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2 Pergolas and a Garden Update

2 pergolas & garden update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

I may be setting a summer pattern… getting a post published every other week is about all I seem to be able to have time for… but that’s probably all you have time to read as well! Summer is such a few short months, to waste it indoor is just that… a waste!

In this post I’m going to share with you 2 pergolas and a garden update… one of the pergolas is at our house, but the other pergola is from someone else’s house…

A couple weeks ago my husband and I went to see two of our grandkids play baseball and went over to their dad’s and step-mom’s house after. Yep, like over 50% of the people in America, our family, too, has been touched by divorce. Their dad, our former son-in-law, is a very talented carpenter and in his spare time, he and his crew built a few fantastic additions to their backyard.

This cedar pergola over their dining area is one of those beautiful additions:

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

His wife is an artist and designer, so I think she came up with the design and he finished the concept as he progressed with the actual construction.

The joinery is obviously constructed by a craftsman.

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

The ladder to reach the top for maintenance doubles as a plant shelf:

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

If you’re in the St. Croix Valley area and looking for a great carpenter, I highly recommend his ability, integrity and solid work ethic. Here is is contact info: Bylander Finish Carpentry

Above the table are a collection of birdhouses. While I was sitting at the table, Mama Wren was in a tizzy. She was betwixt getting to her babies in the nest in one of the birdhouses to share the juicy bug in her beak, or fly away because I was too close for comfort.

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

Speaking of birdhouses, these lovely birdhouses were created by our grandkid’s step-mom.

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

She made them out of last year’s gourds after drying them over the winter. What a talented artist she is!

That was one of the pergolas…

Back at our place…

Here is an update on all the gardening and landscaping we’ve been working on.

The circular garden is looking great. I pulled weeds a couple of times since planting, getting out the stragglers I missed when I first cleared the old garden. (Here is the original post of the before and after circular garden.)

Then I sprinkled Preen, to stop any more weed seeds from germinating.

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

The Jacob’s Ladder around the birdbath is done flowering now, but even the foliage is pretty as it gets established.

The creeping thyme around the pair of arched concrete benches is, well, creeping…

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

with hopes of ever so slowly connecting to its neighbor and completely covering the soil with a blanket of Thyme.

I was thrilled with the bold show of Giant Globe Alliums in the terraced garden.

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

(Here is the post on the before and after terraced garden.)

Speaking of creeping, I planted 2 clematis…

One in the circular garden and one in this terraced garden… you can see it inside the iron arbor below:

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

When planting clematis, the saying rings true:

“The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap.”

We’re in the ‘sleeping’ year, so I’m just happy to see green on them. 🙂

Way back when we first bought this house, (we’re coming up on 2 years now) we had to cut down several trees. One of the trees was a big ole maple that sat too close to the house, but it’s large trunk was maybe in a good place for a ‘stump carving’. (Here is the post talking about why we had to cut down so many trees, that also shows that stump)

So…

Did we? Did we carve the stump?

To answer that question with a picture…

Here is where that stump was:

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

The stump has been cut down, and the remaining part too low to cut, has been ground down with a stump grinder a few inches below the surface. Fresh soil has filled the hole and baby grass is now sprouting on it.

The thing is, once we installed the concrete connecting the existing front sidewalk to the existing driveway, (weird that had never been finished before) I wanted to have a big pergola welcoming people to come to the front door through that way.

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

It would be a great way to repeat the rough sawn beams that we built the front porch with as well. (here you can read the post on the front porch

All that being said, once the pergola was up, I realized that the stump was going to just compete with the pergola. Then considering the cost of carving the stump, (thousands!!) plus the risk of being stuck with something I might not even care for, I decided it wasn’t meant to be. I did leave the stump for over a year while we finished pretty much everything else, as I contemplated, but in the end the stump came down and grass went in.

Now we have the Betty Matthews Wisteria that will grow up the pergola. (in this post I tell you why this particular wisteria is so precious to me)

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

I was excited to see its very first bloom too!

Now to the backyard garden update…

The container gardening has really been a fantastic investment! (here is the post showing all the details about these containers, with a shopping link for them too) I really wasn’t sure how well they’d work over the summer, but both my husband and I are really impressed with how fantastic they are.

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

These pictures were taken a week or so ago, and everything has grown so much more since then. The vegetables are super healthy, the self-watering system in the containers is helping me keep them moist. I gotta say too, having it up at a level I don’t have to bend over to tend to is so nice as well.

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

The tomatoes are all looking fantastic.

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

There were some vine veggies I didn’t feel I had room for, so I put them in half whiskey barrels, (zucchini and cucumbers). They too are looking great, but I do have to water them more frequently as there is no ‘self-watering’ feature in the barrels.

A Pergola and A Garden Update SimpleDecoratingTips.com

Our youngest grandson was super happy to be able to help with that chore! He was so precious as he took careful consideration to get the water into the soil below the large leaves.

Here are more gardening and landscaping projects:

Vintage-Seahorse-Birdbath-Re-Do
Dry Stack Stone Planter
DIY Compost Bins
Potting Shed
Backyard Boat Pond
DIY Simple Deer Proofing
raised bed container gardening title
before  after front garden landscaping
How to Prune a Peegee Hydrangea
before  after circular garden
before and after front terraced garden
we had to cut down 13 trees
1-in the garden with water walls and cloches
Ingenious Tips to DIY this Planter
Turtles and Window Boxes
install this arbor and fence in one day
DIY Brick Edging
Transplanting Stella D'Oro Daylilies
spring-planter-arrangement
Garden & Landscape Inspiration
moving-a-screened-gazebo-onto-the-property
2 pergolas  garden update
Humidity Tray for Orchids
Creative-Planters
Window-Boxes-inside-a-2nd-story-porch
rooftop-garden
Creating-an-Oasis-with-a-Water-Fountain
snug-harbor-farm
Tips on Forcing Bulbs Indoors
The-Story-of-a-Blue-Jay-Title-Page
The-Beauty-of-Fences1
What-is-this?
How I re-did these Concrete Lions
Before and After Landscape and a DIY Pergola
DIY Window Well Installation
Growing Grass in a Vintage Scale
DIY Hanging Terrarium
Kid's Craft DIY Miniature Fairy Garden

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please feel free to follow and share this blog with your friends, as well as on Facebook, Pinterest, Flipboard, Bloglovin, YouTube and Instagram! I appreciate you reading along.

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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I’m Liz, the author, and I’m so glad you’re here!

My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Frame and Frills!
Frame and Frills is in Wisconsin. I stock amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies, re-done Furniture and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!
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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I'm Liz, the author, and I'm so glad you're here! My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Frame and Frills!
Frame and Frills is in Wisconsin. I stock amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies, re-done Furniture and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!


Disclosure Policy: According to FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that some of the content of this blog may be a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

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Sharing is great! Please feel free to share this blog with your friends, as well as on Facebook and Pinterest and Flipboard and Houzz and YouTube the more the merrier! I appreciate you stopping by. But please remember that all photos, images, text and content are owned by SimpleDecoratingTips.com. So anything you share, please be sure it always links back to my original post it came from. Please do not remove watermarks, crop or edit anything without written permission from me first.

Disclosure Policy: According to the FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials and shopping links. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

Disclosure Policy According to Federal Trade Commission guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. My truthful opinion will be what I state, no matter if I'm getting paid or not. Accuracy and truth are the priority for me on this blog's information, no matter if it's about a product or anything else. Not every product or service or store etc. may be mentioned in each and every post as an affiliate. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post.

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