Bloomin' backyard

Hello again, everyone! I hope your week's going well.

Earlier this month, I did a little house tour to show you all what the place looks like six months after we bought the house, and promised an outside tour. Well, the weather hasn't really been conducive to being outside...

This has been our forecast for practically two weeks. (I'm not complaining, though, with all the severe weather facing other parts of the country. My heart goes out to everyone affected by it). But I did manage to get a break in the rain to take a few photos.

Our outdoor projects have mostly consisted of weeding the gardens, trimming bushes and seeding the lawn. We decided not to do too much to the yard this year, instead taking a wait-and-see approach -- wait and see what comes up throughout the season before making changes. Instead, we planted some flowers and veggies in containers to add some more color and give us a chance to practice our green thumbs.

Remember that metal bucket I rescued from the dumpster? 

No, I did NOT actually pull it from the dumpster, but it was headed for the trash

Well, I turned it into a planter! It already had holes drilled in the bottom, so I just added some soil and flowers. And it already had such a great weathered look, so I didn't have to beat it up myself. Gah, it's so cute! If only my flowers would bloom a little and show off their cuteness.

I picked out a bunch of sun-loving flowers from Lowe's in shades of purple: 

Petunias...

Violas... 

and dianthus. 

And I added some dusty miller for a little variety. 

The lack of sun has kept the flowers from really blooming, I think. The title of this post is a little ambitious, maybe...

Hanging out on the deck with my cutie-patootie planter are a pair of dahlias I still haven't repotted yet (they were an impulse buy last week!) They're one of my favorite flowers to grow every summer. They just make me so happy and do so well in lots of sun, which our deck gets -- when it's not pouring rain for a week straight, that is. 

I also planted the purple flowers in a pair of terra cotta-colored pots I had lying around. They flank the stairs leading up to our deck. They are looking a little sad, though, huh? I hope they perk up...

I even had enough flowers to fill a couple bigger planters we bought for our wedding. They greet us when we drive up to the garage. These puppies look a little more lively!

Spy those pots way in the back, next to the shed? That's where we planted some veggies -- green peppers, tomatoes and cauliflower. We've grown veggies in pots before and had moderate luck, so we'll see how these do. This is our first time trying cauliflower, though. Fingers crossed!

And those are all the plants we can take credit for -- the rest came with the house. We discovered our front garden has daffodils, bright red tulips and I think the purple flowers are flox. I'm loving the colors! And all we had to do was sit there and watch it grow.

The daffodils bloomed first...

Then the tulips...

And now the daffodils are on their way out, but the flox is going crazy, as in, taking over our walkway crazy. We were going to cut them back, but the hubs is madly in love with those purple flowers (don't tell him I told you!). Eh, we never use our front door anyways, so no need to preserve the walking space.

Please excuse these less-than-stellar phone photos. I didn't get any sunny photos with my camera.

The side garden next to the shed isn't quite as colorful yet, but we're anxiously waiting to see what comes up. So far we have lots of green stuff and a brave little tulip that managed to grow in a crack in a garden stone. 

In case you're curious, that stone is a medallion for the U.S. Navy left over from the previous owner. Go Navy!

So that's a mini tour of our yard and what we have growing so far. I'd love to get really down and dirty in the yard, but for now I'm content to enjoy a few planters and wait and see what our gardens have to offer this summer.

I also realllly want to jazz up our deck. We have a nice little patio set, but we need an umbrella and some colorful outdoor cushions, don't you think? Maybe I'll make them with my awesome mediocre sewing skills. (I'm still working on that sewing project I mentioned before...it's taking forever! I promise to show it to you soon).

This was taken pre-flowers and pre-deluge, obviously. I miss the sun...

And we have a fire pit we bought at L.L.Bean that I'm dying to use. Take the fire pit, add an umbrella, some pillows, maybe some string lights and accessories, and BAM! We'll have an awesome hangout space, like this one. Isn't it dreamy? I love the colors and the lanterns. I can dream...

David Tsay Photography via Decorpad

Okay, we won't actually use the fire pit on our deck, because that's probably bad for it, considering the fire pit gets hot underneath. Wouldn't want to set our deck on fire!

I cannot WAIT for summer! Heck, at this point I'll even take spring. Mid-50s and rain? That's so last month. The rain is supposed to stop Sunday...but I'm not going to hold my breath. :)

Later this morning I'll be linking up to the Outdoor Projects link party at Centsational Girl! It's part of the Home May'd link party series (you can see my contribution to the first party, spray paint projects, here). Stop by and get a taste of summer! I love seeing what's growing already in other parts of the country where it's full-on spring. The big start of the growing season is nearly upon us here in Maine, so we'll catch up very soon, I hope!