Garden Crashing

No, we did not physically “crash” into anyone’s yard, but we did think it would be fun to feature one of our favorite gardens.  We were in my hometown of Rochester, Minnesota over the weekend to see an amazing Cloud Cult concert, and if you have never heard their music you are missing out.  So you should do something about that.  Pronto.  When we weren’t busy rocking out to Cloud Cult, we snapped a few photos of my parents’ yard.  The one that my dad slaves over.  And it happens to have a patio with a privacy fence that we would probably steal if there weren’t so many bricks involved.  Here’s a look at a little garden inspiration.

Here’s the patio that we would like to transplant to a yard near us (as in our own).  And it is bursting with all sorts of lush plants and flowers.

Here’s another view of it, and you can see the neighbors’ house in the background.  But the panels surrounding the patio really do provide a private space.

Here’s what the privacy panels look like up close.  We would LOVE to have something like this in our yard.  Unfortunately we have a few steps between where we are and where we would like to be (sitting on our private patio sipping mojitos)….as in removing a large tree and gnarly chain length fence, building a retaining wall, adding a fence on top of said retaining wall, demolishing our deck, adding a patio, and installing privacy panels close to the patio.  Just a few projects that you can envision by checking out our (slightly out-dated) yard tour.  And as Dain would say…..it’ll be a weekend and $500.  But he says that about every single house project I question him about (including our complete bathroom remodel) even though it has absolutely no basis in anyone’s reality.

We would also love to have such a large table.  We currently roll with our rinky dinky table that seats four and came from Craigslist, but it would be nice to have more than two people over for dinner without having someone eat in a lawn chair with their plate on their lap.

This patio is surrounded by plants, and there is a large area between the patio and the yard with a “pond.”  At least it used to be a pond until a certain wild grandchild entered the scene.  And by wild, we mean totally fun and awesome with a lot of energy.  Enough energy to hoist himself into the pond as if it were his own personal swimming pool.  My parents’ first two grandchildren were somehow able to resist, but my dad took preventative measures with the third.  So now it is more of a rock and vine garden with a few water plants in the bottom but not enough water for anyone to mistake it for a swimming hole (even a three-year-old).

When you step off the patio, there is still a lot of yard to enjoy.  There is a shed that matches the house in the back corner that houses all of my dad’s gardening supplies and all of the yard games for the grandkids.

And a shed is another thing that we have our eyes on.  We are currently envisioning a shed/office/guest room structure in our yard.  It probably won’t be this year, but we have been drooling over examples we’ve found on Pinterest (like this elegant structure).  We even found one made out of a train car that was amazing so if you know anyone with a caboose for sale, we are in the market.

The rest of the lawn and landscaping does not disappoint either.  It is bursting with color. A few years ago, my parents’ yard was even featured on a local garden tour so it is pretty big time.

They also have a large collection of yard art placed amongst the landscaping.  And I would be remiss to not mention that the vast majority of them are gifts.  And let’s just say grandkids and grandparents have a keen eye for yard art style.

The yard also has a few other places to sit, like this bench under the copper sunflower.

And these funky wooden chairs beneath the tree.

However, upon closer inspection you can see that something or someone has been chewing these to bits.  And as my dad would say….damn squirrels.

My dad does most of the landscaping and lawn care, but my mom mans the potted flowers during the summer months.  And she makes a mean assortment that rivals the fancy garden centers as you can see on the steps down to the patio.

The front yard is also pretty fantastic with more lush landscape.

And there you have it.  Dain’s parents also have a very elaborately landscaped yard so between the two yards, it might explain why we have an affinity for do-it-yourself landscaping.  But there is always more to do, and as we mentioned, we have plans on top of plans for our yard.  We are just saving up our pennies to make all of our outdoor dreams come true.

(P.S.-We also started a decor related project that we were going to share today…until I realized mid-way that it was at least a three day project.  Sigh.  I’ll explain on Thursday…)