birthday presents

As I've mentioned before Dan and I were married on my birthday in July.  Early on he started the tradition where he "made" my birthday presents.  While thinking about writing about this year's present I realized I never showed you last year's...  

stones under the back porch!

The granite support pillars were already existing, but it was just open space between them.  When we purchased the house there were old huge Montauk daisies (3-feet tall by 4-feet wide huge!) in front of the porch which hid the open/ugly crawl space.  I transplanted the daisies to a garden along the front drive last year.   I felt the house needed the weight of stones under the two-story porch for scale, not to mention I thought it would be a beautiful addition and finishing detail to the house as a whole.  The original vision is to have grass up to the stones.  We have had to leave this area for last as it served as access for trucks to unload materials when we were renovating the barn.  This spring and summer other projects have taken priority and we are just now working to start to lay sod in this area (you'll see a tiny bit of some in the last photo).  This area is a very symbolic project for us as it means we are finishing up the house renovation and don't need the area for work trucks!

Isn't it beautiful?!  Dan did a wonderful job dry-stacking the stones (which are all from our property by the way.)

For the side of the porch we used pieces of antique hand-cut granite foundation that were removed from the barn during renovation.   These two pieces were originally one huge stone that had to be divided in two to make them maneuverable to work into the tight space.   It was an exciting day the day we realized that this last large piece of stone would just fit under this side of the porch.

But...
before we can lay sod this year's birthday present needs to be completed. 

A small herb/vegetable garden!  

Granite edging will define the space as demo'd in this photo,  and will be slightly raised to keep the gravel that will surround the raised beds in and the perimeter grass out!  There will be a black picket fence to enclose the area that will sit on top of the granite edging.  The garden will be accessed through an antique iron gate - more on that in a moment.

This year's birthday present begins with the scraping/leveling of the area.

My wood director's chair;)

The gravel you see under the kitchen windows is a french drain that we had put in our first summer in the house.  I painted all the basement (cellar) windows gray to blend into their surrounding granite.  Painting them white, as is often done, would highlight them and draw your eye.  I wanted your eye to go to the house, not to the basement windows!

Thick weed blocker is a great base for the gravel.

Boards for the raised beds being measured out.

It's a small area, but (hopefully;) the perfect size for the two of us.  It is also easily accessed from the kitchen mud room which is the black door up the granite steps.

Here is where we are at today! 

The first load of gravel has been laid.  (Dan drove Big Blue to the quarry which about 20 minutes by tractor;) from the house!)  Old whiskey barrel rings hold down some weed block to keep the weeds from growing (I had a nice crop of them growing before I devised this method;)

Before Dan can build the picket fence I need to find my gate.  I want an antique iron gate.  I think the iron is a needed element with all the wood on the back of the house and it will give the little garden importance.  The problem is I can't find one!  I've been looking since last summer and haven't found "the one" yet.  So, if you live in New England or just beyond ( New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, eastern New York) would you do me a  big favor and if you happen to be out and about and see an antique iron garden gate will you send me a picture with info?!!!  We love a good road trip, so we'll drive for a gate!! 



The photo below shows an antique iron antique garden gate that I found that I think would be almost perfect- it is a little wide for the space (42-inches) and  is  $425.... not in my budget.  I don't want to spend more than $200.  I love the arch top to this gate... sigh. 

I'm looking for an antique iron gate that ideally measures between 36-38 inches width and 36-50ish inches height with a price tag max of $200!   So, if you can help a girl out I would really appreciate it! :)  xx

fortheloveofahouse@comcast.net

garden essentials

Fall has arrived here in New England, and it is a beautiful time to be out working in the yard. Copious amounts of sod are being laid by the head groundskeeper (Dan;) with still more to do. I keep reminding him that he's only making lots more work for himself (i.e. mowing) but it doesn't seem to deter his desire to have more grass. Fall is the perfect time to plant grass and trees, and this week we are hoping to get two new sugar maples to replace ones missing from the row of antique maples that line the road.
Remember: It is never too late to plant a new tree!!

After spending so much time in the yard this past summer I realized that I have a very specific group of basic items that I always have with me while out working.   Here are my garden essentials and some of my favorite garden things!


garden book:
A gift from a dear friend when we moved from Dallas.  She knew I would want to have a new book for my new yard here.  I'm not very diligent about keeping it current during the season, but for me fall is the perfect time to write down all my notes of projects we accomplished, plants I liked/didn't like, suggestions for next year's pots or beds, etc.  I always think I will remember next year, but once spring comes the previous season is but a sweet memory.

 garden gloves:

I l.o.v.e. these West County Gloves.  My gloves are their "work" gloves.  I have never owned a better garden glove- ever.  Besides being an amazingly durable (I've been putting them to the test for the last three years) and comfortable glove they also remind me of a very special memory.   I purchased the gloves at Bunny William's house the first time I met her (here)- not to be confused with the time we went to her house for lunch (here) !!  :):)

flip flops:

I grew up wearing flip flops in the summer (back then we called them "thongs";) and can not imagine gardening without them!  There is always at least one pair at every door!   My perfect weather to garden includes shorts, a hoodie and flip flops!

hat- straw or baseball,

 and my sweet garden-helper " Ella": 

(In this photo Ella has been out in the yard "helping" me for several hours and is now headed up to get on our bed, or "Mama's bed" as we call it.   It is her favorite place to nap.:)

coil hose:

Last year was my first year to use a coil hose and I've been hooked ever since!  As opposed to my yard in Dallas where I could water my entire back yard from one hose long hose (attached to an automatic hose wind box which is the best money you can spend if you live where it is hot.  Nothing is worse than having to hand-crank a 100 foot hose in 100 degree temperatures, trust me!) here my garden beds are in different locations and have different hose bibs/spigot (depending on what part of the country you are from;).  Instead of lugging around a huge hose these little coil hoses let me water each bed and then neatly hide the hose out of sight.   Love that!

 

 mat:

Actually this was my late father's mat.  My mother made it for him to use when he did his sit-ups.  It makes me happy to have it in the garden with me and use it while planting/weeding.

apple basket:

I've always used old baskets for weeding in the yard.  They are much easier to come by here in New Hampshire with all of the u-pick apple orchards!

French tote:

Purchased in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue  many years ago, it had seen better days and sat tucked away in my closet until one day when I realized that even with its worn handles it would be the perfect holder to carry all my garden things to my job site!  Several pairs of different sized clippers, gloves, stainless weeder, kleenex,  hand-shovel, camera, phone, etc.  fill the tote.

 

stainless steel weeder:

I once had a cheap one that was metal.  It broke.  This stainless steel version with the reinforcement bar lets me dig up small trees with ease!

This was my favorite plant find of the season! 

I have loved this Mexican Giant Hyssop "Acapulco Orange."  This is the only perennial in my yard that bloomed the entire summer.   Its coral blooms made my gardener's heart very happy, and then to top it off it smells great- the foliage has a lovely citrusy fragrance.





 

 

So, what are your garden essentials?!

antique cobblestones at the entrance

So, lest you think we've just been sitting around on the porches all day eating bon-bons ;), I thought I would show you what we've been up to... our latest project!  If you follow me on Instagram (which I'm loving btw, you will have seen some of these photos.  I try to post once a day on sightings/happenings around the house, or places we travel to.  If you don't have a smart phone you can still see the current photos at the bottom of the blog.  If you would like to follow you can find us at "for the love of a house".)

This is our entrance from the street that I showed you most recently.  You can see the "brides" (Endless Summer Blushing Bride Hydrangeas) planted behind the granite curbing.  You can also see how the edge to the gravel drive has lost its shape after being driven on and plowed over!  Although I didn't love how it looked it has never really been an issue since we had yet to landscape this part of the property.  But, knowing that we are working our way down from the farmhouse I wanted to address this issue.  It was decided that an antique cobblestone border would be the perfect (and period) solution to keep the gravel in the driveway!

Ella helped us pick out the antique cobblestones... couldn't have done it without her! 

I love working with stone and was Dan's hod carrier on this project which was a two-person-on-deck-at-all-times project!  Minute changes in the angle of a single stone changes the entire curvature of the line, so working the line required constant tweaking and decisions to be made... and re-made, over and over!     

Dan and Big Blue bringing the cobbles to the job site.

I drew the curve on the dirt and Dan dug the design first with a pickaxe and then a shovel making a channel for the stones to sit in.  He then put down a base of granite dust (also referred to as stone dust) which is granite crushed to a very fine consistency and is used for setting stones.  It allows for water to easily pass through and once wet it helps to lock the stones in place.  New cobblestones have a more consistent size, but antique cobbles can vary greatly, so the granite dust allows you to add or subtract the base to get all the stones to the same height.  At the street the stones are flush with the road, but as you come up towards the stone beehives it has a small lip to contain the gravel.

New fill dirt added behind the edge which will eventually (hopefully in the next week) be planted with grass.  This south side of the project was a breeze!  From start to finish it took only 4 hours; the north side was a bit trickier!

One side completed, one to go! 

For scale it is 16 feet between the beehives.

This side proved to be more difficult and took two days to get right!  Day two we even worked in the rain to complete the project before Dan had to leave town!   On this side of the drive Dan had to first use the pickaxe to remove asphalt left over from a previous driveway on the property- you can see the pile on the left.  Then, trying to get the curve to match the installed south side was a big challenge.  Dan found the center of the drive and used mathematical measurements, but that wasn't working.  Eyeballing it wasn't working either.  I decided to draw the start of the completed curve on some thick bubble wrap, cut it out and flip it as a pattern for this side (this was the day it was raining, so regular paper wouldn't have worked;)  That got the ball rolling and the rest of the project went pretty smoothly after that.

Stone beehives as command central!

So, once again...

 before

after! 

Once the grass is put down you really won't even notice the cobbles, but it's a subtle improvement and a detail that looks like it could have been installed a hundred years ago.

And, for the record... apparently the "house angels" like Dan more than me as my Endless Summer Blushing Bride (white) Hydrangeas are turning blue!  I wanted this bed to bloom white and Dan was partial to blue.  The gardener (me;) chose white!  I do admit that this icy blue is a gorgeous color, so don't tell the house angels, but I'm happy too!

 This is the "runaway bride" hidden in a little clearing in the trees several feet down from the other "brides".  When the brides get all droopy and cranking needing water we call them bridezillas!

summer porches

As we ease from summer into fall over this long, relaxing holiday weekend I thought it would be a good time to show our favorite places to relax... the porches.  The farmhouse has three porches and we use them all!  I've show the porches before individually, but they vary slightly from year to year, so I thought you might like to see all three together. 

the upstairs porch

Accessed from french doors in the master bedroom the upstairs porch is a favorite for morning coffee, cocktails in the evening and quite moments right before going to bed. 

the front porch 
The front porch is a wonderful place for cocktails in the evening (we've even been known to don down coats and gloves and even sit here in the middle of winter!)  It's a intimate spot that gets wonderful afternoon/evening light.  We also use it often during the day for breaks from working in the yard. 

the back porch

We use this porch mainly for summer lunches and dinners, and also for access to the kitchen . 

   

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday weekend.

Happy Labor Day!