Late Spring Front Yard, 2020

Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!
I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

In my previous post, I shared that Joe bought me the flowers that I wanted for the Front Porch and Yard at Lowe's.....
I stuck to the color theme of red, orange and yellow like I did other years as it is so much easier to transition into Fall with those colors......

I also shared my front porch decorated for Memorial Day and how I planted my pots on and around the front porch.....
Click HERE if you missed that post......

 My Personal Notes......

We had a great Memorial Day which we observed with our traditional family "Cook In" on Sunday since Joe worked from 10 am to 4pm on Memorial Day.....

Funny how I had to wait 41 years to FINALLY get Holidays off and Joe, who worked as a Letter Carrier for the US Postal Service and had more holidays off then most average people get, now working part time at Wegman's in his retirement, volunteers to work most Holidays......

It has been unGodly hot here....

Broke a record high the other day of 90 degrees......

I mentioned that we bought a new air conditioner for the Living Room........
This is an 8000 BTU , which is more than the 6000 BTU that we had and cools off almost the entire downstairs.......

Since Joe moaned all last year about how the 5000 BTU air conditioner, which was about 15 years old, was not cooling off our 16' by 20' Master Bedroom, we decided to just get another new 6000 BTU air conditioner for the Master Bedroom .......

Boy , are we glad we did because the house is so much cooler now especially the bedroom!!

Our heat wave will be ending Saturday and then it looks like we will be having nice weather for a few days.....
 If it never got above 70 degrees, I would be one Happy Camper.....

We have a lot of birds in our yard as some of my neighbors feed them......

Not the right way with bird seed in a bird feeder but by throwing huge chunks of bread out in their back yard and then I find it all over mine!!

There is a Blue Jay's nest in one of the arborvitae's about 25 feet up, in the back of our yard......

Needless to say, we have been quite entertained with the Blue Jays flying in and out of the nest and then by the chirping of the babies.......

I guess this is Mama Blue Jay in my lilac tree , watching if the coast is clear to go into the nest......
And here she is in the nest way up in the tree......
There is a little opening where you can see her......
Last evening, we figured that the babies were going to be ready to fly the coop soon as we were able to see some fluttering of wings through that opening......

This morning, I was watering as I planted most of my annuals in the back yard and I almost stepped on this poor little thing.......
Not much blue on this baby Blue Jay yet......
He hopped over in the corner of the yard by our shed, right under where the nest was ......
He hopped into a tomato cage that I had in the corner.......

He then hopped up on the ladder that we have against the fence and behind the shed......
To cute!!
He then managed to hop and fly up to the top of the ladder and walked behind the shed......
Smart little thing knew he had to get out of my yard somehow........

So he attempts to squeeze through the lattice and chain link on the fence.......
And gets STUCK!!!!!!

I was afraid the I was going to have to give him a little shove!!!

He managed to get through a bit more.......
And then finally, pushed his little body through and was hopping away on the slope behind our yard......

Thank Goodness!

Now I have no idea how many more babies were in that nest but we will be keeping an eye out for them in our yard........

And now on to what our front yard looks like that I have finally planted my pots of annuals.....
Looking down the side walk in front of our townhouse.....
The flower bed under the Living Room window......
On each side of this flower bed is a long rectangular planter.......
I planted it with 4 red begonias.......
As I mentioned in my last post, I have learned not to over plant.......

This is a picture at the end of the Season in September last year how much those 4 begonias had grown.....
They were overflowing the planter!!!!
I do not like having big fat shrubs in this flower bed so I trim the shrubs to look more like a little tree with a puff ball on top......
This allows me to put other things in the flower bed......

I have 2 mini flags on poles at each side.......
A bird house hanging on a hook above a solar lit bird bath that the robins really seem to like!!
I planted 3 orange marigolds in the rust ceramic pots on each side of the bird bath.......

A hosta is growing in front of the bird bath.......
Over on the wall on the other side.......
My neighbor's townhouse on this side is lower than mine.......

These urns were going to be thrown away by our church and I asked if I could have them......

I have gotten quite a few years out of them and I love the chipped weathered look of them........
In my last post, I mentioned how I "elevated" my solar lights.......

But I will share it again as I have 2 solar lights in these urns.....

This solar light is one of a set of 4 that we bought this year to replace some that no longer worked.....
I wanted to make them look a bit more " Substantial" if you will......

A trick I learned a few years back was how to "elevate" solar lights.....

These are 2 that I have out in the back yard......
You use PVC piping.....

I had 4 thicker PVC pipes.....
I decided to spray paint them black......
You take a piece of rebar and either pound it down into the ground or in this case, into a urn....
You place the PVC pipe over the rebar...

Then you remove the spike from the column of the solar light.....

You then place the solar light into the PVC pipe with the column fitting over the piece of rebar which holds it in place.....

And this is now what it looks like.....
The solar lights are taller and when the flowers that I planted in these urns grow, the solar light will still be able to be seen......
I planted 4 red impatiens in each urn.......
This is different than last year as I usually plant 2 new guinea impatiens in these urns......
We will see how these do in here this year.......
And the other planter on this side of the flower bed......
Planted with 4 red begonias........
You can see Joe going to sit on the porch........
And now to the flower bed that runs along the side walk at the top of the slope in front of our townhouses........
Looking from the front porch........
The azaleas are still in bloom........
Joe bought a new set of Paw Print Solar Lights......
They do look cute lit up at night.......

My faux mail box......
I wrapped faux garland that I bought at a yard sale long time ago around the base and planted 1 marigold in the pot underneath it.......
I planted 2 red impatiens in the vintage watering can, making it look as if it was watering the pot under the mail box.........
The white azalea is full and looks fluffy!!
The Park Bench and Lantern.......
I took these pictures when the front was decorated for Memorial Day......
There are shepherd's hook on each side of the park bench with a small hanging bird bath and a tear drop solar light hanging from them........
There are 2 stakes on each side of the bench which each hold a pot of hens and chicks.....
The larger pot is planted with 2 red begonias........
And the smaller pot is planted with 2 orange marigolds......
Underneath the bench is a doggie angel and an engraved rock, Our Beloved Pet......
The other hanging bird bath.......
Joe bought the set of deer one year after Christmas at Wegman's for 75% off......
My red azalea........
The concrete statue was my neighbor Elly's.......
It is too bad that the azaleas do not stay in bloom longer.......
Here's how  it looks in the early evening, lit up.......
 Before I end this post, I have a few updates...

My rhododendron is starting to bloom......
 There won't be as many blooms on it this year as we trimmed it quite a bit last Season......
 I also want to share a little project of mine.......

 This sign came with 4 different seasonal scenes to put on the top part.......
They are magnetic......

Since the Summer and Patriotic ones were out in the full sun of the Summer , they faded terribly.....
Since the sun does not come around to the front of the house from September until April, the Fall and Winter ones were okay.....

I decided to do a rough and I mean rough, painting of our name on the metal bracket until I figure out something else to do with the faded ones.....
 The ground cover is really filling in nicely in this flower bed, especially since it has been so hot here.....
 I also want to show you how the slope in front of our house now that the phlox are loosing their blooms......

This is it looked the first week of May.....
This is how the slope looks now.....
The phlox are just about done blooming but the stone crop is starting to bloom........
There is columbine growing up toward the top with the pink flowers.....
It seeded itself in my yard by being blown apparently from my neighbor's yard.......
She is 2 doors down from me!!
This is how the slope looks from the top.....
I transplanted a few of those columbine plants from the front to the back yard last year and the year before........

They like the constant sun in the back yard......
In my next post, I will be sharing how I decorated the china cupboard and the area around it in the Den with a Patriotic theme for the Summer....
 So I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

Stay safe, healthy and happy!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......


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