The Pacific Northwest garden can be a challenge sometimes. We tend to get a lot of rain in the spring and early summer. Hello… we are known for that in the Seattle area! But, this summer has been a garden dream come true for Pacific Northwest gardeners! It hasn’t been too hot, but we’ve had a lot of sun!

When we first moved into our house, almost 20 years ago, There were two big maple trees and this brick “roundy-round” as I call it. There was nothing in it, but it was the sunniest part of the yard. I decided that half of this area would be perennials that were well known to be good in Pacific Northwest gardens. The other half would be our veggies and herbs. As the trees have gotten taller, over the years, this area has gotten a bit shady. I’ve had to get creative with planters, placed around the yard.

I’ve recently added two raised bins, just for strawberries. I was searching for 2 different varieties of berries that grow well in the Pacific Northwest garden and discovered Ozark and typical Juneberring. They are both amazing. There is nothing like a berry that is red all the way through, as they are meant to be. I don’t grow enough to make jam. I still have to buy flats from the local farmer’s markets, but I get enough to snack on.

Basil is my absolute favorite herb, but it does not like our wet Pacific Northwest gardens. I ALWAYS plant it too soon. Then, it rots and withers away, forcing me to replant. Once the warm and dry weather sets in, my basil always does great. I devote another raised bin just to basil. I make my own pesto and we use basil in a lot of dinner recipes.

Is there anything that goes better with basil than tomatoes? I think not! Honestly, I only have three tomato plants each year, so I grow enough tomatoes to eat while I’m out watering. Once in a while, I might share with my family, but I don’t think any of them love tomatoes as much as I do anyway.

There are lots of other areas around my yard that come to life in the summer. This area used to be shaded by the neighbors trees, but they recently had them removed, making for a great flower cutting garden!

I’m not sure why the hydrangeas in my backyard are slow to bloom this year, but they are finally starting. I just counted and I have 15 hydrangea plants in my front and backyards. I guess I’m pretty fond of them!

Happy Pacific Northwest gardening!

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The flowers really love the rain.  No matter how much water they get with the sprinkler or hose, there’s just nothing like Mother Nature’s sprinkler.

The pets got to enjoy some outside time too.  Cookie has recently discovered that there is a whole new world underneath the deck.  My hubby came out with us and his job was to watch the bunny, while mine was to watch the turtle.  Well, guess who bolted for the deck?  My son came out and found us trying to lure her out from the playground under the deck.  As he went back inside I could hear him tell his sister, “Dumb and Dumber lost the rabbit.”  She finally came out when the dog started barking and spooked her.  When she’s scared she wants her humans.

Peanut is home for the Summer and finally got to go outside to catch some bugs.  She loves her potato bugs.  We flip over the landscaping bricks and she charges after the bugs as they scatter.  She’s quite the hunter.  She loves basking in the sun and hiding under the plants. For those of you who don’t know, Peanut was gifted to our kindergarten class last year.  She is a 30 year old box turtle.  She is very set in her ways, doesn’t like to eat her greens, prefers bananas, and will grab onto your finger (tightly) if you wave it in front of her. (Ask our librarian how we know that!)

Here’s the big guy.  This is Cooper.  He’s such a dork.  He’s a total goof ball and he loves his pets.  He gives the bunny kisses on the side of her head and kind of sniffs the turtle.  He gets upset when the bunny goes under the couch and was really upset when she went under the deck.  He tried to go under to get her, but quickly realized he’s too big to fit.

Seriously, could these three be any cuter?  Someday I’ll have my farm animals, but for now I’ll be happy with these guys.

I’m so thankful that the rain stopped and that sunshine is on the way.  I loved getting outside at the perfect time of night.  Between sunshine, the golden hour, my favorite pets, and getting the chance to use my camera, this was just the mood booster I needed.

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Here is our deck in 2013, when we had just pressure washed it.

And here is our deck after painting Behr Deck Over onto it.

You can see that there is a lot of space, which meant a lot of painting, and also meant that we didn’t want to tackle this project every summer.

For the past few summers I’ve given the deck a light scrub with a push broom, some outdoor cleaner, and a hose.  It’s worked great to get the pollen and green gunk off of the boards.  The Deck Over held up perfectly!

So, here we are in 2018.  I just had a stroke and the deck is finally showing some wear.  This needs to be the summer of Behr Deck Over Round 2.  Unfortunately, I have been on a strict “do nothing” routine prescribed by my doctor.  No repetitive movements like painting or exertion of any type that might hinder healing in my artery.  Fortunately, for me, my kids were my chief workers with Behr Deck Over Round 1.  At that time, they were 9 and 13.  Fast forward 4 years and my kids are even better workers at 13 and 17.  I’ll just sit in a chair in the grass and tell them when they miss a spot.

Seriously, friends, this is my happy place in the summer.  Once the dry weather hits you’ll find me in the corner of that couch with the fire going and the heater on full blast.  (I said it gets dry here, but most days aren’t too warm.)  I plan to use Behr Deck Over again and I’m hoping they have the same color.  I want to say the name either had something to do with chocolate or coffee.  It was the perfect color.  Our house is a light gray with white trim.  Although I love the look of a white deck, that’s not the best idea when you have kids, a dog, and green blecky stuff that seems to grow on everything around here.

It’s Behr Deck Over for the win!  Happy painting!

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Now that my kids are older (my son turns 17 tomorrow and my daughter is 13), I’ve taken back a little time for myself.  They are off doing their own things, spending LOTS of time at sports practices, plenty of time chilling in their rooms, and a good chunk of time doing homework.  Sadly, when they have spare time they don’t usually say, “Hey, mom, do you want to play a board game?”  Nope, those days are gone.

So, how do I spend my time?  I really love to cook.  I enjoy looking through cookbooks, Pinterest, and blogs to find new recipes.  If I can cook with ingredients grown in my own garden, this makes me even happier.  As much as I love to cook, I must confess something.  There are days when I ask myself, “WHY, oh why, do my children want to eat 3 times a day EVERY single day?”  I try not to use too much processed food as I’m cooking, so that makes things a bit time consuming, but I have a hard time keeping every meal on the healthy side.  I really love cheese, and cooking with butter and cream just makes things taste better.  It’s a work in progress to find healthy meal options, but I’m trying. (If I don’t try hard enough, my naturopath gently reminds me at every appointment.)

I’ve always loved to bake.  Cookies and bread tend to be my favorites.  Lately, I’ve tried to change things up and try whole wheat breads or flourless cookies.  When my kids were younger, we’d have Cookie Friday.  Our district dismisses early each Friday and I’d always have cookies ready for the kids when they got home from school.  There would usually be a handful of friends and neighbors and sometimes a cousin or two.  Those were the good old days.  Now the kids just hurry home so they can take naps.  Ah, teenagers.

Sometimes (most times) I really wish I lived in a sunnier location so I could happily enjoy my garden day in and day out.  To say that I love to be outside is an understatement.

Most of my edible garden space consists of herbs and veggies that don’t require full sun.  My neighbor’s trees have grown so tall that they shade my veggie garden.  I’m barely able to produce tomatoes any more, so I’ve just given up on things that needs tons of sun.

My basil and mini tomatoes have been moved to a plant stand on the deck.  The deck gets a good amount of afternoon sunshine and the heat reflects from the house onto the plants. Basil is probably my favorite thing to grow and we eat a lot of pesto in the summer time.

I have my fair share of perennials in the center of my yard.  I love that I don’t have to replant them every year.  Every few years, I get to divide them.  Score!  Free plants!

The best part about gardening is the end of the day.  I love the “golden hour” in my yard.  After spending the day getting my hands dirty, I absolutely love putting my feet up and enjoying the view.  I do miss the days of the kids playing on the swingset or jumping on the trampoline, but there is also something incredibly relaxing about the quiet of the backyard.

Sewing and quilting are my winter hobbies.  When I can’t spend time outside because of the relentless rain, my sewing room is my happy place.

My mom taught me to sew when I was about 7 years old and I insisted that both of my kids learn to sew.  I make all of my own home decor items.  I love making curtains, valances, pillows, and quilts.  I love the personal touch handmade items have on a home.  I’ve even been designing my own quilt patterns with a quilting program for the computer.

I’ve had to start changing pillows and quilts out seasonally because I’m running out of space. I’ve started putting zippers into my pillow covers so they are each to wash and change out frequently.

This was one of my favorite projects.  When my daughter was younger she picked out a fabric line that she thought was pretty.  I bought the fabrics and she chose a pattern that she liked.  We painted her room a color that coordinated and her new room was born.

I love looking through blogs and seeing cohesive quilts that all have the same feel, but I can’t seem to stick with one theme.  I love vintage/scrappy, French General, warm and cozy, and also whatever is new and trendy.  As much as I like the cohesion, I also like to try new things when it comes to quilting.

I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to photography.  I love trying new things with my camera.  My favorite subjects are my own kids and my YoungLife kids.  My YL kids are Juniors in high school and I feel so lucky that they’ve allowed me to follow them around with a camera on my neck, capturing memories of Summer camp and school dances.

Of course, these two have my whole heart and they know to always pack “picture clothes” every time we go to the farm or the beach.

How about you, friends?  What’s your hobby?

I’m sharing a few of my favorite photography items that are sold through Amazon.  I’m part of the Amazon Affiliates program and if you choose to purchase through Amazon, I get a teensy-tiny portion of the sale.

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I found that cute little black bag, with picnic items inside, at Thorp Antiques over Labor Day weekend.  I’ve always wanted a small thermos collection and now I have my first two antiques!  For those of you who like my cute little bag, and live near Snohomish, I saw a similar bag upstairs in Joyworks for around $25 over the weekend.  I pictured my plaid bag looking nice near the Christmas tree, fireplace, or even by the coat rack in the entry.  I should almost run out and grab the bag from Joyworks myself!

I realized, as I was typing this, that I forgot to get my old sled out of the rafters in the garage, and I still haven’t been able to find my plaid wool blanket.  I’ll find those next weekend.

That’s the beginning of the of Christmas at my house!  There is so much more to come.  We had a fun weekend of decorating, Hallmark movies, and family.

Merry Christmas!

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I live by my watering a fertilizing schedule in the Summer and I love my hanging baskets and window boxes.  I fill my baskets with red and white flowers and tuck little flags in everywhere.

Geraniums line the stairs on my tiny porch and more flags are there to greet people.

I may have a slight obsession with using flags as decor and it might be time to take the 4th of July decor down and store it for next year.

I bought a new variety of hydrangea for the front of my house.  This a brand new variety from Monrovia, called Bobo.  It’s a compact hydrangea, so I’m hoping it will stay nice and short.  I also planted some Blue Star Creeper, which will fill in nicely as a ground cover.

Here’s my Bobo

I finally got rid of my old benches in the front of the house, and we bought some pretty Adirondak chairs from World Market.  We also dug up all of the overgrown hydrangeas and moved them to the back yard, replacing them with Bobos as well.

I planted a pretty little basket for the front of the house to add a little color to the white chairs.

I did save two Annabelle hydrangeas, because who can live without Annabelles?

I can’t wait until my flowers fill in!  They will grow up to be so pretty!

It’s almost time to start figuring out how to turn my 4th of July house into a Fall house.  Until then, I’m just going to hold on to Summer.  Welcome to our house!

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I picked these hydrangeas two weeks ago and they still look beautiful in my kitchen. (Still loving my $1 milk bottles!)

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