Fall is definitely falling around the North Texas/DFW area and with it Mr. Ethereal and I have been busy working on a list of projects to finish before the ground freezes, the air gets too nippy, and just some general clean-up. Our first project is the one he made for me ~ it is this lovely garden bench…
Using treated and untreated pine lumber, he built this as a special present while I was gone to California. This was his Labor Day weekend project and yes he labored! I love it and appreciate the love he put into it. 💏
Next up is the short pathway project I am noodling. This would be a transition area between the eventual artificial turf under the two backyard oak trees and the real grass out along the south side of the house.
I found this garden show on YouTube and this was a segment on some show, most likely BBC’s Gardener’s World. (Watching YouTube again, I watched an episode of P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home the next day, it’s his pathway. Just saw the pathway again!)
I like this pathway for its wonkiness and odd lengths of stone in the pathway. I also like the way it “swoops” around! Ours will swoop around either side of the tree. (Did I already mention that? School brain…)
This past weekend Mr. Ethereal helped me snap a chalkline and paint a straight line across the yard as a guideline for laying stones. Previous owners had placed a number of these approx. 8″ x 16″ x 2″ cement pavers vertically in the ground creating a straight garden along the south side of the house.
I think it got too hot over there so the garden idea was abandoned. Hubby pulled these pavers up one day about a month ago and stacked them since he knew I’d probably reuse and repurpose them.
Here are three ideas of how I thought to lay this transition area out:
1) normal horizontal brick layout (middle upper left, along chalkline)
2) off at an angle on the left and right sides of the further oak tree (top of the layout)
3) herringbone pattern (bottom middle) ~ Mr. Ethereal says I ought to do this one as “payback” for making him lay our travertine on the diagonal at our Big House in Cali… Lol!
Which one do you like best? I kind of like the angled around the tree best, which really only has the left side shown (top section above the chalkline). On Linda Vater’s YouTube channel, if you ever watch her garden show you’ll see how she uses a mishmash of pavers and brick together and I really like the “found look.”
The added wonkiness of putting in a brick here or there to the longer pavers just really works with my repurpose style!
Not much is blooming right now and the little canteloupe plant that is bursting with small yellow flowers may not have enough time left in the season to produce fruit before frosts and winter set in, but it’s giving its best!
With two weeks of cooler weather (just into the mid- to upper-80’s today, but has been in the 70’s), the supertunias are back blooming. The roses are putting out buds and should have a nice fall showing soon.
For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
Isaiah 61:11
Other September projects
Our side panels on the garage were rotted down at the bottom from years of rain, so after Charles watched a bunch of YouTube videos on insulating your basic garage door with heavy compacted styrofoam and got that project done, he moved onto fixing these. I picked up the two 8′ x 10″ x 2″ boards at Lowe’s about a month ago. We let them dry under a fan in the really hot garage (was still about 100 degrees out then), then painted them with the leftover outdoor trim from the previous homeowners’ stash).
I’ll probably share this in another post since I don’t have those photos pulled off my phone yet, but it turned out well! Now to fix the mess of a garage door… Previous homeowners, in order to sell the home, used cans of spray paint to repaint the big door. (Should have just left it white…)
Wall decor
Last week as we held this month’s Reading Nook Pinterest Challenge, you could just see a peek out the window at the newly installed iron wall decoration along the garage wall out back.
I picked up this pretty iron wall decor piece from H. Potter garden center actually over a year ago. I really wanted this piece as our backyard gate, but Mr. Ethereal informed me we really needed a 4′ gate to bring things in and out of the yard, so… This was a no-go for the gate idea… 😞
But then this year I thought of having a water fountain feature along this wall surrounded by plants and this would be perfect behind one!
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| Our sweet tall lady gets to stand here for now! 💝 |
H. Potter sent all the hanging brackets but it would have stood 4″ from the garage wall and I wanted it close to the wall since this area is pretty narrow, so Mr. Ethereal found some half-round silver brackets in his tool parts and I faux-painted those to match the hammered metal look of the wrought iron wall decor to use for hanging instead.
The boxing when this iron piece arrived was well packed and all the nuts and bolts were there with clear instructions on how to put it together. It also comes with a separate piece that attaches at the bottom to push it into the ground (looks like a pitchfork, actually), but the cement along the wall prevented my using that piece. I would definitely recommend buying any of H. Potter’s wall decor pieces and will look for more in the future! It is sturdily welded and well painted; I am quite pleased with it!!!
Totally loving how it looks with our Garden Lady in front of it! Time to make her a new head crown for fall…
Well, back to laying pavers in the yard… Been a busy month both at school and at home, and it’s not quite over yet. More to come… 🍂
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Happy fall, y’all!
Love the gate on the house. I like the angle look too. Looking forward to seeing it.Cindy
Beautiful touches to make a lovely garden so inviting.
Wow you have done so many pretty things to your home. The gardens are lovely and that gate is very European.
It all looks so beautiful, those gates are awesome.
I love that pathway, Barbara! I've been contemplating a similar project for this fall!! Great insight.
Loving the iron gate on your brick wall! Beautiful garden!
Beautiful garden and I love the gate! Thanks for sharing it.