Summer Wrap-Up

Summer is over! And I've been a bad blogger this month mainly because we have been outside working so much. Here is a summary of the end of our summer, and some updates on the progress of our outdoor projects. It was a fun {but fast} summer. We worked on projects often. We also enjoyed our fair share of fairs, cookouts, fireworks, birthday parties, bonfires, bike rides, and fishing/kayaking ventures. I'm sure Andrew wishes there had been more fishing...

The vegetable garden was a success. All varieties of the tomatoes did well, and I was able to make some sauces. We are still harvesting yellow tomatoes, and Andrew said he saw another cluster of Roma's that look ready. The cucumber plant TOOK OVER, but after it yielded it died, so I was able to rip it out and let some of the plants around it finally see the sun. It choked out our red peppers, but we did get some surprise green peppers a week ago. Our lone spaghetti squash was a true beauty...but when I brought it inside I noticed it had a small hole. I figured I would just cut that part off. Then when I came home from work the next day, it was soft and leaking. It also smelled terrible, so I had to throw it out. Oh well! Next year we will switch things up a bit - we didn't get as many red beefsteak tomatoes, so my goal is to maximize those next summer for a little more BLT action.

We took a trip to Lakeside, OH to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary. It was perfect.

The patio continues to be a great place for gathering and sitting by the fire. The grass filled in right up next to the pavers like we hoped it would. There is one low spot where we might need to add some dirt and grass seed next year, but overall it's come a long way from where we started. We look forward to using it well into the Fall, which we are now ready for & welcoming with open arms. Andrew is already pretty anxious to buy a few pumpkins for the front stoop. Speaking of the front...

We also shuffled things around a little bit with regard to the landscaping. Earlier this summer I had planted some ground cover {a variety of different ground covers, actually} in front of the stone wall. None of them really ended up growing into the picture I saw in my mind. Andrew wasn't really a fan either, but neither of us could figure out what to do to improve things. So we just let it all sit for a while. When we got back from our little Lake Erie trip, I was inspired to do some rearranging! The cottages up in Lakeside have cute little yards, so I returned home with some good ideas. I moved the ground covers and consolidated them around some rocks, used leftover patio pavers to make a little path to our hose spigot, and we planted our boxwood and some mums. We might add a small decorative tree beside the spiral arbor vitae, but for now we are content.

The deck (read about here and here) is definitely coming along! We had family over this weekend to celebrate my mom's birthday, and we were happy to put the steps on it so people didn't have to leap off. We still want to add railings to the steps and caps to the 4x4 posts, but for now it's functional and we are enjoying it. We were able to get a nice set of furniture for it at a very reasonable price, too.

Our plan for Fall and Winter is to switch gears and work on a few things inside of the house. So check back in periodically to see what we're up to next.

Thanks for reading!