The "After" pictures we promised...

Well that was fast right??? Hubby got home from work yesterday with the plants, and now that we have an extra hour of daylight, we decided to get straight to work. It didn't take us (wade) very long to get everything planted. Haha I Kidd, I did help out, we were just working at a speed of pretty much 3 to 1. (Wade would plant 3 by the time I had 1 in the ground!) The nursery didn't have the Kaleidescope Abelia we had originally picked out, so these are actually called Mardi Gras Abelia. Per google, I think I actually prefer these over the other... But alas!! It's nature! It's all beautiful! The will have white flowers, and turn a sort of pinkish color at some point throughout the summer

Here are my very professional mulchers taking a break for some breakfast....

We (they) also mulched the Perennial Bed in the backyard... Here we have planted some grasses in the back, lambs ear in the front, and Black-eyed susans, and cone flowers throughout. The flowers last practically all summer long, and they are wonderful for cutting and having fresh flowers inside! Still waiting for them to come back from last year...They will though!! You can see them, they are just still small.

 

I also want to show off a couple other favorite features from our backyard.  This is a new addition, but I think it adds beautifully to the patio area, where the Big Green Egg is.  The BBQ sign was made by my brother-in-law, Ben. You can check out his Etsy store Bentonsrock here.

 

I also love these Pot hangers from this website.  I picked them up at a local home and garden expo. It's kind of like having hanging baskets, but using terra cotta pots makes it sooooo easy!! You just literally slide the pot in, and they practically hang themselves. The terra cotta seemed to kind of stain through the weather, so I bought a can of Rostoleum Spray Paint to spruce the pots up a little bit.  The color is Apple Green, I got one coat on 3 of the pots today....we'll see....