Some views of our gardens...

Hello dear friends!  We are busy getting ready to go up to Birdsong, so since yesterday I have been taking some photos of some of our garden areas as I have a feeling that a lot of the stuff will bloom out while we are gone. Please note, I have not edited any of these photos, so what you see is what you get!!

Wild roadside daylilies from New England

 growing to the right of

our porch steps.

Welcome to our porch!

A shabby chic chippy window box.

Not by design.

We never have time to paint it.

Oops...

Path leading to the back deck from

the driveway.

Last year I ripped out the purple perennial

verbena (too invasive for a small area)

and put in some daylilies.

It is really lovely now.

The hosta, fern and fountain

garden is to the left, seen here

only in the forefront...

A view of most of the yard,

with the garden shed towards the left in rear.

On the right in middle of photo is the large iris

and daylily garden that we expanded in the fall

seen in this post.

The fruit of our labor has been realized,

and when it is not so shady I will provide 

more photos when there is more blooming...

Another view of the same part of the yard...

In the front of this photo is the daylily and iris garden

that we expanded in the spring of 2014,

before we did the rear portion seen behind it.

The iris have already bloomed and I have cut them back,

and the daylilies are all getting ready to pop!

In the birdbath is planted mint, 

which I hate in the actual garden since it is so invasive...

Another view of this garden,

with shed in the back...

A section of the hydrangeas planted along

the screened porch in back

(more of that area in my next post)...

I hope you have a wonderful evening!

Here's what's been keeping us busy...

Hello there! I mentioned recently that I would share with you what's been keeping us busy, so here we go. Of course, I just can't seem to let go of the garden, but I promise I will try to now.

Before we went up to Birdsong a few weeks ago, we noticed that we were getting a lot of wire grass along the rear border of our yard. Wire grass is a very bad mutation of Bermuda Grass. It is wispy on the top, spreads via runners, and has roots that are like, well, its name, wire. We hate it and it can ruin a nice fescue lawn in one season. So we decided to kill it all off and move the rear border forward. We spent the last 10 days or so on this project, first with Mr. Perch digging out the dead grass and moving all the concrete edging forward, and then me relocating several daylilies and bearded iris from our side gardens to the new section. The plants were not doing very well at the edges of the woods that surround our lot because the pine trees were robbing them of moisture, nutrients, and sunlight.

Here is where we used the garden hose to

outline what would become the edges of the 

expanded bed. 

We then used spray paint to mark it,

and applied Round Up within to kill

off the wire grass.

You can see below that the original border

ended just in front of the Crepe Myrtle

tree in the center...

When we returned from the mountains the bad grass was

all dead, so Hubby dug it all out and moved all of the

concrete edgers out to the end of the new. 

We only needed to buy eight additional edgers 

to fill the gap!

He then turned the garden over to me.

How lucky.

No, really!

After four six-hour days of digging holes,

filling them with new garden soil,

(yes, in NC we have to BUY garden soil 

because our dirt is so bad here!)

digging up the daylilies and bearded iris,

trimming off the dead foliage,

re-writing their identification markers,

hosing the bad soil off of their roots,

deciding where they would be placed,

filling the holes with more good soil...

...watering them all in...

...adding some of my home-brewed compost

to each...

...and covering all with fresh pine straw...

...my babies found their new home and

were all snuggled in for a cold winter's nap.

All 88 of them!

You can not see him too well in the photos above,

but in the front of the bed is my little

moon gazer boy,

a beautiful garden statue.

....................................

Here is the new section seen in back of a portion of my herb garden,

to which I added yet more daylilies early this past spring...

I only hope that next year at this time my new 

bed looks like the daylily and iris bed

that you see below...

When we widened this bed in the spring,

these plants were all unhealthy,

and look at them now!

Receiving the benefit of being reached

by the sprinkler system is such a bonus, 

especially when we are away...

Oh, have I mentioned that I love daylilies and iris?

Almost as much as hydrangea!

And, in spite of all the work

and my unappreciative back,

I'm still not ready for a condo!!

I hope you have a wonderful day.

In morning's early light...

Good morning friends! 

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day...cool and breezy with clear blue skies, so after I finished my morning walk with my neighbor, I took a walk through the yard and shot some photos. Everything looked so pretty in the morning light.

The Limelight Hydrangeas

growing behind the deck 

are at their peak.

I'm amazed that they look so good,

since the other species that we have

didn't bloom very well this year...

And the hostas and ferns

growing in the fountain garden

at the base of the deck

are thriving due to the miracle of

some good recent rains...

What is thriving in your garden 

these days?

Garden whimsy...

Good morning friends!

This past weekend Mr. Perch and I put down about 40 bales of pine straw in front of the house. This is not a charming task, but someone's gotta do it to keep down the weeds on the large slope on which our house sits. It's also a job better done now than once the heat of the summer kicks in.

We have that slope, which I've shown you in previous posts, planted with a lot of shrubs and several Juniper, which will hopefully someday fill in and eliminate the need for much pine straw. (It's getting better each year as the layers build, though!) We noticed that one of the Junipers had died over the winter, so when we visited our plant nursery last week to get a replacement, we noticed a beautiful piece of garden statuary there. We ended up deciding that we would put it in place of the deceased Juniper, and offer a little whimsy to the entrance of our driveway. We put some colorful annuals around it, and hopefully they will fill in nicely as the summer moves in.

You can't tell from this photo,

but he is a pretty good size...

Don't you just love those buggy eyes?!

I'll share some better photos on a future post, so that you can get "the big picture", if you catch my drift!

I hope that you have a whimsical day yourselves!

Return to Birdsong Cottage: Plumbing and Gardening at the Single Wide Mobile Home Getaway Place

Hello friends! I hope that you are having a great day. 

Well, we returned from the mountains this past Thursday, and accomplishments up there in our little place were pretty good, after a slow start due to the first two days being cold and very rainy. Like, rainy for almost 48 hours straight.

We had the place dewinterized (is this a word?) before we got up there, and apparently there had been some old rust that had worked its way into the pipes, which caused little to no hot water pressure in the hot water taps of the kitchen and Hubby's bathroom sink. We decided that part of the problem in the kitchen was also caused by the old faucet, so we replaced it with a lovely new oil-rubbed bronze one which now matches the lighting, cabinet knobs, and ceiling fans throughout. I guess there's a bright side to everything! And before we go back next month, we have someone coming in to replace the old copper plumbing under the sinks with new PVC.

Sorry for the dark photo, but I snapped it rather 

quickly  with my cell phone as we were trying

to tidy up right before leaving to go home...

In the kitchen 

we also hung up a piece of chalkboard art

purchased here

 during the winter, 

and framed it in this pretty frame purchased

at Pier One...

So, after the weather suddenly turned warm and sunny, I did a bunch of landscaping trying to give our little place some curb appeal, that would hopefully last all through the fall.

There were probably about 100 very old hostas planted along

the side of the porch, with no rhyme or reason as to how they

were growing. I knew that somewhere in there was a group 

of struggling daylilies. 

So I dug a bunch of the hostas up 

(I liken this struggle with trying

to dig up the concrete foundation of a house,

as the roots were so firmly entrenched in the ground!),

separated them, and found the daylilies, along with

several iris plants.

There were a lot more daylilies than I saw bloom

last year, so I divided those too and moved several plants...

...to other areas of the house, 

like between the steps to the other side

of the home and the storage shed. 

(Pardon the ugly old dryer vent back there,

especially since we have no washer or dryer

in this shrimpy little place!)

I also reused all of the edging wood and 

concrete trim pieces, so it's kind of cute and

quirky in its own way...

In the front of the house, there were five sweet bushes already

there, and actually planted in a nice arrangement, 

so I worked around them by adding two new purple daylilies,

and a flat of white petunias.

I tried to work it so that only the annuals would need to be 

replaced each year.

Almost maintenance free. 

After all, this is a vacation home.

Some nice dark brown mulch completed the project...

My little boy holding the birds, purchased last year,

 finally found his home (sitting in front of the old trailer

hitch used to tow this old gal to its site 45 years ago!!)

While I did this, Mr. Perch busied himself with the awful

task of attacking all of the stones that the previous owner had put in 

behind the driveway and carport to accommodate his truck.

They looked horribly ugly and we couldn't keep the weeds out.

So Hubby bought edging strips and weed barrier, and bedded out

about a foot around the rest of the house with the stones so that when

the yard maintenance crew comes in to mow, they don't need to get

too close to the house.

He particularly loved the fact that since we have no wheel barrow

up there, he had to do it with a bucket, bit by bit. 

And survived the experience!

He then planted grass seed in the area behind the carport 

(even though we don't own the land there,

we still want it to look nice).

After all was said and done, Mr. Perch commented on how nice

it was to complete a whole landscape plan in less than two days

(unlike at "real house" where we never seem to be done,

but more on this haven in a future post!)

Oh, and did I mention how nice it was that after dividing and 

moving the plants my only costs for the garden plan was the flat

of petunias and the two new daylilies, aside from the mulch.

Well, not exactly, but more on that in my next post!

I can't wait to see it all when it's blooming and filled in, and I will share it with you. Even if it looks bad. And, if you have not been in on the saga of Birdsong from the beginning, you can find last year's posts on my sidebar label of Birdsong Cottage. 

Have a great evening. I hope that your fingernails are cleaner than mine! 

Birdsong Cottage: More adventures in single wide mobile decor...

Good morning friends! I hope that you had a great Labor Day weekend. Today I'm sharing some more pictures of Birdsong and what we accomplished while up there last week.

Here is a photo of the flooring in the living

room prior to installing the quarter round

at the bottom of the baseboards.

We love the flooring, as it looks like

something that was ripped out of an old

farm house. We also love the way it

looks against the wall color

("Mineral" by Behr, but

mixed in Glidden to save money)...

...and a view of the flooring going from the

living room into the hallway...

Below is the quarter round which I had painted while Mr. Perch

was working on the flooring...

In the picture below you can see the baseboards after the quarter

round was installed.

Also shown is the small dresser which Hubby

found while up there...

His dresser is in the corner of the bedroom

for now...

The consignment stores up there are great.

We found the small coffee table shown below.

It is an old Bombay Company piece and will

get a coat of Annie Sloan paint.

We kept it very small since the rooms are not large

in this place. We can move it around when we don't

need to use it.

Also, to the right is our new Rooms to Go couch,

which was delivered while we were up there.

Hooray!

Below is a table that will be used as a desk in the alcove of

the guest room. It will also be painted.

For now it is being used in the living room under the TV,

as we have not yet brought up the piece that will actually

be used in here.

YES!! We finally have TVs!!

Pardon the ugly wires.

And we bought this little table,

also to be painted.

It will ultimately be used in the corner of

the kitchen to hold the coffee pot.

Or not...

So what would I be if I didn't try to at least

have a little fun starting to decorate?

I bought two of these pillows in WalMart

for cheap. The couch came with four

beautiful pillows, but they are too "pretty"

for everyday use,

so are in the closet for now...

The following two pieces were also

bought at consignment stores...

...as was this beautiful old statuary.

Don't you think that this little boy

holding a bird is perfect for a

place called

"Birdsong Cottage"?...

...a closeup of the bird...

Now all I need up there is a garden to put him in!

Though we tend to spend most of our time up there working, we have made some time to explore towns with great antique and consignment stores. You can get some really good stuff for very low prices, so it's been fun seeing how we can decorate for as little as possible. We've also explored the restaurant scene. Because this mountain area attracts a lot of tourists and seasonal folk, the food is great. There is also a lot of free fun to be found.

Stay tuned for our story on the kitchen lighting and the beginning of the bathroom work. Thanks for visiting today!!