New Yard Project Part 4: The Blue Wall

Next on our yard to-do list is choosing a striking wall color. We're inspired by the above photo of a blue stucco wall somewhere in the Yucatan. A bold color sure makes the palms pop! And it's almost the exact same color as the sky. Below is our wall and a few color chips. The idea is to make our palms pop, too, with the vines creating an undersea kelp effect.

What do you think? Do any of these blues look like the "the one"? After a while, they all start to look really similar.

So far we're partial to the above chip, second from the bottom.

Garden Project: Painting the Porch Pale Yellow

Last week we had a run of ideal paint-drying weather as Santa Anas coaxed temperatures into the 80s. Having trimmed my plants back the week before, I spent the good part of Wednesday with brush in hand and ladder in tow taking advantage of the dry heat. Here are a few shots of my completed porch painting project.

The porch railing design was inspired by a tip in a 1980s issue of Better Homes and Gardens.

This hanging basket was lucky enough to have an impatien broadcast a seed onto the outside tip of the cone. It's been thriving for about two months now and has outlasted the plants that were actually in the cone.

I've had good luck with coleus this year (usually snails don't give them much of a chance) and this particular group is right outside my back door. My bench and porch swing are the same blue of the doors and I plan on touching up their paint when the weather heats up again.