Spring Things – A Garden Tour

“That is one good thing about this world … there are always sure to be more springs.”

– L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

Spring is in the air and I’m ready to throw open our Dutch door.

I can’t wait to see how Snowberry’s gardens come back to life over the next few months.

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Last year, we completely renovated our outdoor spaces. The project was delayed, as were many things, due to the pandemic.

It finally got underway early summer and was finished in the fall.

It was quite a project and turned out better than we dared to dream. We love our gardens and they’ve become an extension of our indoor living spaces.

Indoor outdoor living is a cornerstone of the California lifestyle and we’re fortunate to make use of our front and back patios most of the year.

I thought it would be fun to take a look at the gardens just after they were planted last fall.

And, compare them in a few months.

Let’s start the tour …

This is the side view of the house, it’s what you see from the street as you pull into the driveway.

We added a 5′ teak bench and I joke that it’s our Uber pick-up zone.

During the pandemic it became our Door Dash drop off spot.

Tony, our amazing carpenter, custom made our shutters.

I ordered the 3′ window boxes and decorative corbels from Amazon.

We painted the already white boxes and corbels to match the trim color of the house.

You can read about Snowberry’s exterior design and paint colors here.

The gate closure had to be jury-rigged to accommodate the garden gate we brought with us from our house on Fidalgo Island.

When these photos were taken the structure hadn’t been painted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gravel path is lined with brick salvaged from our back patio in a tilted soldier setting.

We bought our fountain at Giannini Garden Ornaments in South San Francisco.

If you live in Northern California it’s a wonderful place to visit for garden statuary.

This gate leads to our side yard and back garden.

You can sort of make out one of our raised beds behind the fence to the left.

We recently added copper caps to the fence posts.

 

I love our copper path lighting … their height directs the light downward and creates an incredible amount of light.

It’s very welcome when taking Pippa and Maggie out to potty at night.

This is Bun Bun. A hold over from Snowberry’s previous owner.

Bun Bun was painted black when we we bought the house. The demo process left her paint job a little worse for wear.

Quite honestly I was surprised she survived both the house renovation and the landscape renovation.

We expected her to be removed with the other rubble.

But, she survived and thrived so we didn’t have the heart to send her packing.

Jim power washed her and she’s been given pride of place in our front garden.

 

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

– Audrey Hepburn

So there you have it, Snowberry’s front gardens.

I’ll share our back and side yards in another post.

Our landscape was designed and installed by Enchanting Planting.

We’re so excited about our Meyer lemon tree and lime bush. Even though they were just planted last fall, we had a healthy crop of lemons and limes.

We use a lot of citrus year round and being able to pull fruit from our own trees is something we love.

It won’t be long until I’m sipping Classic White Wine Spritzer’s on the patio!

 

Is this personalized notebook and mug darling or is it DARLING?

My future DIL gave them to me. I guess she knows me pretty well!

I’m not sure where she got them, I’ll have to ask.

How does your garden grow?

We have two good sized raised beds on our side yard. Neither bed gets full sun so figuring out what we can successfully grow will be a process of trial and error.

I’m dreaming and planning and planning and dreaming. And making lots of notes.

Our local nursery is filling up with herbs and other veggies. It won’t be long until we start planting.

I also plan to include flowers in our raised beds.

I’m closely following Kim at Shiplap and Shells and Jen at The Flowering Farmhouse for ideas and tips on growing flowers.

I recently ordered dahlia tubers from The Flowering Farmhouse.

Dahlias may be my favorite flower. But it’s hard to say, I really love them all.

Thinking spring I added a few lighter and springier touches to our great room coffee table.

These are a few of my favorite books about gardening and gardeners.

 

It won’t be long until we take the covers off our back patio furniture.

I ordered these gorgeous pillows and throws.

Yep, I going with a green and white theme this year.

I can’t wait to show you when it comes together.

Here’s a recent snap of our front gate after the painting was complete.

I just love it.

I know it’s not officially spring until the 21st, but in California spring truly begins in early February.

Of course, it’s interspersed with winter storms here and there.

A few days ago we had snow on Mt. Diablo.

It’s definitely chilly.

 

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Next week I’ll be joining a group of amazing bloggers to talk about closet organization.

I’m featuring Snowberry’s master closet.

If you saw my Instagram stories last weekend I offered up a little sneak peak. I saved the stories in highlights if you’d like to take a look.

As always, I appreciate your visit and welcome your thoughts in the comments below.

Cheers from Snowberry!

 

All photos in this post are taken by Monica Vargas Photography.