Front porch floor painted and some landscaping shots

A few weeks ago, we had our fabulous painter Tom back to paint the concrete porch floor. We settled on the color "Copley Gray" from Benjamin Moore. It was a few shades lighter than the gray that we had used on the thresholds, and I thought that it tied in nicely with the brick. Tom used an oil based paint (as he always does) and mixed in a sand product to keep the steps from getting slick in the rain. If you wonder why we pay good money to get someone to paint, but we'll do our own A/C repairs, it's because Tom does such incredible work. It makes such a difference because the paint is the first thing that most people notice.





The weekend after finals, I redid the flower bed right next to the porch. It had been bugging me for some time... the bushes were small and ugly, and there was too much room for annuals (too much to keep replanting), and not enough visual interest in the winter. Apparently, I really felt that there was no visual interest, because I can't find any before pictures on the site- I was sure that I took one when we made the new lattice. Oh well... here is the front bed as it currently looks- almost. We trimmed back the red branched (for color in the winter) dogwood after it finished blooming earlier this week.





And finally, I share with you a picture of the street flowerbed this year. I no longer need the lantana to fill up the bed. All of the perennials are thriving! I'm very happy with how this has turned out, and only see about two places that I need to tuck in a another plant. I can't belive the growth that I've seen in just a year. I may be cursing that yarrow and evening primrose next year!





Finally, this year I'm trying out a new product- a self watering hanging basket for the front porch. Every year, I try to grow something in the hanging baskets on the porch, and every year they die midsummer because I can't water them fast enough to keep up with the heat. I found these from Gardener's Supply Company, (link takes you to the product) and they were relatively inexpensive, about $11.00 each. They have a reservior that holds the water in the bottom of the pot, and it is released to the plant by a wick system. It's been a couple of weeks, and the ferns are still green despite the extreme heat we had last week, and I've only refilled them 3 times. I'll keep you posted as to how they're doing.