I love playing in the dirt.  I love making things more beautiful.  For me, the two seem to go hand in hand:)  When we bought this place I was excited to get my hands on the landscaping and start making it my own.  But…there were a few other projects that needed to come first.  So, the house won.

This spring though has been a different story:)  As soon as it started to get warm out I was excited to “play in the dirt.”  And once we decided we were going to have a barn sale, I knew where to start:)  I actually asked for shrubs for my birthday, and my mom and dad came up and helped out.  We only had a couple of hours to work and then the rest of the weekend was raining and cold, but we made the most of the time we had:)

Here’s how the barn looked before…

Pretty and red with no landscaping..

And that’s my ever so hard working mom on the left getting ready to get dirty, and my dad, who graciously swept out the whole ceiling of the barn so we could pressure wash it.  It was quite the job!!

So after digging up sod for 2 hours, we only got half way done, but we did get the edging in and the plants set out to where they should be placed.  Once the sun came back out I finished it up.

The frustrating part about landscaping is that unless you spend an arm and a leg on big shrubs, you gotta wait a few to many years for them to look great.  But my mom brought up a ton of perennials that we planted, we bought a few shrubs, and we are still waiting for the hydrangeas to come to the nursery’s so we can plant one on each end.  I love big white hydrangeas!

 I couldn’t quite stop there, so I kept going:)  This side was a bit tricky because the concrete surrounded the barn about 2 feet out the whole way, leaving me unable to plant anything.  So, I got a little creative and made it appear like there was dirt with a little mulch and a potted boxwood.  I love boxwoods and I found these at walmart for $6 a piece, almost cheaper than what annuals would cost me.  Also, I searched high and low for the rocks, finding them around our chicken coop, in the fields, and pulling them out of the ground:)  Gotta love free stuff!!

unfortunately the dandelions are free as well:(

This soil was so rocky that I think I’m gonna add a few bags of brown mulch to make it look a bit “prettier!”

This area was actually the old cow stalls.  If you look hard enough you can see the little water holder behind the chairs thats still there.  We debated getting rid of it but I just couldn’t.  And in the summer there’s a cool vine that grows all over it.  This picture reminds me I have to pull out the outdoor pillows:)

This was the last area I did.  I wanted to hide the water spicket a bit, and hopefully that decorative grass will take off soon and shoot up a bit:)  *hopefully

p.s.  I’m a little biased but isn’t that view oh so pretty??  I thank God everyday for placing us out here where we are surrounded by his beauty.  I’m loving country life!

 p.p.s.  I can not wait for next week!! My dear sweet friend Sarah from Sarah Pollio Photography came out and took some amazing shots of the barn and the decor that will be selling at Whimsy Green.  Yay!!  Stay tuned for the sneak peaks:):)

The most recent project we tackled on this house that is soon to be not ours anymore *sniff sniff* :)  was the outside.  I repainted the whole house, with help from my mom and sister with I was 8 1/2 months preggers with Kynlee.  That nesting thing…it really is true:)  Then last summer my mom came up and helped us landscape.  She’s a true master gardener…yay us:)  But my favorite spot that we created was actually with the help of Nagel Landscaping.  He does amazing work with landscaping, but since my mom was free we used her.  What she can’t do though is stamped concrete patios:)  That’s where Brandon Nagel worked some magic.  I wish I had a before pic, but unfortunately I don’t.  If I can paint the picture though, the old owners used to have a big gazebo and hot tub in the backyard.  They took it with them when they moved so a big dirt spot was left.  Since we also put in the patio door while we were here all we had was a make shift step that Ry built in 5 minutes…needless to say it was functional but not pretty!

Here’s what we have today!

We are still working on the grass, but the patio has created such a cozy outdoor living space!

My favorite part is the grilling nook and this awesome outdoor light my mother-in-law found at a garage sale for 10 bucks!

But I also love these cute stepping stones Brandon made out of the leftover concrete!  They especially look cute when the black-eyed susans are in full bloom and the hostas are fully out!

My hubby found some awesome rocks, big and small to place for decorations and walkways.

So this is where you’ll find us most nice nights, eating and relaxing on our back patio.  At least for the next month:)  So if you are thinking of updating your backyard living space, seriously consider Nagel Landscaping and tell them Allie sent you:)

I’ll show you the rest of the landscaping next time…I love this time of year when everything is growing like crazy!!