but I really have to get my front and side stairs replaced. I found a picture of some stairs that I liked and I'm asking my friends who own a construction company to put in a bid on the project.