Amaze me August ~ Cleaning my Patio / Deck ~

Welcome to the 48th edition of:

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I'm totally happy you are here, you can link up below, just make sure to grab a button will ya!!

So this week I wanted to share with you my DECK. My huge DECK. This deck was one of the things I loved when we bought this house, it's HUGE, and it's perfect for entertaining. Although I've found that in the south there are ONLY 3 days in the year when you can actually sit outside and enjoy such a deck. Ok, just kidding, maybe 5 days total, but seriously, in the summer, its SOOOOOO hot, and there are a million bugs out, just waiting to eat you alive. In the winter it's to dang cold. Yup I totally skipped over the other seasons, can't even recall right now if you can hang out then, but since my deck looked like crap, I didn't want anyone out there anyway, SAD.

So the time finally came, in the middle of the sweltering heat, to clean my deck.  I am pretty sure it was easily 150 degrees this day, which meant I got to lose 10 lbs in the process, pretty cool hugh, lol.

My tools, a broom, a FAN, bug spray, gloves, a HAT, and my hands.

OOOPS, almost forgot, you need 3 kids too. My oldest cleaned out the gutters, woo hoo, while my youngest swept ever so eagerly with a grill brush, lol. The princess, well she posed for a picture, and the went inside to relax, he he.

Good job Big B. I love FREE labor. He easily saved me a hundred bucks.

Here a couple pics of the side of my house, equally neglected, a weeping willow tree, my backyard woods, and a spider eating a wasp, you go spidey!!

Dino (my tortoise, which is actually a girl) came out to play too. We had fun taking pics of her.

I'm so ashamed to show these pics, I had a MESS growing in those pots, that used to be filled with beautiful flowers, and plants. Gosh, this past year I neglected my garden so badly, and I feel so bad about it, and hope that I can get it looking good again soon.

Some more pics of the way the deck used to look. Oh and do you see my curry plants. I've managed to keep them ALIVE, thats good. My orchids, are SO SAD, but bless their hearts they too are clinging on to life, so I promised them I would never let them go like that again.

THE BEFORE

After a long day I am glad to say that at least things are looking clean. No more wild grass and weeds growing all over the place, no more leafs turning into mulch on my deck. 

THE AFTER

Now it's time to go buy some flowers, he he. 

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I'm so excited to see what you all have been up to this week. 

Make sure to grab a button,  up above, or sidebar, and let your friends know you party with us. 

I appreciate all the help I can get spreading the word about my weekly party.

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PARTY PLANNING TUESDAYS

Oh can I quickly tell you that this Wednesday I will have a couple awesome things to share with all of you, including a sneak at some of my sponsors for my big ONE year bloggy celebration where I will be sharing all things GREEN, and  ECO FRIENDLY, products I want to share with you, including a few from some of my dear friends who are also going along with the theme, and I am so happy about that.

I also will be announcing a new party that will take place every Wednesday, RIGHT HERE. 

FEEL GOOD 

WEDNESDAYS 

@

BELLA BEFORE AND AFTER

(cute button to come, he he)

GARDENING ~ Outdoor spaces ~

Today I wanted to share with you a couple posts I did on my garden A LONG time ago. When we moved in this house there was NO garden, no flower bed, no flowers. Only bushes, shrubs, and some beautiful azaleas, which I removed, because I didn't know how pretty they are when they are in bloom, (sad face).
Oh well, you learn as you go along, and I used to love being out in my garden, but  SADLY the past two summers have left me with little to no motivation to get out there in the HOT sun, with 3 kids, one of which has been up to now extremely clingy, and try to garden. So I've been left with a mess out there.
Hopefully I can get some things done this weekend, and coming up week. I don't think I'm going to bother with buying TOO many flowers, especially wince summer is nearly over, and before I know it, fall rolls in,  and so do the mums. I also am going to forget about any veggie garden I had been dreaming of, better luck next year. 
Anyway, until I get some pics of my work in progress, I will share 2 posts I already did on my garden. If you are new, maybe you haven't seen them, and if you already have, pretend like you didn't and tell me what you think OK, hehe. 
MY GARDEN "BEFORE" PICTURESWORK IN PROGRESSTRYING TO DESIGN ON THE COMPUTEROF COURSE TO SEE THE REST, INCLUDING THE LOVELY AFTERclick the link below MAKING A BED FOR YOUR FLOWERS
Oh and ONE MORE thing. DO NOT EVER LET WEEDS GROW OUT OF CONTROL, or you will be spending the whole day trying to pull them, like I did in this post, click link below.MONSTER WEEDS GO WILD
NOW for some PRETTY outdoor spaces, check out STACY's weekend party@NOT JUST A HOUSEWIFE

Sure to find some great ideas there, and then come back to see what I've managed to do. Hopefully I can accomplish a few things, lets see!!

Promise this is the LAST thing I have to say!

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Monster Weeds go WILD.

Hey guys, I am going to do some catch up today with some posts I wanted to do last week, but never got around to doing. Do you guys remember my post Making a Bed for my Flowers where I walked you through some stages my garden has gone through, and I promised I would show you how horrible it was looking now after a summer of neglect. Well, I got brave last week, and despite being sick, I got out there, and tackled those monster weeds. My plan initially was to just do it in batches, as I knew it was a big task. Of course once I got started I just couldn't stop, and I finished pulling all the weeds in my flower bed. Everything in the front of the house that is, the sides are not done yet.

Now don't get scared at the size of these weeds, and I promise my garden has NEVER looked like this before. I actually pulled weeds last month, and they were barely any, and then I blink and these things popped up literally overnight. Well, maybe a bit longer than that, but seriously they are the biggest, scariest things I've ever seen. Thank goodness I got that under control again.

Hope you guys don't mind seeing more garden pics, but this is just crazy, so take a look, and see what happens, when Weeds go WILD.

**I've linked this up to NOT JUST A HOUSEWIFE on 7/23/2011**

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE
Yes those HUGE tree looking things that are taller than my rose bushes are WEEDS. 

AFTER

BEFORE
Again look at all those scary things, oh man, it was BAD.

AFTER
Just click on the pics, to enlarge, and you will see what a big difference there is. 

BEFORE
This corner was the worst, as you can see. 

BEFORE
Same corner, different angle. Plus you can see my lovely DEAD tree in the corner. This was one that was transplanted from in front of the garage, after the other one died, and I didn't want just one there, so I took it out, and put it here, and then it too died. The only explanation I have is that these trees need more sun. Clearly everything else is THRIVING my my garden, so this is the only thing I have come up with. 

AFTER

AFTER
I know it still looks bad, with the dead tree and all, but dang, at least you can see in there now. 

The culprits. Yes all that was taken out of my flower bed. It was a HUGE job. I spent nearly seven hours out there, and finally got it done. Lesson to be learned is NEVER EVER, EVER let your weeds take over, EVER. They really can grow like weeds, lol, and before you know it, you are slaving over your garden, removing tree like things.

Just in case this has not gotten you bored with my garden posts yet, then be on the lookout because, of course this was just the cleanup. Naturally I have tons of stuff left to do, but for now, I hope you learned from my mistake, and never put off a few minutes of pulling out a couple weeds, or else you can end up spending hours working to get rid of those suckers like I had to do.

I am linking up to these parties:
Metamorphosis Mondays





Also don't forget that I have officially started my AMAZE me AUGUST weekly party starting every TUESDAY, so please go HERE to enter and join in the fun. Show me what you got girls, I look forward to all the AMAZING things you will be sharing.

As always ENJOY!

Special requests, or mad love always welcome:)
bellabeforeandafter@gmail.com

Making a bed for my Flowers!

When we moved in our first home, I was as inexperienced as can be in all things that had to do with taking care of a home. Living in an apartment is very different that living in a home. Here we had the freedom to do anything, but we also had to DO everything. There was no call to the landlord about leaky faucets, or unkept lawns. Here if we wanted it to be maintained, we either did it ourselves, or payed someone to do it. Being the I can do it myself kind of gal, and having a mother who was more than willing to help, I was lucky enough to get my garden in pretty good shape, without hiring anyone.

I was about 6 months pregnant when we got our home, and the middle of hot humid Ga summer. Not either of those things kept me from making this house look like a home, even if it was just the beginning. Almost 7 years later and I'm still very much working on it, but here's some pics I found of one of my first garden projects. I hate to think I never took pics of the garden when we first moved in, but that was before I had a digital camera, and there is no way I got around to looking through all those old photos.

**I've linked this up to NOT JUST A HOUSEWIFE on 7/23/2011**

One of the beauties that will come from this garden. Much later of course, for now lets start at the beginning. 

When I was going through my pics, I kept thinking how could I not have a before pic, and I still  haven't found one, but this is as close to it as you're going to get right now. This pic was taken just after a year of moving in. The summer before  I had worked on getting all the shrubs out, and removing grass, so I could extend the design of my flower bed. I also got a start on planting some perineals, and I had that grey border in for about the whole year. I was simply not happy with  the low flower bed, and wanted something that would stand out. Plus every time it rained my entire flower bed would get destroyed, ,and I really hated that. This was my second first day of school pic, which of course turned into a tradition. This was Big B's 1st day of 1st grade August 2005.

So a whole year passes from the picture taken above, and it is now July 2006.My mom shared some plants from here garden. Most of the day lilles, and the hydrangea bush in the left corner, came from her garden. Along with some of the hydrangeas on the left side of the house. The trees, and roses came from Home Depot. This pic shows my garden bed already made for the most part. I brought it down further down the sidewalk, and created the shape. Before it was just a rectangle in front of the window, and nothing but shrubs. Notice my lovely Green shutters, and front door. I don't know what the previous homeowners had with the green, but it was everywhere.

This also shows a tree I had planted in the front, by my mailbox. Nothing fancy, literally just dug a hole, and thats it. As I got wiser though I realized thats not the best way to plant a tree, especially when it's on a downhill slope and water doesn't get to it very well. While this particular tree didn't stay, I did end up planting something else there. You can also see my two different bricks, as I wasn't sure what I would like. I had the grey for about 2 year now, and was playing around with maybe going with red. 

I also made a flower bed on both sides of the house. This was not there before, and it made a huge difference.  This also took forever as I had to remove grass, and I put down weed barrier stuff. 

The other side of the house. My lawn was so torn up when we moved in. It's taken years to kind of get it in order. I guess it also didn't help that I was trying to cut it with a cheap mower I got from a yard sale. I hated mowing the lawn, especially this hill. It was thw worst. I also wanted to cover up that ugly air conditioner, and utiltity boxes. My plants are so small in this pic. The mums are no longer a part of my garden, but everything else is still there, in different spots.

My front walkway looks pretty horrible. Aparranttly I was having a really hard time figuring out what I wanted to do with the border. Hmm, grey or red, grey or red? It was a mess, and I wanted it over with. I still have my little turtle and pig!!

Before I simply went crazy, I decided that I couldn't proceed until I saw what this might look like. I tried drawing the planter, but it just didn't give me the right idea. I think I used paint or something to sketch out a design. It's pretty funny, but it did give me the visual I needed. 

Another idea I had. Notice how I really wanted my shutters black. Much later I finally got around to doing that. Also I had a lot of pretty flowers in mind. Looks pretty good doesn't it?

Oh yeah look at that lawn. I wish,,, lol. I think I didn't finish putting all my lovely flowers in this one, but you get the idea.

Don't be confused, but all the pics so far are taken July 2006. After playing around with the red border, and having had the grey I knew it just wasn't what I wanted. So after much hard work, and bribing my brother to help, we were able to get this pretty nifty wall up. Just enough to make it a raised flower bed. Now I really was starting to like it. Just like in my sketches I did get some trellisis and some beautiful yellow climbing roses, but I quickly realized that those roses just weren't my thing. Too much hard work. The knockout roses I planted the year before on the other hand are awesome. No maintenance required. I wanted a very low maintenance garden, and that's what I got.

Just another view of my newly raised flower bed. It took the entire day to do this, but considering we had no idea what we were doing, I do think it turned out pretty good. The laundry basket is filled with plants that need to be transplanted again, as I had to take most of them out and replant after adding about 6 inches of soil. Also I got lucky at Lowes and found some great perinials on clearance, for like $1.00 or so, and grabbed them all up. Those things are awesome and come back year after year. Most of my garden is planted with perinials, and the few annuals just for some extra color.

So fast forward another year, and we are in the summer of 2007, lol. My sketches came in handy, as I got pretty darn close to what I had in mind. I even have the trellis/circle design (how cool I was able to find one thing to intigrate both my ideas. Also got a bird bath, but unfortunately didn't use it for that. Instead it's just a plant holder. The fall before I got a bunch of bulbs that were marked on clearance of course. So I picked up a bunch, and this was their first appearance. Woo hoo, My roses have like doubled in size, and you can see that there's not much color except for the bulbs. Spring had just started and my garden would have just started blooming again. Grass is dormant, but it's a BEAUTIFUL spring day and my kids have taken advantage of the weather, and decided to play in the sprinklers. 

My weeping crabapple tree is blooming, and this is actually what is still there now. 

Looks like it's time to re mulch. If it weren't for the blooming bulbs, there would not be much going on right now. 

I put cracked flagstone throughout the garden simply because I liked the way it looked, and it really helped when I walked in there, as I didn't get all muddy. 

Oh you can barely see the tree by the mailbox, but its no longer just a hole in the ground. I made a pretty round planter for that too. That rosemary was planted the previous year, and it was like 4 inches tall, let me tell you, if you want an herb, that is easy to grow, and doesn't die, then plant this. That thing grew so big, that I ended up taking it out the following year I think. Do you see those lovely flowering bulbs? They smell sooooo good, every time you walked past them you could smell them It was wonderful.

After five months of summer, this is what my garden looked like. See how nicely everything grew in, and DO YOU SEE that rosemary? Im telling you it would have grown in a tree, if I let it. So this vine you see invading my rose, was really bothering me. It grew like crazy, literally cut it down, and 2 days later again, it was climbing up the rose bush. Then I didn't get around to removing it for a few days, and noticed it had the loveliest flowers that bloomed in the mornings. Thus the name MORNING GLORY. I have no idea where it came from, but it took refuge in my garden and no matter what it came back every year after this. I was struggling with removing it, so decided to take some pics to remember it. 

Isn't that beautiful?

Perfect rose. 

Morning Glory!

This was another school morning pic. Not sure what the reason was, as it was mid November, but non the less, another look at that garden. Check out how much it grew in one season! Oh and I finally painted my shutters and front door black. Doesn't it look so much better, especially with the black mulch, and white brick. I really love it. 

Just thought you'd like to see one more pic. Its December now, and hello, can you see the size of that rose bush. Remember when I planted them and they were only like 2 feet tall, not even as tall as that flag. Now look at it. I trimmed those bad boys down this spring. I was scarred to death, that I was going to do it wrong, and they would die. Nothing of the sort happened, and they grew ever so beautifully. I looked everywhere to find some recent pics of my garden this summer. As of right now, can't find any. Truth be told I neglected my garden really bad, so it's no wonder. As soon as I get around to fixing it up a bit, I will post some more pics. Oh those trees that I had by the garage, died on me. Can't figure it out, I guess they were too high maintenance for me. So temporarilly replaced with planters, and annuals. Works for now, but I really want more there. We'll have to see what I come up with. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Thanks for checking out my garden, and don't forget there's still time to enter my NEW linky party.
Amaze me August where you can share any and all projects, recipes, diy projects you have been working on. Me I'm focusing on getting my home organized so I can start working on some projects.


As always ENJOY!

Special requests, or mad love always welcome:)
http://www.blogger.com/bellabeforeandafter@gmail.com

I am linking this up to the following parties. Please check them out for more great ideas, and thanks for hosting ladies. I really appreciate it!

remodelaholics anonymous
chic on a shoestring decorating