how does your garden grow?

When the crevices of my hands were not black with dirt (gloves are overrated), I broke out my "big camera" instead of my iPhone this weekend to snap of few pics of our hard work. 

Ok 80% my husband's hard work but hey I have planted plenty of flowers on my own and even know how to work a post digger now in no time. We had our home professionally landscaped in the front last Summer right before we had Charlie, (hello "push present". No, not a joke) and he mulched around the entire house and planted three tea olives on each side. That's it. 

We have since added rock around the entire house (thanks to some leftovers from Chad's sis & bro-in-law. Thanks guys, we take anything! ha) and we've added shrubs around the back deck and perennials in the back and along the side closest to our garage. Aka: what we see the most. I pulled up all of our old Fall/Winter flowers on our back deck/front porch and replanted for Spring. We landscaped a bit around our driveway entrance (much more to do), planted more leland cypresses along our property line, Chad built two decorative fences and we added a ton of flowers there and he's added to his azalea flower garden in our backyard. Oh and planted a weeping willow, japanese maple, and two fruit trees. So yeah...pretty sure we don't want to plant anything for a long time...

but come Summer I can't wait to see the fruits of our labor. Literally. 

My mom has always had a green thumb and one of the most gorgeous Southern porches around complete with two swings and the prettiest window boxes you will ever see. 

Chad's dad grows the absolute biggest ferns ever and they always have had pretty flowers. We had an in ground pool at our old house and for years we spent a LOT of time and money on flowers/landscaping around the pool and honestly, we loved it. It was sometimes a pain to keep it all watered but I loved having pretty flowers everywhere and I guess moving into a newly built house, it wasn't easy to start from scratch but we knew we had to start somewhere. We have even recently had a little "push" to finish up and add on to this "landscaping" of ours since we are hosting a couples shower for friends this Saturday! I may have had a few anxiety attacks since signing up for this {kidding!} but it has definitely got our tails in gear and made us work even harder. Now we can kick back and enjoy it all Summer long...(and hopefully years to come)

both the welcome sign and the pineapple flag holder were brought over from our old house

Now I by NO MEANS have a green thumb or know really anything about landscaping, BUT I do love decorating and I mean basically this is decorating your yard, right? I can share some of my favorites. One favorite perennial being salvia. This stuff is awesome! Fast growing and hearty. 

I love evergreen shrubs, but I have to have a pop of color. Trying to plant perennials each year so that in a few years we can have enough where different ones bloom different seasons - Spring, Summer and Fall - so you have color basically all year.

Another favorite: a good ol' Southern must have...daylillies...

We pulled up a ton of daylillies from our old home and transplanted them last Spring. This is how big they've gotten within a year and still growing... (excuse the grass that needs to be cut, Chad is waiting until right before the shower this weekend to do all of the last minute weed eating)

We also brought over a ton of old "treasures" from my dad's shop, like this wagon wheel, and Chad built the decorative fence behind there too this year. So far he has built four fences on the property. He is out of control.

We couldn't leave these concrete planters at our old home either. These planters have been on my grandparents porch steps for as long as I can remember. Then they were moved next door to my dad's (which became our old home...). They are a part of my childhood and we have two flanking our small back deck.

Sweet potato vines + verbena or wave petunias + a little spike = my go to container plant combo.

Southern Living says you need 1 Thriller (the spike, for height) + 1 filler (the verbena, to really fill the space the most) + 1 spiller (the sweet potato vine, to spill out over the container). It's an easy combo to remember and always looks great, no matter the size of your container you just add or take away accordingly. Can't wait to see this sweet potato vine take off...

just like this creeping jenny (loves shade or part sun, whereas sweet potato vine loves full sun) has taken off on our front porch with these impatiens. Obsessed with creeping jenny. We have some planted in containers and in parts of our landscaping. It's an annual, but fast growing you can enjoy it longer!

We've revamped our front porch this year and above is a sneak peek. I got the last two "finishing touches" for Mother's Day to complete my Southern dream porch so I'll have to share that next. Until then,  let me get back to watering these flowers {FOR THE LOVE....}