Linda How Did You Do That In The Backyard 🌿

Linda How Did You Do That In The Backyard? Come walk the patio and garden with us as Linda reveals how the entire backyard came together — from the early build (Sept 17, 2023) to today’s lush, mounded look. See the railings, plant terraces, raised beds with drip irrigation, Japanese maple focal point, boxwood + artemisia “gray-green” palette, Southern Living Plant Collection selections (Carpinus/holly), rosemary, figs, coleus bowls, and how she stages seasonal containers for an outdoor dining/living room that actually gets used.

What you’ll see

Before/after progress: patio completion → railings, awning plans, staging, and cohesive Valspar “Border Cottage Gray” paint formula on trim & utility boxes

Linda’s “mounded” design recipe: shrubs, perennials, and groundcovers in soft, rounded layers that knit together over time

Raised beds & irrigation: drip lines threaded through the ovals, support bricks to prevent settling, germination tip (soak peas 24 hrs)

Focal planting moves: Japanese maple framing the steps & firewood, pancake arborvitae arcs, colonnade holly pair by the rain barrel

Container strategy: coleus + hibiscus + basil (mama/papa/baby bowls), seasonal color shifts by light exposure

Climate-smart care: mulching Chef’s Choice rosemary, Silverado sage cold-hardiness gamble, moving olives to the greenhouse before a freeze

Function & comfort: future railings for winter safety, lattice plan to screen the A/C, solar tea lights + pending string lights, pinion fire pit plans

Hydrangea plan: Annabelle massing (cut back hard in spring) + an heirloom oakleaf arching over the corner

Outfit de jour moments & “what I’m reading” picks — plus the community QOTD on style crushes

Tips & Takeaways

Design: Repeat forms (rounded “mounds”) in gray-green tones for instant cohesion

Irrigation: Hide drip in mulch; use bricks under beds/boxes for long-term level

Germination: Soak pea seeds overnight to speed sprouting

Winterizing: Mulch rosemary heavily; move olives to the greenhouse at the 7-day freeze mark

Lighting: Mix solar path lights with low-key votives so hardware “disappears” by day

Shop/Notes

Southern Living Plant Collection profiles coming soon (Carpinus/holly, ‘Dragon Prince’ Cryptomeria, etc.)

Valspar Border Cottage Gray formula screenshot in the Community tab

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Wow. Well, I just did something that I haven’t done in two years, and that was I went back and I watched an old video of when the patio had just been complete, but none of the other plantings were in. The railings weren’t in. Many, many things that are back here now and mature were not yet mature. I’m walking down these steps. Forgive me if it’s not if it’s a little shaky. Um, and so much has changed. So, I really hope you enjoy looking back at this video and seeing how much progress we have made since well, the first one you’re going to see is September 17th, 19 or 2023. So, that was 2 years ago. I think you’ll be amazed. Here’s a couple of things to look out for. Look out for the two statuesque boxwood cones next to the door. They were so much smaller then and in different pots. There was no awning. There were no railings. And of course, we just finished potting up all of these things for the steps. There was no uh terracotta staging area back there. Pay attention to how how much everything has grown since then. Especially, oh my gosh, the figs, the boxwood, the chef’s choice rosemary. None of this was here. I I’m I’m amazed myself. By the way, in that video, you will see on screen also the the Valpar cottage gray formula. Look at how how much this rosemary has grown since when it was first planted. Uh differences like putting the olive trees into the ground. some of my my plant staging over here, the plant terraces have have remained pretty similar. I didn’t yet have my fire pit and that’s just from watching the first one. So, I’m just giving you guys a little intro to what you’re going to see. And it is a playlist of three or four videos from back here in case you want to know, Linda, how did this happen and how did it come together? I thought I was done before, but now I realize that it was just the beginning. Only pieces were in place. So, I hope you enjoy it and you can kind of see that I think indeed it may be a little different, but I think indeed my vision was made manifest. Enjoy. Well, I keep saying the backyard is finished. Let’s put it this way, the backyard plantings are finished. There’ll be a few more things that come and go. That’s just the nature of a garden that’s never finished. But after working like dogs all day yesterday, we got the rest of the stepping stones in. We got everything planted. We got everything mulched. And now I am just waiting for my vision to materialize. So Stuart, once again, let’s put up that image that I have showed two or three times before, but let’s show it again right here of the mounded looks, that mounded shrub, mounded perennials, mounded ground cover that I want around the patio. But now, uh, should we just not hold them in suspense any longer? Okay, let’s go into the backyard. [Music] [Music] [Music] Well, someone asked me this morning if it looks like I envisioned. And no, it doesn’t look like I envisioned because how I envision it is all of the plantings are already matured. They have already grown together in that mounted fashion. But obviously things just don’t happen instantaneously like that. So I’m going to have to be patient. But do I see the beginnings of my vision? Absolutely. So Stuart, let’s just do this, I guess. Let’s just I’ll walk around and everybody can kind of see. Let me start here. Not staged yet with any kind of plantings or anything, but this is the first of my plant terraces right here. And these are all the ones that came from part of my QVC line. This is four of them put together. And I anticipate it probably in the future as a geranium plant stand, geranium theater, largely in coral and red geraniums. And then over here we have the second of the plant stands. This is one I got from Gardener Supply many, many years ago. And you can see that I’m still in process of staging these theaters. Here’s a signature touch. I like to have three things in a row. And I’ve got three of these tiny little golden dream boxwoods. And I will plant them here. And I anticipate this will probably be more of a boxwood theater. Uh smaller boxwoods, maybe with a a little bit of color, but that kind of remains to be seen. But I am anxious to kind of get it all staged. And then here is my third terrace. This too came from Gardener Supply years ago. I’m not even sure if it’s still available. Um, but I also anticipate that this will be just chalk full of both ornamentals and maybe some edibles. So, that kind of finishes this facade. Now, you were asking me, I’ve answered this before, but I’ll ask it again. Did I answer it again? Did I put down any kind of weed barrier underneath my mulch, which is about 2/3 fine pine mix that Happy Girl landscapers mix with a little bit of gravel. No, I did not. And I didn’t because this is pretty much hard pan clay. Not a lot will grow through it. And anything that has any little trees that have volunteered through here, they’re just absolutely effortless to pull out. And I would much rather do that in this small area, do some weeding in this small dedicated area than I would constantly trying to keep that black weed barrier submerged so that it’s not showing um it’s not showing the edges or the corners of it because that tends to drive me crazy. So then around here I have the first of my planter box. You’ll notice, Stuart, if we can just do a little bit of a pan of all of these back here. You’ll notice that they have all been set up right. They all now have support bricks underneath them, the half bricks, and they are all pretty much straight or as straight as I’m going to get them at this point. Once they are filled to overflowing and all sorts of greens and everything are spilling out of the edge uh over the edge any any uh disparity from full level that won’t really bother me too much at this point. I’m not going to put anything on the bench underneath and that’ll just be workspace for if I’ve got say flats of something that I’m going to be planting out. But you can see all my little lettucees here have started to germinate. And I’ve just got four bright light Swiss chard that I bought starts of. I got this at Lowe’s. And then I left these here intentionally. So I would remember to tell you that underneath this mulch, there’s a little bit you can see here, Stuart. And that is I have drip irrigation. that’s threaded through these little gray villages that kind of accentuate each the top of the oval on each end. So there’s four top of the ovals. Now in the corner, I think I told you I was looking for something that was evergreen that was columnar that would have something of a gray sheen to it. And look no further than to the Southern Living plant collection. and I planted. And by the way, I will be doing dedicated plant care design tip videos about each one of these southern living plants. So, this is a pod carpus. It is not going to get much wider than this. Maybe I would say maybe another 8 in. And it will top out about to this height. But show them the height again. I would about here. But from a distance, it just looks beautiful. It captures the light. It’s gray. It’s shimmery. And I love the way it looks. It just And I like the fact that it’s kind of unique. It’s a little bit different. Um, both of these both of my olive trees will go into the greenhouse. So, these are in faux concrete pots, and they Oh, as soon as I I check my 7-day forecast and I see a freeze coming, these will move to the greenhouse. and Stuart, this might be a place where we take a little break before we proceed further. [Music] [Music] [Music] So, lurking here, I am lurking behind my Silverado Sage, which is now uh it looks like it’s finished with that fuchsia bloom um outgrowth, and it’ll probably put on one more before the end of the season. This is my gardening risk that I am going to take. And one of you in Texas, please comment below. Always comment. Um, told me that hers overwintered down and made it through a minus14 winter. Now, Silverado Sage is typically not that cold hearty, but I plan on mulching it really, really well. I will protect it as best I can. Hers was probably established. This one is not, but it was a gardening risk I was I was happy to take. It might also die back. It’s got a fairly large root ball. And it might die back, but if it dies back, it might just die back to the ground, in which case I will eventually get a huge mound of gray, which is also kind of rounded and mounded. I decided not to go with anything of a larger scale here because pretty soon this second pod carpus in this corner I just love the way it’s kind of white tipped. I love the variegation of it in this corner. We’ll also ground this corner. It will eventually hide this and it will just be it’ll just be perfect. Now, again, in my imaginings, all of this stuff is already mature, and I already see what it’s going to look like a couple of years down the line, but even now, I think it still looks really, really handsome. Okay, I planted and I cut back hard and planted a couple of tomatoes in here, and Oh my gosh, Stuart. Okay, so I think I told you in our last Wednesday walkabout that I had planted some some peas in here, some purple snap peas. And look, I checked an hour ago and there was no germination. And now look, I have germination here. I planted these just maybe 3 days ago. I did, however, submerged them in water for 24 hours or overnight before I planted them. And that really Here’s a tip. Let’s put the little tip sign, little tip uh light bulb here, Stuart, because boy did it speed up germination. Look here. And at that point, I may sacrifice the tomatoes. I’ll just cut them down at the base. I think I described that before because I’m really looking forward to having some peas. And I think days to harvest was maybe I don’t know 60 days, 60 to 70 days. And and that’ll be okay. And even if I don’t get fruit on them, I will just really love the way they look and I’ll anticipate what they will look like in the next season. and what all of these raised beds will look like once they are spilling out with uh with culinary delights. I did get these online and we will put a link to these below. A couple of things we did, as I’ve told you before, add additional support beams underneath. It had some going this way. We added some additional supports going in this direction, perpendicular. And we also learned by experience that these will sink in after a rain. So we did put half bricks under all of them. So I don’t anticipate these really moving much if at all. So over here is my kind of rounded mounded gray theme. Have some boxwood. I have some soft caress holly. I’ve got some armisia. This will grow really quickly and fill this space. I’ve got a couple. Actually, I’ve got three four pancake arborvida that circumscribe the contour of the brick patio. And I think these are about as cute as can be. Here’s where we might put some put some of those pictures, Stuart, of the photo shoot that we did at the other house when I when I had them. I topiaried them and I had them in um in pots. They look good whether they are fluffy or they are clipped back. Someone one of the followers said that I had taken a pancake and turned it into a meatball. How clever. And yes, I kind of did. Um and I kind of a squished meatball though. So I but I I do love the way they look. I have here something that I don’t know what the name of it is. I got it at an herb farm. All I know is it smells like annis. It smells like Here, Stuart. Now, smell. Smells like licorice. Yeah. Ain’t it wonderful? I love the I I I just said I don’t I’m not really sure. I got it at a at an herb farm and I need to identify. If any of you know, there’s my question of the day. If any of you know what it is, please please tell me. This is some chef’s choice rosemary. I am hoping if I mulch it really well. In fact, this whole area I will mulch extremely well this winter to see if I can get it to overwinter. In my other yard, I had it for about four years. It got huge. It was absolutely incredible. But it succumbed to minus 18 probably because I didn’t protect it well enough. But I can correct that now that I know better. Um, I’ve got and I’m not exactly sure how this facade here is going to end up, but for right now, I like it just I like it just fine with this multi-tiered table that I’ve got positioned here with angel wing beonas on it. And this might sometimes I might take them off and I might use this to have orurves and things like that on it. I anticipate that this will be uh constantly in rotation depending on what I I want to put on here as whatever kind of garden pageant I am orchestrating begins. Over here I’ve got my two um my two little miss figgies that are starting to put out now new growth. So I’m happy about that. I do think I need something kind of surrounding this window. And I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do. So, I’m going to leave that decision until later. I’m going to live with it for a little while because as all of this begins to fill out, the dynamic of this will change. And right now, I kind of like a little bit of negative space. I also know that these will grow. I’ve got another one in the front. These will grow particularly now that the weather has cooled and this will just be an explosion of that reddish pink which I will love. I did steal from Peter to pay Paul and move this green mountain boxwood that was in the front. So I have these kind of of bowling ball shapes with the squattier mound. So I’ve got a bowling ball there. I’ve got a bowling ball here. And then this is the one, two, three. And then kind of framing this area here is my fourth pancake arborvita. And underneath all of this is drip irrigation. And there’s also maybe a couple of bubblers that are that are on the specimen plantings. So this beautiful holly, this is a colonade holly that is a part of the Southern Living line. And by all means, it is has red tipped foliage. I will do a plant profile on that. And I have two of them that are on either side of my newly painted rain barrel. So, I love the way everything back here is really, really cohesive. Um, I like the way it looks and within I bet you we come back here, Stuart, in two weeks and it will look completely different because so much of this stuff will have grown, especially after we get some rain. So, let’s take a little break here and we’ll come back in a minute. So inspired by this huge saucer bowl planting which has lots of different kinds of colus in it and what I have been told is some kind of red hibiscus. This has really exploded and in short order over here where I have cut back this pot pretty dramatically. I would say in another week this will be almost equally as full as the other. And in this I have different kinds of kolas cutings, the same kind of hibiscus. I’ve got some purple Joseph’s coat in here. These were cutings that I took from the front window box. And I’ve got a little bit of basil as I do as I have in this pot right here. So this is our mama bear, papa bear, baby bear thing, Stuart. And I need to harvest this basil. And I will do that this weekend. But right now, I just wanted you to see how pretty it looked with that colus. And now that I’ve moved this into a little bit more sun, this colus will get considerably deeper and richer in color. Obviously, I still have to hook up my rain barrel. And I will do that. And I hear my phone ringing, Stuart. So, let’s take a break right here. And here is your outfit dour. My earrings I’ve had forever. Can’t remember where I got them, but I’ve had them forever. They’ve got a real Southwest vibe to them, and you know, I kind of can can roll with that. My top is part of a two-piece outfit, Banana Republic. Um, my bracelets, this came from that wonderful shop that’s no longer there in Salida, Colorado, called Currents. I like that. Yes, I love this overlapping. Yeah, it’s cool. And this bracelet came from uh my niece Christie many, many years ago. And this belonged to my uh my mother-in-law, Mamu. Uh this is the same belt I had on the other day, Stuart. This was thrifted someplace. My britches were also thrifted jeans. I’m not sure when. And then I love my boots. I love a pop of yellow. And these are Mary boots. And we will try to put the links to just about everything. Oh, and I should point out I have not yet been able to take the lengths out of my new watch band, but I will try to do that this weekend. So, there you go. There’s your outfit of the day. So, you can see what it looks like if you are standing right in front of the casement windows. Everything kind of has a gray tone homogeneous look. And right here, Stuart, so many of you have asked about the color of the paint. And it’s and there we took a screenshot of it. It’s in the community tab. It’s a Valspar paint. We have just dubbed it VA cottage gray. There really isn’t a name to it. There’s just a formula. So, we will put a screenshot of it right here. And you just take a screenshot of what you see on my screen. Does that make sense? And then you can replicate the formula. A couple of things. Um I just had some throw pillows in the attic or in the basement rather that I put out for now. I anticipate that I will have coordinated pillows on all four of these chairs. But I’ve looked and I haven’t found exactly what I want. So these are just going to stand in for right now. And if I had four of those, they would work. but I only have two. So, that’s what’s going on there. Another project that I anticipate in the future is replacing this top if possible. This is a glass top and there are all of the drawbacks that come with having a glass top. It gets scratched. It’s always dirty. It can break in a hail stom, which it has done not once but twice. Um, and and there’s there’s just lots of drawbacks to having a glass top. There are times, however, when it looks beautiful. But because of all of those um kind of failings, I think of outdoor furniture, I’m going to see if I can have some kind of fabricated wood top or something made that’s just about a quarter of an inch thick and will just settle into the grooves of this table. because even though it’s very very old, I still love this furniture. It was not inexpensive when we bought it years ago and so I can’t imagine what it would cost me to replace it. It’s imminently comfortable. It doesn’t blow away and I love the way it looks. So, as always, I try to use what I have, but I am going to try to give it a little bit of an upgrade by replacing the top if that is possible. Um, a little kind of here’s kind of a side note, kind of a behind thescenes thing. We have I’ve been getting this question so much recently from people that I meet. Uh, and by the way, somebody was here today from Pittsburgh. There was here somebody from someone was here from Colorado yesterday. They were driving by to see the plantings in the cottage and I got to meet them. Um, but I’ve been giving lots of public presentations and things lately and one question that I’ve been getting a lot and I sometimes get from you and that is do are these scripted? In other words, do I write out what I’m going to say? Do I in any way document what I’m going to say on paper or really anywhere? And no, I do not. You guys get it straight from the horse’s mouth. Uh Stuart, am I right? Yep. Um I really want it to ma maintain its spontaneity. I talk usually we do these in one take. Seldom ever do we retake something retake a segment? And if so, it’s probably because of some kind of ambient noise. A truck goes by or a motorcycle or something like that or we want to protect the privacy of somebody that goes by. Uh but typically we just do these in one fail swoop, don’t we, Stuart? So if I misspeak, if I call a plant the wrong name, it does not offend me in any way at all. If you guys comment and say, “Oh, I think the plant at 457 was this and not that.” Because I am doing this off of the cuff. I am doing this just like I did when I did live TV. And so because of that, I may misspeak sometimes. But that gives you an idea. I think it’s interesting, don’t you, Stuart, for people to know how how we kind of how we kind of roll the real you. They get the Yeah. They get the real me and what’s really happening in real time. I think that makes it more spontaneous, more authentic, and you get a real feel for what it’s like to be in a garden. So, let’s come back around. You will notice that I have bits of a juga pretty much everywhere. This will in my mind continue to spread, grow along the edges, as will all of these mounds back here. All of the gray villages are for the most part evergreen. There’s a there are a few very few perennials in here. A couple different kinds of armisia. Um there’s some sweet olive that I am seeing if I can make it be frost hearty and overwinter if I mulch it enough. The only thing that’s really deciduous and will bloom are all of the white butterfly candy that I have pruned back hard and relocated from the front. And all of these I will keep very very low. So in the spring I will really prune them back hard. And they are very receptive to pruning. And you can even see here, this one I pruned a while back and it’s already got new growth coming. Look, it’s even got some new flowers on it. But I will be able to contain it. So there will be flowering white flowering grey mounds. Why? Because it matches the aesthetic, but also because I’m really wanting to attract lots of those pollinators to the backyard. I have more than enough in the front and I want to spread the love. So, I want lots of those magnificent butterflies and uh bees, wasps, whatever, anything that pollinates. Maybe not the mosquitoes, but I do want them all to come back here because that will make my veggies that much more productive. I finally got around, boy, it took some time because I was neglecting them, but I finally got around to pruning my myrtle topiary. Now, in the process, a number of them have succumbed because I just there was just so much going on and I’m going to have to replace some of them. Um, and my friend Angela at Passafllora will will get some for me. But I finally did clip my topiary and I’ve I’m letting them open up a little bit because I want the mounds to be bigger and I really want the topiary themselves to be bigger. So now Stuart, let’s do a slow rotation. Let’s take a break and do a slow rotation and I can reveal my Japanese maple. [Music] Okay, now here are my beautiful, beautiful steps which now to adorn them have a gorgeous green Japanese maple that is starting to turn. Look at that, Stuart. Can you see that? One second. Yeah. Isn’t it just beautiful? And I love the color of the branching. It’s that russet red and then the colors as it turns in the fall are a russet red also. Now in my imaginings, this is already about 4 feet taller than it is. And I have already raised the canopy up re by removing some of the lower branches. And I’m going to be doing a tiny bit of this, not aggressively, but a tiny bit of this I’ll be doing in a video for you here before too long. But I love the way it punctuates this corner. I love how beautifully it frames or stands in front of my firewood here. So, this may answer the question so many of you had. Why do I not have a railing along this side? Well, that’s because this is where my firewood is. So, I can just come out. My back door right here, get some firewood. And my fireplace is just inside in the great room. So, this was very carefully thought out. I wanted a place to store I wanted a place to to store my wood. Now, some of you may say, “Well, are you worried about termites having it close to your home?” Well, I might if I had a wood sighting house, but I have a brick siding house. And I know that I also have termite traps in and around because I was told that that might be an issue here at this house. So, we have already been proactive about that and taken that into account. And then you see that I’ve got the casement windows open and it has just been a sheer delight. Now, some of you may have not seen some of my previous um videos because I keep getting the question, are these going to be painted? Well, oh my. Yes, they’re going to be painted in gray and they will match the other gray fixtures um that are around. And this might be a good time, Stuart, to just show without fully revealing the other thing that was painted. Look, did you notice that all my utility boxes have been painted gray? They were every other color and now they are gray. They were every other color. They were just every other cover. They were uh Yes. Yes. Every What’s the What’s the movie? Everywhere. Every place. Everywhere. Everything everywhere all at once. Yes. Everything everywhere all at once. That’s how I felt like this whole garden has been. Oh, and there’s my coffee cup, Stuart. My coffee cup that I’ve been looking for all day is over there on the on the air conditioner. Now, the air conditioner, as I’ve told you, this will be a winter project because Kayla’s guys will do this, but this will very much be a winter project. This will be framed out probably starting about right here at about this height. This will be framed out with lattice work panels that will then be painted in my signature gray color. There’ll be finials on the end. They’ll be framed out and this will virtually disappear and block off this corner and then there will be soft plantings along the edge. I’ve already planted a few um soft yes soft plants. Soft caress mahonia. Um I anticipate I’ll be planting some more of those. I’ve just stuck these nandina over here for right now. All of this will fill in a little bit more, but this area is not a 100% complete, but it’s as complete as it’s going to be at this point in time until I clean out my garage because there’s going to be some a fun project I’m going to show you over in this area. But I’m going to wait on that. Hubs and I will work on that project together as we clean out the garage. So, that’s what we did kind of over in here. And oops, don’t don’t hurt yourself, Stuart. Um, as I told you, these Encoreelas, those will move to the front eventually. They’re just kind of staged here now, just temporarily. I did put these these forever goldie arborvitas here. And a lot of you expressed concern that these were going to get too wide. Well, again, I will do a video with a plant profile on these. But what I love about them and most of the things in the Southern Living plant collection is they don’t get too large. These will remain more compact. The height might top out at about the height of these Encore Aelas. And that’ll be years before that happens. And they will not get they’ll get maybe three to four feet wide. So they will frame this beautifully and they’ll never get too large. Um, someone said that they didn’t particularly care for the color against the brick, and I can kind of see that, but I actually love the contrast of the brick, and I like the way it illuminates this space. And then I will just put in some obligatory little bunches of of more auga of some flirt nandinas and things over in this area. And then I have another pot here that I have filled. You guys saw me do it the other day where I just stuck some cutings in there. And I would say within another week, those should be standing up and flying. Right. So Stuart, let’s get kind of a vantage point then from here. Wide shot. Yeah. Give give everyone a wide shot. So we will come in from the garage. We will come this way. There will be a railing right here. And Hubs was saying because it’s not inexpensive. And he was saying, “Well, these are easy to traverse right now.” now. And I said, “Well, yeah, they’re easy to traverse right now because we’re not we don’t have an ice storm.” And um and and we’re not getting any younger, but I definitely want to have this in place hopefully before the winter and then there’ll be another railing over here and these we these will then move. But I just love the way the Japanese maple looks right there. And I love the way the colors echo the colors in the plantings of the annuals of the kolas. Um, and I think it’ll just really really be fabulous once things start to to fill out and mature. And when I have this staged back here, um, when my vegetables are mature and I think it’ll really really be glorious. It does absolutely what I wanted it to do and that was perform the function of being an outdoor dining in an outdoor living room. Ultimately, I haven’t decided on it yet, but there will be some jewelry added and that jewelry will be in the way of some lights on either side of the door. I kind of wanted all this other stuff to happen first. lights on either side of the door. I will probably also put lights and um maybe an awning over the garage door and maybe an awning over this. I’m going to hold off on that just a little while. I’m going to take a little break and just enjoy it and not necessarily be on another project. The brick work on the steps, I think, is absolutely magnificent. And this was this was a a collaboration between Manuel and um and then Javier and Sergio who did the brick work and I think it’s beautiful. I am reusing what I had. So down here, this will be a whole banquet of white Annabel hydrangeas in here. These will be absolutely glorious once they fill out. I will again cut these back fairly hard to about right here in the spring. And I anticipate that next year this will be completely filled with white blooms. The oakleaf hydrangea that I have brought with me. This is the third house it’s lived at will arch up and over this other columnar holly that I have here on the corner. And these two will stay relatively narrow. These will not get much more than 3 feet wide and will frame then the rain barrel. So you won’t be able to see any of the workings of the meter behind it. These will grow in both directions and you won’t be able to see the curb that is up against the garage. And then there will probably be some kind of jewelry or something. I’m not sure on framing the window over there. At this point, I’m just going to coitate on that a little bit. A number of you were still wondering about if I would hit my head on these windows. Well, again, I’d have to come all the way back over here to hit my head. And if I was worried about that, all I’d have to do is just not open them so wide. But I don’t anticipate that being a problem. all of my terracotta, which I think is is just inherently beautiful and decorative. This is going to live someplace else. And I will show you in a future video where it’s going to live. This table will be relocated. And then I will have really just another almost a dining table right here that will be used as a sideboard for when when we entertain out here. And I think I told you I’m going to have a little refrigerator. All of that will be over here. And then Stuart, I’ve got this gray mound right here. Let me point out these gorgeous coriopter uh uh dragon prints cryptoaria. These are just beautiful. Again, I will do a plant profile on these. And these are supposed to be really heat and drought tolerant. I have only here too for used them in pots, but I think they are just gorgeous and they have almost a fernie look to me. Don’t you think, Stuart? Oh, yeah, they very much do have a ferny look. And I love all of the different shades and gradations of green. Now over here, I’ve got my shed, which is painted gray, and I’m so glad I did that. Um, I have yet to put the hardware back on and I will do that. But you can see that this is where I’ve got all of my fertilizers and things like that staged in here and tools and other little little goodies. Okay, now I have another question of the day. So, I adore these solar tea lightss and the solar pillar candles that I have, but they do not fit in into traditional votive cup holders. They’re too big for that. So, I am looking what I’d like to find are some dark votive cup holders. Um, they’re probably going to have to be this shape. And I’ve looked for them and I haven’t seen them. If you guys have a source for them, let me know. Or I might just end up resigning myself to doing something like this clear one or maybe this one that’s kind of a mercury glass. But I only have one of these. So I’m going to be on the hunt for those because I want them to virtually disappear during the day. And this white doesn’t really disappear. It kind of shouts I am white plastic. And I don’t like it screaming that message to me. So, I just want them to kind of disappear and then magically be illuminated at night. Some of you are going to ask, “So, what about the string lights?” There will be string lights. I’ve already purchased them. They are solar string lights, and I’m just waiting for a friend of ours that’s going to come and help us hang them. It doesn’t bother me that I don’t have them up yet because I’ve got all of these other solar lights here that are illuminated at night. And I have the soft glow from the lamps coming from the inside along with whatever music I have on, the music of the day. And it will be so nice when I have a wood fire in there. I’ll be able to capture little glimpses of the fire in the fireplace. And then out here, I’ll be able to have my little pinon fires. Um Hubs and I are are looking for a larger um mobile fire pit, metal fire pit, and we’ve still got a little little bit of time before it’s going to be cool enough, I think, to be lighting those pinon fires at night. But I really think let’s put up let’s let’s do this at the beginning, Stewart, and let’s do it at the end. Let’s do a before and after. So, let’s get a really good after picture of what it looks like now. And then we’ll always, you know, I say after, but then there’ll be an after after, like I said, never done. It’s never done, but an after of what it will look like once a lot of these plantings begin to fill in. And we need to get it completed because Leah is just going crazy wanting to have a dinner party out here. And I anticipate being able to do that in the not too distant future. I’m gonna putter out here tomorrow listening to football. Um I I just think it’s I just think it’s charming, Stuart, if I do say so myself. So let me know what your thoughts are if you if you like what we have done back here. I think we are going to use the heck out of this space. I come out here in the morning. I have my coffee. I do my meditation. I listen to the birds. It is just it is just lovely and I anticipate doing even more of that this fall. Thank you guys for hanging in there with me. Um I can’t believe we’ve come this far in the evolution of The Cottage on the Hill, but we’re about to wrap it up. Um please, if you have not already done so, here is my ask. Please subscribe, press the press press the like button, share this with others. Um, and I’m really getting excited about my garden journal coming out. You can buy it on Amazon or or in November at your local bookstore. Pre-orders really help. And if you look at Amazon or wherever it’s posted, Barnes & Noble available for pre-order, you can see some sample pages of how it’s laid out. A lot of you have requested that. Stuart, am I forgetting anything? Okay. Okay then. And now I am going to sit out here and relax. You guys relax. enjoy your Sunday evening and once again thank you for being such good friends and such good um such good companions as I garden. Please remember everyone suffering in Morocco in Libya any kind of weather or earthquake problems around the world. Our thoughts are with you. Thank you guys and have a good Sunday evening. Here you go. Here is what I am reading this week. And boy, folks, I am just so glad it is really becoming intensive reading weather because the temperatures are cool and I just loved it. You can grab a book and you can go head outside on your back porch, your front porch or your park, wherever. Um, so what I am reading this week, number one, periodically I actually pull the very old books off of my shelf. A lot of times we look at them and we think that they just have decorative value because they are intrinsically beautiful. But periodically I will pull one off and I will read it cover to cover. I did that recently with Glimpses of the Moon and Edith Wharton book. And the other day I pulled off a a real classic RO’s man’s search for Himself. My husband in college was a philosophy major and so we have um a number of really good and interesting books. It’s an easy read. I find it fascinating and even though it was written many years ago, it is definitely still applicable to the angst of our time. So, I would highly recommend that. It is Rome’s man’s search for Himself. Now, the next book I want to tell you about leads me to my question of the day. So, this was recommended to me by well, it’s actually a recommendation that was on Instagram by someone that I have a huge style crush on. We sometimes correspond. Um, I just she has inimitable style and and and a a very unique unique type of persona and I just love everything she does. I have a huge style crush on Jill Sharp. And what I my question of the day for you is Leah is acting up in the back of the room and her phone just went off. Okay. But I but so that was my question. Who do you have a style crush on? Let me know who you have a style crush on and if you would like put their handle or put their name. So if any of us want to research them to see if indeed they really do have great style, then please do that because I think it would be a fun way for us to learn about different personalities. So she recommended on her Instagram feed the book A Sense of Place. It just recently came out. design inspired by Where We We Live, Caitlyn Fleming and Julie Goel. Now, I I got it mostly because she recommended it, but I have to say there was an additional an additional incentive because her home is very very prominently featured in it. She’s got two different locations where she has uh just really gorgeous, gorgeous home with different styles. One is in Charleston and the other is in Santa Fe. And you guys know how I love Santa Fe. So anyhow, her name is Jill Sharp and I would encourage you to check her out on Instagram. She used to be, I believe, the chief creative director for Ballard Design. Um she but she’s done a ton of stuff and she is just a a really substantive individual as well. So that is my recommendation. Now, in terms of workbooks, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you to order my garden journal. I got so many comments from you guys last week saying that Amazon was now saying that the release date was late in December. I I hadn’t even noticed that. I talked to my publisher and they said no, that indeed it it is not going to be that late. That they are hoping sometime in mid November and they will be giving us an exact timeline. I’m not sure what the glitch was. Um if it was a shipping issue, I’m not sure. But at any rate, it is I think just a really really beautiful tome. And I like I say, I just got a full-blown copy of it, not just not just a standin, a mockup. And I I now can actually start making entries. And I’m going to do something kind of unique with mine. You guys are probably going to think I’m crazy, but I I really want this to be a working document, a working ledger of everything that you do in the garden. So, I’m going to take mine out with me when I work outside. I don’t care if it get if it gets dirty. I don’t care if it shows some of that wonderful Oklahoma clay on it. Um, I’ll protect it from moisture, but I really want it to be a true heirloom that is passed down to my boys. And so I I want it to you to look wellus and well loved. So that is what I’m reading this week. [Music] Hey, all I can say is it’s criminal that we make a living doing what we do because it is just so fun working with you Guys, Steuart was just singing some song he made up called Pumpkin Paradise. True. Uh, but I digress. Let’s talk about our outfit of the day. So, you want to go first? Yeah. My outfit of the day was inspired by my style crush, which I sent you on Instagram. And the style crush is her name, her Instagram is Abby on the internet. She lives in San Francisco and I just love her outfits and her home and this feels like something she would wear. So, skirt was thrifted. These are Birkenstock shoes. This vest I got in London on Brick Lane, the vintage market. Is it suede? I think it’s like leather or suede. What is it? I love it. Yes, vint you are really into vests. Okay. And I we talked about that. We talked about thrifting and I always am looking for vests. So, this scarf Linda got for me from the Hatch Chili Festival. Yes. And why? Oh, because well it has guitars on it and I play guitar and also it says hell yeah on the back which I can show you. Yeah. Um and this was from her name is Outlaw Oracle and she’s I think she’s here in Oklahoma City and your earrings are from her. Yes. And I was visiting with her when I went to that market and we I saw that and I thought, “Oh my gosh.” Because whenever Leah really approves of something, she go, “Hell yeah.” And I and so I saw it and I thought, “Oh my gosh, it shall be hers.” So I got one of those and then I found a present for myself because always if one for you then one for me and I got these skull head very New Mexican these kind of skull head earrings which are just kind of a smile gift for yourself. Yes, just a little smile gift for myself. I give lots of smile gifts to others but periodically one also has to smile at oneself. Um my top is H&M. I got this in Denver and this is kind of my thing that just because you have a collar doesn’t mean you have to use it. Oh, I like I didn’t even notice that. Yeah. So, if you if you have a collar and you you guys know I usually pop my collar up because I just I don’t know. I just feel comfortable doing that. But sometimes I don’t want a collar and I’ve got I’ve got very very broad shoulders and so for me a V-neck is kind of flattering. And so if I want to transform a blouse with a collar into a V-neck, I just turn it under. That’s kind of a fun little hack, isn’t it? And I I adore this this color of deranium red. Yeah, it does. It does. So, this is a linen blouse from H&M. I got it in Denver. Um, this is just a pair of jeans that I probably have had for 30 years. I think they were L’s End or something, but I did reliability. Reliability. I updated them um by just cutting them off and fringing them. Cute. And yeah, I like distressed jeans. Um and okay, now look. Speaking of a thrifting store, look at this belt. Blinging bling. Isn’t this isn’t this great? So, I got this on that two of my favorite belts I got at just a a little secondhand store near Yeah. Zion National Park. And I I love it. So, it’s a little bit of a bling. And these are I think we’re going to try to maybe do a collaboration with them soon. Um, and these are from Quint. They’re just Birkenstock kind of knockoffs, but oh my gosh, they are so so so comfortable. Those are Burks over there. Yeah, these are Birkenstock. Yes, those are real Burks. I have the dupes. Um, so and my sunglasses are just kind of I don’t know. They’re kind of 60s inspo. What are your sunglasses? These I got in Belgium and I such I splurged on them. Next time I forget what the store was. It was like a Norwegian came from Target in Oklahoma City in Oklahoma City. So there you go. There is our ensembles dour. Well, here’s an opportunity for me to not only share with you what I am listening to, but also really brag on my baby sister, Meg. And I call her my baby sister, but she is really a formidable force in nursing education. She has her PhD in nursing education, and she just sent me a link to, I believe it was a podcast that she was on talking about her area of expertise. It is called visual thinking strategies. It was it was the subject of her dissertation and it is merging the science with the arts and how we can improve education by using the humanities. So she takes students into art museums and they analyze and they talk about different works of art and then they apply those observational skills to uh to medical disciplines. But I I was just blown away when I listened to this podcast. First of all, I’m I’m not surprised because she’s tremendously intelligent and and articulate, but I hadn’t and I knew a lot about what she did, but I didn’t I had never really listened to her describing it and its value in the educational community as it would apply to all of us collectively and how we can be more observational and use art to help understand one another in a non-judgmental way, in a way that is strictly the intent is just to deconstruct, understand and comprehend where someone else is coming from. And that someone else in her context could be the patient, it could be the doctor, it could be um an anesthesiologist, it could be anyone of a number of different medical disciplines. But when I started looking at it through the lens of, oh my gosh, this is how those of us can understand people who think differently than us by asking some very probitative questions that are non-threatening and extremely valuable. So I encourage you guys to listen to it. It is just really fascinating. And again, when you do so, listen to it through the lens of what it can do for you in your life in understanding family members and from a broader context, other people in our communities. [Music] [Music] Well, what I learned this week and what I’ve been thinking about is how important the concept, the principle of reliability is. And I talked about it at some length in my newsletter this week. And if you haven’t, if you have not signed up for it, just go to www.lindavod.com and you can sign up for the newsletter. Um, and I I talked about things that are reliable. Now, why is this? This is something that’s so important to me right now because I was thinking about a very very good friend that I have and she and I, no matter what will always pick up if we see that the other person is calling or texting, we will always pick up and respond to that call or text. Even if we are in the middle of something, even if no matter what, we will always acknowledge that the importance of having someone in your life that always picks up because you never know what is going to happen. And obviously, as parents, we typically try to do that for our children. But as we get older, we don’t always have a friend, somebody that will that you’ve made a pact with one another, whether it’s a spoken pact or an unspoken pact, that you will always pick up when the other person calls. And the reason that this is has been impressed upon me so much recently is because it is exactly a year, Stuart, since I ended up in the emergency room. And how awful would it have been to have gone to my doctor and they’re sending me straight to the emergency room. I’m driving myself and if I had tried to call people and they just didn’t answer their phone, you know, I could have tried calling three, four people or whatever. But I answered but Stuart answered, Stuart answered and my bestie answered who’s also a a doctor. So that was that was very valuable. So, if you don’t already have someone who is so reliable that you can always count on them to pick up, then find someone. Make a pact with someone. So, in the event you have an emergency, whether it’s an emotional emergency or perhaps a physical one, that you know that if they don’t pick up immediately, they will do it as soon as they notice that you have reached out. Well, boy, this is the part that I have just been dying to get to, or the stage I’ve been dying to get to, and that is where I am just putting and puttering in the backyard, staging stuff, putting stuff where I want it to go, deciding where I want it to go, and I’m certainly not finished, but definitely the the process has begun. Um, before I go any further, a lot of you are still going to ask me about this cleanout valve, and I just haven’t gotten around to do anything about it. Um, I’ve that’s a not fun thing to have to do and I’d prefer to do the fun stuff or at least things I think are fun stuff. So, um, I’ve dawned my my work apron. I know a lot of you guys are probably going to ask where I got it and we’ll try to provide a link. And as always, uh, always a little luxury is to have a really good pair of cool job gloves. You guys know I love them and these are very autuminal. So, for this job, I am going to put on my work gloves. And here’s what we’re going to do. So, you may recall that, and I still have some of them over here. This is where I had all of my terracotta pots stored. Now, as kind of a I don’t know that if it’s a it’s a signature. What’s that? Waving in the window. Oh, you’re waving in the window. I don’t know that this is so much a signature touch because all of you guys do it, too. And so many of us are alike that we find terracotta inherently beautiful. And I definitely do and I love the way it looks. And I’ve just kind of had all of these stashed over here temporarily until I decided what I wanted to do with them. But I have decided what I’m going to do with them. And as always, I tried to shop my own stuff. Shop I shopped the garage. I shopped around to see how I could store them in a way that would be easily accessible where I could reuse something that I already had and that would be good-looking. So, here we go, Stuart. So, I’m I’m over here and I’m going to be relocating these terracotta pots. And here’s where I’m taking them. So, let’s do a distant shot first. And you can see that over here against the neighboring fence. that. By the way, I have decided not to paint. I like the fact that it is just naturally rustic gray and I’ve decided not to paint it. Likewise, I am not going to in any way modify this old bookshelf. Now, if you go back and you look at any of our videos where we did some kind of filming in the office in the back, Stuart recognized it immediately. This was in the office, the studio in the back at the at the other house. Recently, it’s been in the garage just as a shelf for storage, but I thought, wait a minute, it’s exactly the same size and it would fit perfectly in between these vertical posts here and it would be a beautiful backdrop for this area. Do you agree, Leah? Now, will these age and will these also turn gray? Yes, they will. And it will match the gray of the fence and I will like that. And if they do rot over time, that’s okay. I’ll just replace the boards because this is rot iron, which also echoes some different rot iron things that I have in the back. So now I am just playing and styling putting my putting my terracotta pots like with like. And this one I got this one in Ireland. That was back before. That was a very very long time ago. Um, a little happy happy memory. And then I’ve just got lots of terracotta pots and I’ve got some Italian clay pots and uh just like I say, just kind of a hodgepodge of pots. So, I’m going to put these over here. And this is for this is for fall storage. And I do know that I’ll probably have to in some way modify this for winter. Um, but I think that they are it’s just like I say, it’s just inherently good-looking. So, I am going to put the rest of the pots. I like this one. You like that? Ain’t that one cute? I can’t remember where I got that one. Um, and these are great for sometimes if I’m doing a tablescape and I want to have individual little plants like say a little pansy or um a little tuft of lettuce at each individual place than place setting then I can use these little pots and they’re great for seed starting and things. But mostly they’re just cute I think. So Stuart, let’s speed this up a little bit so that we don’t take everyone’s entire afternoon, Saturday afternoon. And I’m going to move the the rest of those pots over here because um because I have a table coming for this spot underneath the windows. And I am So I’m kind of cleaning doing two things simultaneously. I’m cleaning up this space and I am staging all of the terracotta over there. And then I can have just like a workt or something that I can use on this little brick platform which will be expanded some. Nothing is ever completely finished. So Stuart, let’s say we speed it up. [Music] down. Hey [Music] [Music] Okay. I think it looks pretty cute. Leah, what do you think? Love it. Let’s add some pumpkins. Okay. So, there’s a couple a couple of other things I’m going to do. You’ll notice that we put pavers which were just wide enough underneath the rot iron feet and that will keep them from sinking in. And what I’ll do is once everything’s in place, then I’ll come back in with some of my signature mulch, a little bit of gravel, cover these up so they will just virtually disappear. And the other thing that I like about having the terracotta display like this, it’s easy. It will be very very accessible for me. As you know, this whole area is just kind of a transient place. It will come and go. Stuff will move in and out. Um, and I can easily set up like a little table right here, a little potting table right here that I can I can pot something that again I’ll set up and I will take down. I’ve got all these nearby. I’ve got my my composter, which I don’t care. I think it’s cute. I don’t care if my compost tumbler is over there. And by the way, it’s a mantis. and I’ll try to put a a link to it. But now Leah told me that it needs a pop of a pop of color. So she went and harvested. Well, you can you’ve decided they needed a pop of color. So how cute is this that you can also just you know you can just seasonally stage it and you can just put we can put little gourds wherever we want them. Now it will also be cute. I think it’ll also be cute at Christmas time because just look at this sweet little touch. Cute. I just saw those little juniper berries that had broken off of the tree overhead and I thought, “Oh, how cute is that?” So, we will also be able to seasonally kind of stage these. Have some little evergreens in here. I can have shade loving plants like a plant hospital, my bird’s nest fern up there. And I think it looks I think it’s cute. I think it’s a really nice backdrop. I was able to use something that I already had, which is always wonderful for two different reasons. One, I’m using what I have, which is economic. But two, I don’t have to go anywhere to find it. I don’t even have to look online. I just found it. This is a Pottery Barn piece from a million years ago, and I think it looks great there. And when we finish completely jujuzing this, uh, we’ll show it all to you. I guess we need to do once we get everything done next week, we need to do an entire fall tour of the backyard. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Okay, I liked this so much and I especially liked it on this most recent fishing trip. I bought four of them primarily because I knew as soon as I got one, hubs would want one and I’ve given two of them as gifts and they are called Betatong chargers. They come in this handy little carrying kit and they’re not too expensive. But what I like about them is that they are two-fold chargers. So they not only can charge your phone, but they also can charge your watch. And I don’t like having to take all of those different kinds of chargers. And sometimes like the charger for an eyewatch is kind of expensive, Leah, and to have multiples of them can be kind of kind of a problem. So this way you can get this charger. I think it’s kind of sleek looking. And so you can see here. Yeah. You can see the silhouette where your eyewatch goes. And then at the bottom, don’t have to have a cable. You don’t even have to have a cable. It just pulls out and you can then charge your phone. And then it just tucks right back in there into the bottom of it. And then you charge um the battery charger itself just by plugging it in with a USBC plug that I do in my charging station. But I had this all weekend long. It charged my it charged my watch. It charged my phone. And what I like is it’s very sleek. I think it’s kind of goodlooking. It’s kind of got this brown leather look. Um and you just tuck it in. Like I say, it’s sleek. It comes in a little handy storage case and I just slip it into my bag, into my purse, and it works really, really well. I I got one for a friend recently for her birthday. I’ve had one for a while. I got one for hubs and then I also got one for my son as a stocking stuffer. He doesn’t know yet. So, I really highly recommend these. Um, they just are one of those things that’s goodlooking and solves a problem. But wait, there is one more thing I wanted to tell you about. As a response to so many viewers comments, I showed I can’t remember what video it was in, but a glass flower frog that a friend had gifted to me. And yes, you can sometimes get those at vintage stores and different places. I could not find a link for a glass flower frog, but I have a couple of these. These are plastic, but basically they do the same thing. They are clear and would pretty much just disappear in the bottom of a glass vase. They’re not expensive. These would make great little stocking stuffers, too, don’t you think? Yep. Well, there are things that are little life luxuries, and then there are things that are life necessities. Stuart and Hubs have been on me to order some security cameras, and I I finally have gotten around to doing it. Stuart is going to help me help me hang them and set them up. Stewart. Um, and this one is on deep discount now. I showed it on my Instagram because when I was hunting for them, I noted that it was 55% off. It was originally $200 and Leah, was it $89? I think that it’s on sale for right now. I got multiples of them. This is a brand called Yui EU FY by Anchor. And it is both um a motion oper or motion detector and flood light and camera with AI. And I think it will be just the t ticket for me. It will really record any kind of nefarious activity around the house. But more importantly, it is motion activated, which is also a good thing if we are coming and going at night and we need additional illumination. So I think this is really important. is not prohibitively expensive. And if you have a good friend that will help you set it up, then I highly encourage it because I think the greatest luxury of all is to feel safe. Well, when we moved to the Cottage on the Hill, I transitioned from just a big coffee pot maker to individual cup makers. I bought myself a carriage. It was black and it just made one cup at a time and it was perfect for us. Stuart, you guys, Leah, you guys like it. You’d come in and I had kind of a coffee bar and you would make your own cup of coffee. And each cup of coffee, yes, was delicious. But I relocated my coffee bar over here. Partly, I think it was at Leah’s suggestion. She said it would be easier to have it over here near the water, um, near the coffee cups, things like that. And I approved and did. But then from a distance, I noticed that I really didn’t like the black coffee maker. I really wanted something that would harmonize and just kind of blend in. And I wanted a white one. But then I thought, well, that was kind of wasteful. What do I do with the black one? Well, hubs to the rescue. When I told him I was thinking about it, he said, “Well, I will take that with me when I go on my adventures because I can just plug it into one of my batteries and then I will have fresh coffee in the morning.” And I thought, “Okay, that was smart.” And it’s just a one cup coffee maker, so we can take it when we camp or things like that. This one I like, and it truly is a little luxury because not only is it white, which was primarily my reason for getting it, but it holds more than just uh uh one cup of water. Yeah. So, you can make multiple cups of water before you have to refill it. And I really like that. I used to have a basket here that I had my K Cups in and it just was one more piece of clutter. And so I saw that as a companion. It had these Storage Genie Kup pod holders that just with adhesive just attached to the coffee maker itself. So it really is it really is streamlined. It’s easy. I just have my coffee set up here. Um, and it just works really, really well. So, for me, this was really a little life luxury that I decided to treat myself to. And it would be really fun if you got this. I think it comes in other really fun colors, too. So, if if you want to kind of up alling today, if you want to juzj up your kitchen with a colorful carriage, then I would recommend it. Now, I’m going to tell you about these again because this these have been so so helpful and so many of you have told me that you too have found them indispensable. And these are these motion activated lights. They’re just strip lights and there are little clasps that adhere. Shine a light up there so you can see. There you go. Yeah. Duh. That Yeah, duh. That’s actually what it does. Um, but they just with via adhesive, they just attach to underneath your cabinet and they come on and they come off. You can leave them on continually, but I have mine motion activated. And you notice that as long as I’m over here, it stays on. What I found are these are not only um they are just so practical and so helpful but I think in power outages which we’ve had a couple of recently that they really are indispensable and very very valuable. So as always I will provide the links below um if you are interested in these little life luxuries. Well, to me, the most luxurious things are things that make my life more beautiful and that are very, very practical. And this falls into that category. It is a an outlet protective cover. And what it does, I think first of all, let me describe a little bit of a hack. So, inside these baskets in my kitchen is where I keep my modem. It’s where I keep one of my Sonos because I just don’t like all of those u those appliancy kind of things to be out where you can see them. But obviously the weave of the basket is open enough and so the signal and the music can penetrate it. But look here. So if we look behind this cart, this is what I’m talking about. This is a socket cover and it goes flat. So it’s got a number of advantages. Number one, if you had a regular outlet right here and you had different kinds of plugs that projected out from the outlet, if you had a piece of furniture, it would be very difficult to be able to put it flat against the wall. So, first of all, that solves that problem. The other thing is is it just covers it up. It makes it look more streamlined. And then Stuart, here’s where we need to put a picture um from the website. It it comes down via this cord, which for me is then hidden in this basket. And then it’s got um it’s got an outlet. Uh what’s it called when there’s multiple outlets? Oh, like a power strip. Yeah, it almost looks like a power strip. And you can plug in multiple things simultaneously, but you don’t have all of those things jutting out from the wall. I liked the first one that I bought so much that I have bought two more of them. I think they’re like $23, which is a little bit more expensive than I would have thought, but they are just they they just really solve so many problems that I think they’re worth every cent. So, I got one for behind my big TV in the kitchen, and I also got one for my charging station in the laundry room where I really needed those two edges to sit flat against the wall. So, if you’ve got this issue and you want things to just be a little less unsightly, I just I I can’t wait to live in a world that’s cordless. But until then, this might solve a problem for you. Well, I’m sure you guys are wanting to know about this statuesque carolina sapphire cyprus. It is a beauty. And if there’s any one signature touch I think that’s associated with Linda, it would be topiary. So, I found this amazing kind of a hidden gem called uh what’s the name of it? Sherams. Sherams. Sheram’s Garden Center. Excuse me. Forgive me. Sharham’s Garden Center. It’s just north of Fagatville. And they had the most amazing stuff, you guys. It is definitely a destination. I will be going back. Not only did they have lots of different kinds of topiary, but they had a boxwood inventory that was simply breathtaking. So many different kinds of boxwood, so many different sizes, scale, shapes, varieties, and there were so so healthy. And more importantly, oh my gosh, the price point was just incredible. But this one right now needed to come home with me. Now, she may not stay here. She’s a triple poodle ball-shaped uh standard. She may not stay here. I’m not sure where where she will move. Probably I will plant her in this pot. Again, I’m not sure. This is a a pretty heavy gal and and but she probably will be relocated someplace else. I’m not sure. But she is in that color that I am obsessed with right now. And it is this beautiful bluish bluish gray which I think looks great in this in this entire area. Now Stuart, let’s not forget in this vantage point right here to do a before picture of what this looked like when we first moved in, what it looked like when this was nothing but a junk pile and kind of what it looks like now. There are still some things over here that I’ll be messing with. Um, the cadence of the of the stepping stones isn’t exactly right, but I don’t really care because this soil isn’t stuff that number one is muddy and number two that I’m worried about compressing because it’s not areas that I’m really cultivating. It’s just basically passage area like if I had an expansive gravel. So, that’s what I’m thinking of over here. Somebody made the suggestion that I cut this off evenly and that I use it as a plant stand. Brilliant idea. I will definitely be doing that. Uh this is a little bit much for me to use a chainsaw on. So I’ll have I will have an expert do that. Cut this off flat and then I’ll have some kind of shade loving plant that is staged here. I also adorned my new pot display with a couple of these lanterns that have these uh solar operated tea lightss in here. They will come on automatically in the dark and I think this whole area will be really really charming. I still have to get up my outdoor string lights. Uh I still have some other things going on. Uh but again those are just those are justing elements that will come over time. The really hard work has already been done. I do want to introduce you to one more blue gray topiary that I got at um at Sherams and it is a blue chip juniper and I think it is just as just as cute as can be. Just really really cute. uniqueness to it. It does. And I put it in in this wonderful galvanized ridge planter. I got that at Gardener Supply years and years ago. I have it in two different sizes. I have a question. Yes. If they can hear me. Is this normal for this to have a one that kind of comes down? Yeah, it’s kind of a it’s kind of Yeah, that’s it. Yeah, that’s it form. It’s kind of a weeping form. And I think it looks so pretty with his blueoint juniper over here. And I still have to do a little bit of work on the Japanese maple. But again, these are all things that I am anxious to do that I will have fun doing. Staging, puffing. Um, I’ve got a a kale mum and pumpkin and gourd display that I’m going to going to be working on out here. And it will be pleasant work. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow while I’m listening to a football game. So now you see over here I have pretty much cleared out this space. It looks clean. It looks uncluttered. I am going to be using these or at least this one in one of my raised beds in the back. I’ll be relocating this. Uh Leah, I think we need to find a pumpkin to sit in here. Don’t you? I think that would be very fun. So I will be moving this table. I’m not sure where, but I will be relocating it. And then I will have a sideboard table. This will all be very clean, very uncluttered. And pretty soon, Leah, we’re gonna be ready for a dinner party out here. I think actually my first dinner party, though, is going to be the family that lives across the street. Yeah, I I think so. Um, but that remains to be seen. Right now, you guys just enjoy this beautiful afternoon. I hear people starting to crank up their tunes as they get outside. So, have a great Saturday. Thank you for hanging in there with me. Please remember all of the people around the world in Libya, in Morocco that might need our help. Help as much as you can and be kind to one another. We’ll see you later. [Music] So, I’m having my neighbors across the street, uh, Matt and Jenny and the two girls, Elsie and Bonnie, over for dinner tonight. We’re going to eat outside. So, I came outside to get ready to set my table and everything. And now I’m cleaning up a mess. I’m cleaning up where the squirrels have dug. I am just going to be do a doing a little bit of jujuzing while I am out here. So, what do you say? Let’s get started. I’ve got pot roast on the menu. Pot roast and a ramen green salad. Um some sourdough bread and maybe a peach pie and ice cream for dessert. So, I’m going to get going. I’ve got a lot to ready before my guests arrive. [Music] [Music] Okay. So, one thing that I did during my sbatical that I am definitely going to try to continue now that I am not in my sbatical anymore and that is entertaining. So, for a long time, I have wanted to have my friends, the Hicks that live across the street, and their two darling girls over for a dinner party outside. And finally, we have been able to arrange all of our schedules so that we indeed could do that. So, I have dawned my apron, compliments of a follower friend, Angie. I keep her note in the pocket of this cute little apron. Um, but I wanted to share with you what was on my menu. So, I’ve got a number of things that I have to do today. As always, like you, I’m busy. So, I wanted something that was very, very easy. And enter this crockpot chuck pot roast plus vegetables recipe from my daughter-in-law, Taylor. She sent it to me. She said she has made it before, that it was absolutely wonderful. It’s got carrots, it’s got potatoes, garlic, onions, some spices. But most importantly, you just put it on. I think you’ve got at the most the only thing that needs to be chopped in terms of prep is the yellow onion that you just throw in there and then you put everything else. You just dump it into the slow cooker. And I actually borrowed this crock pot from a friend of mine because I don’t use it very often. And so that keeps me I think that’s an that’s a tip. If you don’t want to store large appliances, large small appro appliances that take up Yeah. they take up lots of pantry space, then just, you know, share it with somebody else. That way, you only have to buy it once. So, it looks and smells delicious, I must say. And it is extremely one pot, I will then after it cooks for 8 hours, I’ll just have to put it on a big platter and serve it with some delicious sourdough bread. Love baguette, lots of delicious butter, of course. I’m gonna make a great big ramen greens salad that uh was something that I had when I went over to my friend Deborah’s the other night on Labor Day and it’s a just basically a staple thing that she uses when she entertains. So, I’m going to make that not with greens, but I’m going to be making it with this exquisite, as you said, beautiful purple napa cabbage. You can get this in green or purple, but the woman at Whole Foods told my husband that she really thought that the red was more flavorful. So, I’m going to be using that with some spring greens. You put in lots of green onions, some ramen noodles, some sliced blanch almonds, you know, and obviously lots of deliciousness in the way of different kinds of herbs and things. So, I’m going to be preparing that. I will share that recipe with you as well. So, it couldn’t be easier. So, one pot crockot meal, some sourdough bread, a large salad, and then for dessert, it’s going to be pretty much whatever Hubs finds at the grocery store. I’ve requested a peach pie and vanilla ice cream, but we’ll see what he comes up with. What I love about this is it’s so easy. It doesn’t take any time at all. And that gives me a little bit uh oh, just a little bit more leeway to set a really pretty table outside. That’s easy, too. But nevertheless, I always like my guests to feel as if I went to a little bit of bother for them. Not too much, but a little bit of bother for them so that they know how special they are to me. And because quite frankly, it’s a very selfish motivation. It’s fun for me. and hopefully it’s fun for you to see what kind of tablescape we come up with. So that’s what’s on the mini for for tonight. We’ll put all of the links and the recipes, etc., etc., etc. in the description box below, and I will let you know how it turns out and see if my daughter-in-law Tay was indeed spot on in her assessment of this recipe. [Music] Do [Music] you? [Music] Well, I have covered my little darlings with gravel so the squirrels can’t get into them. I’m about out of gravel and I’ve got a few more to top dress. But I’ve watered everything out here. And by the way, we have so many new subscribers. So, let me just share with you because some of you may be thinking, “Oh my goodness, she was using Miracle Grow.” And I do. I use Miracle Grow in my container plantings in my pots. I use it for my topiaries. I don’t use it as an inbed fertilizer. Um though sometimes I’ll use it in a very targeted way in the spring to just get my pansies going. But 99% of the time I use stuff that is organic. So you can see that some of my topiaries they’re they’re in need of a little attention. So, I think there’s probably some kind of day of clipping in my future, but for right now, I’ve gotten everything watered. Um, I might harvest a little bit because finally, I figured out an issue that I had in my planter boxes. Well, actually, a couple of issues. Number one, I just couldn’t keep enough water in them. And it was because we really needed to adj adjust the drip system that’s in here. So these have little drip heads. You can see the wire here. You can see the drip heads. And it just wasn’t smell. Yes. And you can smell it. And And so now my parsley, my sage, my basil, my chard, everything that’s in here, these are pretty much all herbs. They are doing so much better. Now, something else that I noticed and that I’m going to remedy this winter is that unlike the one that’s under the garage window, these we just put in a barrier of dark plastic that we stapled to the exterior of these planter boxes. And I really don’t think that’s going to be sufficient to keep them from w from rotting. So, what we’re going to do is I’m going to have some of those metal liners. Kayla is going to make them for me. Kayla is my go-to uh person that helps me in the garden and she’s going to have some made for me and that will really increase the lifespan of these raised beds. I got these off of Amazon and then we just stained them to match the fence and I really love the way they look. So, you can see that my peppers over here are also doing a lot better. I’ve got a number of them that I need to harvest. And over here, I’ve got rosemary. Even my nesters have perked up and typically they’re looking really bad this time of year. But even though they were flailing some, I left them in place. I kind of groomed them a little bit. Look how cool it is. The water sits right in the middle. Oh, I know. I just love that. And the other thing is that these will probably bloom as it gets a little bit cooler. So, I’ve got that. I’ve got lots of boxwood basil in here, purple dome basil, some ornamental peppers, and I’ll probably be adding a few more ornamental peppers, and Mr. Chive is growing up through the ornamental peppers. So, these are some things that I’ll probably be clipping from for my salad later this evening. And that was indeed what my vision was, was to be able to come here to my outdoor patio, my outdoor living room, and be able to cut some things that would be fresh for my dinner table or for my table um my entertaining table as I invite friends over to dinner. [Music] Ooh, hey. Okay. When I am entertaining outside, I want it to look beautiful, of course, but I also want it to have a certain degree of simplicity and I also want it to be kind of practical. And by practical, I mean that there might be a breeze. And if I have candles lit, I don’t want the candles to blow out. Um, I like to set my table early. And so, I want to make sure that if I set it early, I somehow have to protect it from the elements until we dine that night. Um, but that said, let’s set the table and you’ll just kind of see the different components of it and how it all comes together and kind of hopefully matches the vibe I’ve got out here. Okay, now for the fun part. Let’s set a pretty table and we’ll kind of try to deconstruct it for you to see how I’m putting it on and what dishes that I have chosen. And this is going to be easy peasy because there’s only going to be six of us. We can easily fit around this table. I don’t have to have any additional seating for additional guests, at least not at this point. But there’s always somebody that arrives to join the party on occasion. So, let’s get started. [Music] Down. Down. [Music] Okay, so a couple of tips. Some of you may have wondered what that first layer was that I put underneath here. And what it was was just a thick piece of felt that I had cut according to the table size. Now, I’ve had this piece for years. You can actually buy this. It’s a real thing. It’s called a silencer. Yeah, it’s called it’s called a silencer, like on a gun. Um I can remember my grandmother used to have them on her tables, on her oval tables. So, they obviously was more of a thing maybe back back when than it is now. But I use lots of tablecloths and I like there to be a little bit of a cushion. So nice underneath. It’s a little luxury and an inexpensive luxury at that. Now there is um I think there is also a little bit of artistry to putting on a tablecloth and that is it helps to have two people. But what you can do is just look for the midsection of whatever the tablecloth is. And that way you can position it a little bit because once that silencer is down, it’s sometimes difficult for me to position. Maybe not for you because you’re smarter than I. Um, but it makes it a little bit difficult to adjust it even slightly. So, I think that’s going to be fine. Now, this tablecloth is pressed. Do I always have pressed tablecloths as many times as I use linens? No, I do not. A lot of times I will just hang them up after they come out of the dryer. I will kind of hand iron them a little bit and then once I get them on the table, this is a secret of adulthood. Uh according to or as Gretch and Rubin would say, it’s a secret to adulthood. I just get a spray bottle of water, spray it on, and then do this. I have done it many times before. Stuart is nodding his head. I forgotten that’s what you did, but yes. Yes. It’s just it’s just a little entertaining hack and that way that’s good enough. Sometimes I want it to be a little bit rustic. I want it to little look a little bit natural and like I didn’t try too hard. But in this case, I love these linens. I got them years ago. I couldn’t tell you where I got them. They come with matching napkins, which I think is kind of fun. But I also like these because they match my outdoor colors. So, increasingly I’ll be using the things in my linen closet and we can maybe drop in where I store my linens right here, Stuart, where I I get them um where I store them and where I just got these. Um and I I can then grab them and put them out here. And I’m using many more colors in this kind of color palette here than in oh say more romantic colors that I might use if I were in the front yard which is more pinks and greens and whites. This out here looks like I’m missing a napkin. Um but this out here is more of these colors and I like them because they’re very very late summer. Okay, so let’s set the table. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] Well, the favorite part of any dinner party is when all the work has been done and you’re just savoring those last few moments right before your guests arrive. In this case, I’m not nervous at all. These are my friends from across the street. If things aren’t perfect, if things aren’t ready when they get here, they will not mind. Actually, they will pitch in. So, here are just a few things that I probably want to mention from that practical standpoint that I alluded to earlier. I love these little terracotta votives. They are set inside these glass carffs. And why? Mostly because if we have a breeze, the candles always blow out. It’s a problem. And this way it kind of protects them. And actually, Stuart, I want you to look over here. I intentionally left this wick a little bit long on this side. Okay, there’s that side. Yeah, you can see it. And then on this side, you can see how the black smoke coming above right here. Okay, the black smoke coming above and how it’s starting to mar the outside of the glass. Oh, you definitely see it. Yeah. Okay. So, what I’m going to do now that I’ve demonstrated that is I’m going to blow that out and I will come back and I will trim that wick because that is what was making it do that kind of questionable thing of sending up black smoke. Okay? So, shorten the wick and that really won’t be a problem. What might be a problem, however, and I want to mitigate that as well are flies. So, I have these little fly swatters and once we’re getting ready to sit down and we will put a link to these fly swatters. They’re battery operated and you just set them by the table. Well, now I’m not sure this is exactly where they will go, but when my guests arrive, when we’re getting ready to sit down, when the wine glasses and the water glasses are full, I will remove the centerpiece and then I will appropriately station these where we think they need to be based on fly activity. Show them how they don’t hurt if you get touched. Like, it’s not a thing. Yeah, it’s not a thing at all. Yeah. Yeah. It just knocks a fly away, right? There’s some kind of I don’t know, kind of piece of just lightweight cellophane or something. Okay. Another another thing that I like to do, I like to just have carffes. And in this case, these are old wine bottles. You guys saw these last season. I just love the color of these bottles because they went with the color of my glassear. And we will also link these, but I just took the labels off. Yeah, I love these. And why I like them is, and you see this kind of glassware everywhere. It’s very popular now. You can get it in all sorts of different colors. But why I think it’s so popular is in addition to the complexity of the surface of the glass itself, it also doesn’t slip at all at all because you can get good grip on them and they’re just kind of fun. Okay, so now I can turn all of these over because we’re about to eat pretty soon. If there is uh an interloper, if there’s a little spider or there’s a little fly or something, the solution to that is you just blow it out or you go like that and it comes out. We don’t stress about that kind of stuff. This is outdoor glamping. It’s not camping. It’s outdoor glamping. Okay. So, I have water bottles here filled with filtered chilled water. And I can replenish these because I’ve got backups in the refrigerator. And this is kind of just nice because we can just reach for them on the dinner table and it’s chilled and they look better than if you just had, I don’t know, just a picture of water or something like that. So, I kind of like that. Also, I have noticed increasingly people don’t like having ice in their drink. So, it’s kind of nice to have just chilled water on the table or they can put ice in their own glass or I can put it in for them and then they can just replenish it. No centerpiece is easier than just taking a topiary off of your topiary stand, plopping it down in the middle of the table, and voila, you have a statement making centerpiece. So, when we get ready to dine, this will be removed. And then there will be space for the additional things that will be on the table. And what will that be? It will be a basket with my baguette. It will be some butter. I’ve already got salt and pepper on the table. And then we’ll have gl bottles of wine for those who choose to have a kind of a little spirited beverage with their dinner. And of course, then we already have water. Typically, um, if I can, I like to set up the food on the sideboard out here, but I’m not going to do that today. I’m going to leave that inside partly because of flies. That way, everybody can kind of make their plate and they can bring it out here. by themselves. Obviously, if I had people who had trouble navigating the steps or whatever, we would take that into account. Someone would bring their plate down for them. But in this case, everybody is younger than Wah. And and the two darling gals, uh the daughters of the couple across the street, they are far younger than me, which is one of the reasons they’ve been invited invited because I absolutely adore them. A couple of other things. If it gets cool enough and we can have an outdoor fire in my solo fireplace. This is Hub’s job. So, Hubs has the fire ready to go. I have fire starters that are in my entertainment cabinet outside, aka aka a Home Depot shed that we painted. Um, you can we’ll we’ll show you a glimpse of that later. Maybe put a still up here. So, and of course a link if you’re interested. And then we just we can just like this. All we have to do is torque these chairs around and we can all sit around the fire. Now, what you do not hear is the music that comes out. If you can swing around and you can see the windows that are open into the great room in the back where there are speakers sitting in the window. We don’t have outdoor speakers here, but we don’t need them. You don’t need them, do you? because what is on the sound system just comes out comes out those windows and we can hear it outside and also we don’t want to get a violation and a strike from YouTube that we are indiscriminately using music that we do not have permission to use. So, there’s a couple of plants here that we might show you that um I my neighbors have had questions about in the past, particularly the platinum beauty landra. Stuart, let’s right here, let’s put up a still of that platinum beauty landra with a link because it’s one of the plants I get so so many questions about. So, pretty soon as the light goes down, as the sun begins to set, my solar string lights above, those will automatically come on, as will other solar or solar operated lanterns and such that I have positioned in and around the garden, but it’s not dark enough yet for them to come on. I was following the squirrel. Yeah, you’re following a squirrel and there are always unexpected guests. Um, sometimes unwelcome party crashers, if you will, that show up at the cottage on the hill. So, we’ll show you a few night scenes. I’m going to wrap it up now, but we’ll show you a few night scenes and some candid shots with my neighbors that I just adore. We have become good friends. Even though I have only lived here at the cottage for a year and a half, we have each other’s backs. So, if I sense something that’s not quite right, I go over and tell them and vice versa. And it works. It just works great. And I just feel very secure knowing that they’re right across the street. So, thank you, Matt and Jenny and Bonnie and Elsie. Um, and the sourdough bread that sometimes Matt brings over to me. I know. Now, that that is going to be my last tip. That is going to be my last tip. If you are moving, if you are relocating, make sure that you move to a cottage that has a neighbor across the street that will bake you homemade sourdough bread. Don’t worry about the school district. Just worry about the neighbor. Just worry about the neighbor and the sourdough bread. So, bonap petit, we are ready for some pot roast, for some salad, for some baguette, for what I thought was going to be peach pie, but but hubs got whatever he could find, so it’s a surprise. I did not bake it. um and some ice cream. So, I wish you guys were here to join me. Uh since you’re not, just en just enjoy everything vicariously and take care. Okay, and that’s a wrap of our inaugural episode of the January 15th season. I have Suzu here, Steuart’s mom, who’s been helping out with some things. So, now let’s drink. [Laughter] [Music] The table has been cleared. The neighbors have gone home. That’s their home right across the street. It was a glorious evening. The weather was so lovely, as was the company. I just adore my neighbors. Such a fun thing to do, especially the girls. So, now it’s just me and the crickets and the candle light and an occasional occasional flare of fireworks. Something is going on downtown. Thank you so much for hanging out with me this evening and I hope you enjoyed the first video of our season for 2024. Good night everyone. Well, as promised today on the garden live, we are going to talk about my plans for the backyard. Finally, my thoughts uh certain practical matters kind of all came together. So now I do have a vision of what I am going to do and happily we’ll be able to start pretty soon. So what do you say Stuart? Let’s do it. Let’s do it. [Music] Well, I told Stuart, I said, I’m going to kind of stand in the shade here as I describe some things and let him walk around in the sun because there is Well, the sun today is is pretty brutal. Nevertheless, we have kind of a nice breeze and we’ve gotten so much rain. I just lot of rain. Thank you. I am just so so appreciative because without this good rain, this garden would not be able to get established and even the things here in the backyard that are just all in a state of chaos are definitely thriving on the additional rain. So, I think I told you that my what I wanted out of this back space was an outdoor living room. And I think what I was trying to do was force things upon it that were outside the kind of mission of having an outdoor living space, an outdoor living room. So, I’ve come to terms with a number of different things. I think I told you that I decided not to have a greenhouse. And once I decided on that, I really felt like I wasn’t anymore trying to put um a square block in a round hole. Yep. And so because of that, it kind of came together. So here is um here is kind of what I have in mind. And next week, I think we’re going to be starting on the steps, laying the new steps. We’re going to also be starting shortly after that on the brick patio. So, I’m going to let me let me think through this. Let’s start here because when one piece was was falling into place, then another piece fell into place. And I I’ve kind of alluded to this in the past. So, you know, you kind of know that it has been an evolving thing. It didn’t just happen all at once. So, the first decision point was what about the steps? What configuration did I want to have? and what material did I want to make up the steps? And here’s what I decided on. So, this edge will remain a straight edge right here, but the top landing and Stuart, I don’t know if you’ll be able to see them, but the stop land the top landing will come all the way out to here. You can see right now it’s where it stops. So, you’re saying that that whole top area will extend? This whole top area, my landing pad will come all the way out to where my foot is now, a good another 24 in because I really wanted this to be very, very spacious. But it will be straight on this side. It will be the surface um and the treads will be made out of concrete which will be tinted to complement the brick. And then the risers of the treads will be in brick so that the whole thing will kind of match and look good together. And you can see here that there is some brick. So we’ll we’ll do our best to reuse some of that. But we’ll demolish these steps. Did you have a reference point for the what you are what your what this is going to look like or just all in your head? Uh it’s in my head and then Kayla came over and we took some spray paint and we got our dimensions and this is what we came up with. And I don’t know, I may or may not by the time we put this up tomorrow, I may or may not have a drawing of this. We’ll just we’ll have to see about that. But in my head, I now know what it’s going to look like. Well, we had so much fun last night at Rogers uh studio showing of all of his amazing pottery. Sadly, it was all sold out by the time I got there. And I got there as soon as it opened. So, any reservations he had that nobody would buy his stuff were completely unfounded. In fact, there are a lot of us left disappointed. But nevertheless, we are now on his list to make more. It was so much fun. Thank you, Roger. Thank you, all the wonderful people that we met last night. So, on this side over here, it’s going to be straight. So, there will be a railing on this side. And the nice thing is there will be enough space on this side just like there was at my old house. There’ll be um enough room for me to put my log holder here so that in the winter time I can just open the door and I can come right out here like I did on the other porch and access my firewood. So that was kind of an imperative to me. That’s a nice thing to remember. Yeah, it is definitely a nice thing to remember. So the landing will be a lot bigger and the treads will be a lot shorter. So right now they are almost 7 in and they’re going to be about 5 and 1/2 in once we get finished. So these steps wait you said the treads the tread or the height of the treads. Okay. Or the height of the steps I should say rather the tread is the horizontal section. The vertical section will be about five and a half inches. So thank you for keeping me honest. The steps then will come the top layer will come to about here. Just ignore all of my mess. And then they’ll be three steps down. And those steps will end up here. And they will be rounded. So they’ll come out here. Oh, I’m starting to see it. They’ll be rounded around like this. And kind of like the old place. Kind of like the old place. Up here. And there’ll be a straight edge. Wow. And then here along here there will be some plantings to kind of to soften it a little bit so they can finally I think I finally got a good shot where they can really see the purple line. You just see the purple lines and I think you can see it a lot better. So this is the bottom of the steps. Right now there’s just this hideous little piece of concrete. So then we’ll have stepping stones or or something that will match the brick that will then go to the garage. What are you giggling at, St. I realize sometimes I can say things to the audience while you’re talking and you don’t even know and I don’t even know. So, this goes into the garage and then there’ll be other stepping stones that go around to the side of the house because there is a concrete walk that goes out on the west side of the garage. So then if we need to bring in dirt, if we need to wheelbarrow anything in, anything that’s heavy furniture and things, you can come up this way without having to come through the garage and up the steps. There’s also around these old cedar trees, you can see that there is a border, kind of a a barrier of concrete that will be taken out. All of this will be leveled off. It’s kind of a curve, isn’t it? kind of a curve that will be taken out and leveled off. Then we’ll do I’ll do a surround a lattice work surround that will be circumscribed with boxwood around not only the air conditioner but also those utility boxes. So that is in the process of being of being designed right now. Then lots of soil amendment and dirt work will take place over here. And this is where I will be having some some plantings in the space between the bottom of the steps and this utilitarian area over here. This will either be like where my probably where the grill is. My compost tumbler will move and it will live someplace in an area that is not so visible from the rest of the backyard. And this will just be an easy soft area where I can have some a little bit more lush plantings in here. So this will be this will actually constitute the garden of the backyard because the rest of the space is going to be as I described an outdoor living room. Now, very happily and surprisingly, the casement windows that we ordered back in the spring, those are coming in next week. Oh, really? I know. Exciting. That is cool. So, we will be able to roll those open and have inside outside kind of an inside outside vibe. And I think it will just be really it will be really lovely. So now for the rest of the design so that it will kind of make sense. I think I told you that what I was envisioning was a large egg that was kind of lying on its long side right here. Right in the middle of the backyard. Do I see another purple line? Yes, there’s another purple line. You might want to come over here and look at it, Stuart. I can kind of see it. So it will it will lie on its long end and think as think of of an egg that’s symmetrical I guess but it will be a large oval and then within this oval will be an entire surface area of brick and those pavers in a herring bone pattern kind of like the pavers that I had in the front only they’ll be a different color. So this entire area will be a hardscape surface. Then the dining room table or the living room table where we’ll dine will be moved up this way a little bit because right here Stuart. So is that the whole oval the outer edge? So I’m going to walk. I’m kind of dressed up because I’ve got a place to go after. By the way, since you just mentioned it without going into an outfit of the day, I these are probably my favorite pants. Aren’t they? They’re fun, aren’t they? Yeah. Well, I Well, I’m kind of dressed up, so I’m not doing any yard work today. Just talking to you guys. Um, so I’m going to walk the area that’s going to be the flooring of the dining for the dining table and also some ancillary seating that’ll be on the other side. So, think So, here I am. I’m just walking. I think I see the other side doesn’t curve back around. It goes straight. critter. Actually, it does. So, it’s going to be a big oval like this. Okay, I see it. We just didn’t want to move a whole bunch of things to get to it. So, then it’ll come back up like this. And then that oval will be closed. So, the table will be here. In here, I’m going to relocate the like chairs, the chairs that are on the social patio that match these. Oh, here. Lattice work rowd iron chairs. Yeah, I was looking I started moving too far away. So, so the ones that match that are in the front, I’ll bring those back here and there’ll be a sitting area around in here where we’ll have a small mobile fire pit um that we can kind of relocate. And this will be kind of like a little seating area that will complement the dining area. The area that is around the perimeter of the flooring is going to be crushed gravel. And there will actually be very little planted in it. The only things that will be planted outside this oval. And this is this is what I call kind of a California outdoor living room vibe. So, I’m wanting it to be primarily in grays and with kind of Mediterranean plantings. So, right about in here, I’ll have a small tree, probably another yopan holly that looks or mimics the look of my olive trees. There may or may not be another one kind of over in this corner just to ground this space and make the area seem as if it’s continuous and each area is softened. And then they’ll probably be something similar also near the gate that accesses the back door. The rest the perimeter will all be crushed gravel. But on that crushed gravel will be some rectangular raised beds on stilts. So I’ll have probably four to six of them around here. They will be stained or in gray to coordinate with the fencing. They’ll be along in here and then I’ll be able to have my herbs, my edibles, some ornamentals, some of my container plantings. But this will just be like a surface area. So, think of it as a brick rug. Around the perimeter, it would be the hardwood flooring only it’s going to be gravel. And on that will rest the raised planters while I will grow my my veggies and things like my tomatoes and such. And then in other areas like behind you, Stuart, on this this area, which really won’t get quite enough light for me to grow vegetables, in between here is where I will have my plant terraces or my plant theaters for my angel wing beonas, some of my geraniums and things. So, I’ll have color back in here, some of my topiaries, and those will be staged in between these trees. this entire back of the fence. Are there more theaters than there were at the old house now? Uh, they’re just scattered. They’re just scattered around. Um, and along here, this will be where the raised beds are. And this is where I will grow stuff. I might grow stuff up the wall. I’m not really sure. But the first installation will be the brick. The brick, however, won’t go down until I get irrigation back here. But it’s going to be a very simple irrigation system that will consist almost in totality of just drip irrigation. And then I will have some drip lines that come up and feed into the raised beds. Stuart, if you come over here and I would have had this a little bit more organized for you guys, but it’s been raining so much I haven’t been able to get out here. You can kind of see that loosely. There’ll be a herring bone pattern. There will be a little bit of space in between the bricks just like I had at my other house. And then this isn’t the color of the paper I will use. They will be in kind of a a oh a tawnier color palette kind of brownish. And that will more I don’t know will blend in a little bit more. They won’t look quite so gray. And so this brick rug will pretty much hold everything, all of the outdoor furnishings, and then the other things will be on the perimeter. Now, this is kind of fun. So, if you envision this as my outdoor dining room and living room, then I want to be able because one of the things I want to do in the cottage is I told you I wanted to start entertaining more and this will be a perfect venue for that. So over here next to my cute little shed with the lanterns on them. With the lanterns on them now that that match perfectly quite well. Cute. Yeah. And oh, by the time people see this, they will see that these Oh, they have seen those. They will have seen these solar powered um solar powered votive candles. In case you missed it, go back and watch yesterday’s video. And here, this will also be a hardcaped area probably with pavers and gravel. And then I’m gonna have a mammoth table, some kind of mammoth table and sideboard over here where I can then have serve drinks. I can set up a buffet. I can set up all sorts of things right here. And it will be on this side on the north side. So, it will largely be in shade right underneath these charming windows and I’ll be able to access all sorts of things from from right here and access then the patio. So, I think it’ll be wonderful. So, the windows will be openable. Yes. With all that right outside the window. Right outside. So, they’ll be able to crank open. We’ll be able to uh see the fireplace inside. We’ll be able to hear whatever music is on. um toot toot toot will be able to feel the breeze from inside because for hubs it’s really important that they have um that he’s able to feel kind of the breeze on on his face. So that pretty much completes this area that’s circumscribed around my brick rub. Is that making sense, Stuart? More today than it has before today. More than it has in the past. So there will be things that are planted, but most of the things will be in raised bed containers that can then move in and out. My my um olive trees and things, they can move in and out. Some of them I might even do like I did with the eugenia topiaries in front, dig great big holes and just set them into the ground because I want them to get huge. And again, I want more of a Mediterranean vibe. Now, what I think I’m going to plant over here, we talked about gosh, we talked about a rose. We talked about all sorts of different things. And right now, I am thinking, and this this is subject to change. Right now, I am thinking this would be a great spot for me to have a really goodlooking rain barrel. So, I might have a good-looking rain barrel right here. I may plant this fabulous oakleaf hydrangea here. and crawl over and around the corner. So then around the edges, the base of these, I’ll do some more plantings. But that’s the easy stuff. That’s the stuff that I’m not going to worry about until it cools off in the fall. Right now, I just want the hardscaping in place. I want to get a really good feel for how this space will all fit together. And like I say, if the rains stop, they should be able to work on the steps next week. and the rest of it within the next two weeks. So, I might be lucky enough to actually have this outdoor room complete this fall and actually be able to enjoy this space and have my vision kind of kind of realized. All of the other different embellishments of things that I’ll plant and my color palette, all that will be revealed after this infrastructure gets in place. The bones are in place. So there you go. There is my garden design concept for my outdoor living room in the back. You guys have a great Sunday and I will see you on Wednesday. Well, welcome everyone to Signature Style Saturday. Today we’re going to discuss something. Well, let’s just say I have been wanting to do this for a long time. It has been an a lowgrade kind of annoyance to me. And since I’ve been a gardening fool this past week because the weather has just been so cool, so lovely, uh, I was able to get some gardening help. And well, let’s just say that I finally got to scratch that itch. And well, let me just show you what has been bothering me for a long time. But if you guys like this kind of information, if you like this kind of content, just make sure to hit the subscribe button. Okay, so my new pathway, a couple of changes. This is not what was bothering me, but I did change it anyway. And that is I had a couple of holl in these pots that just weren’t doing well. They’d pretty much been compromised. And I had two of these double boxwood uh topiary. One was in a garden bed and another one was in a pot. So, I was able to transplant one of them in here and another one in here. And think how fun this will be for my garden tour when I can adorn them with some small pumpkins and things. I love this pot. Which pot? Oh, that pot. Yeah, that that pot is pretty happy. Okay. Notice my pretty gravel. Notice that I am still waiting for this. I did get the hardware to hang the sail cloth and once it’s arrived, we’ll get that up. This is all still kind of messy, but keep following me and I will show you what I what has been bothering me. So, come this way. And you may not notice any difference, but I really did. What has been bothering me for a very long time is what the porch steps looked like. I had some evergreens in them, but the evergreens weren’t as full and as beautiful as I would have liked. Some of them were a little spindly. I didn’t think that the pots that I had were substantial enough to get the impact that I wanted on these steps. And I I think another thing that was kind of I had reservations about was I really needed to get some new pots. And I hesitate to ever do that anymore cuz I think to myself, Linda, you’re crazy. You have enough pots. But actually, I didn’t have enough to achieve the effect that I wanted to to achieve. So, definitely I will put a link to these pots right here. They look old. They look like they have patina on them, but more importantly, they’re a little bit larger. And I’ve got one, two, three, and then I’ve got a fourth one over there that match. So, when we come back, I’m going to talk a little bit more about why this was bothering me from a design standpoint and some other well, just some other clues that made me feel as if this just needed a little bit of a refresh and a rethinking. Well, today’s little fashion show is sponsored by a new sponsor for me, Spanx. Yes, that’s Spanx. that miraculous clothing line or underclo line that we all have relied on to keep our body parts in place, if you will. Well, now they have a clothing line. And I couldn’t be more excited for a number of different reasons, but one, and this is very serendipitous, and by the way, these jeans I have on right now, these are part of the Spanx clothing line. So, I was talking to my niece who is a doc and she was emergency room doc and she was telling me that Spanx clothing is all over the physician mom’s group on Facebook and they talk about Spanx all the time because it looks so professional is so figure enhancing and just so popular because of its comfort and the fact that it just kind of way you can live your life in a good-looking way and in a comfortable way. So, these jeans, as you guys know, I think I shared with you that I was getting rid of lots of the things in my closet, some of my old jeans in particular. And even though I’m happy I can still wear them, just because I can still wear them doesn’t mean I should still wear them. So, I’m getting a rid of a lot of those and I’m upgrading specifically to some of these Spanx jeans. Now, why do I love these? Well, number one, they are so comfortable. They’re just like wearing leggings or the kind of comfy cozy clothes that you would wear when you’re lying around at home. But these look uh I think more than appropriate to be out and about. They’re so comfortable. They are very, I think, flattering. They’re form fitting, but in again a comfortable way. They hold in your tummy. They give you a little booty boost. Um and they kind of hug you in all the right places in your thighs. They’ve got a nice slender silhouette. Plus, there’s none of that fussiness that are just that can be so irritating. You know, zippers, buttons, hooks, waistbands, all of that kind of thing. And even there’s not even any side pockets, which gives a really flat silhouette. But fortunately, they do have back pockets cuz I’m a girl who needs back pockets. Now, I love this look. I love this dark denim, a four-way stretch denim, if you will. But I also love these. Now, those classic jeans, they were a little bit longer. And I’m going to have to have those hemmed. And here’s a tip, by the way. I got them in regular length. You guys might want to get them in petite length. I’m about 5’5 if that helps in any way. And even though I love that classic denim and will wear them on repeat, I also love these wide length ankle length uh version in white. And now that we’ve been given permission to wear white after Labor Day, these will transition easily into fall. I can already see them with some chino boots, a great big heavy sweater, or just, you know, just a light jacket, light blazer like this because even though they’re very, very comfortable. I mean, so comfortable that I could take a nap in them and then go out on the town, um, they’re that comfortable, but they also look, I think, polished enough. So, you could wear these to work. You could wear them in kind of a professional way. And again, you can elevate them up or down, just depending on what your footwear is. These would look great with tennies. I think so. I love them in the navy, but I also love them in the white. Gentle, really flattering compression. So comfortable, very, very good silhouette. Well, what’s not to love? Now, these might be my favorite. If you’re of a certain age, you’ll get this reference. They make me feel very Mary Tyler Moore. I love their slim silhouette. I think these would be so well so multiaceted, multiaunctional, if you will, because you could wear these so many different places. I could easily dress them up with some heels and a silky type top, maybe some fancy jewelry. But I also love these probably well also because this is the pair that my niece has and that she really recommends to her other doc friends because they’re so professional looking and they’re so so comfortable. They just well like I say they just make you feel kind of put together. I do think they’re figure flattering and this is, you know, maybe a thing that’s really specific to gardeners. And basically, just from an anatomical standpoint, they really make me feel as if my back is secure. If you’re somebody prone to lower back problems, I love them. I think they’re very figure flattering. You could wear these all season long. Um, and like I say, these might be my favorite ones. Here’s a question of the day for you. Let me know which ones you really like. Now, if those three pair weren’t comfortable enough, you need to try out this. Well, I guess I would call it athleisure wear. It’s part of their air essentials line. And this is like butter, baby. It is so soft and so comfortable while also being figure flattering. I don’t know how they did it. Um, in fact, I loved this duo, this set so much that I immediately gave one to my friend Deb as as a birthday present because it is just wonderful for travel, wonderful for laying around the house. Wonderful uh if you are about to be a new grandparent because it is so comfortable and chic looking, I think, at the same time. So, oh, and I love Don’t you love this collar? The collar is just incredible. and doesn’t itch is no way uncomfortable. There’s just not an uncomfortable thing about any one of the pieces in this line. If you guys want to update your wardrobe, if you are looking for a really classic pair of jeans or some kind of oh athleisure wear like this to update your wardrobe for fall, then definitely use my coupon code below. 15% off and free shipping for those of you that use my uh my special my special code, my special numbers. Love these. I have been more excited about this clothing line than anything in a very very long time. And thank you Spanx, but also thank you Christie uh my niece for giving me the 411 or the 911 on what a wonderful clothing line this is. So, I shot a bunch of footage yesterday of Victor and his helpers and Sergio and his helpers who were here to with well just heavy lifting. I just could not lift some of these things. And we also have started work on the beds on the east side because that garden tour is going to be here before we know it. So, I’m going to show you a lot of those behind the scenes, a lot of that footage that I took yesterday. But, let’s for a moment just rewind. So, if you are new to this channel, you may not know that none of this was here two and a half years ago. All of this is for the most part pretty brand new with the exception of the cedar trees. Uh, everything else is brand new, including these steps. So, before, and if we can, we’ll find some old pictures to put in right here. There was nothing but a set of three crumbling steps, concrete steps that went down to the the lawn. What it really was was just dead hard pan clay. And so I wanted to just really well create this dramatic set of swooping steps so that I could stage my topiaries and my boxwood on here. Now, one thing that was informative to me was I went back and I looked at my steps at the other house, which I was satisfied with, and I thought, okay, what’s the difference? Why I’m not I’m not satisfied with these. Well, here was my dissatisfaction number one. The plants that I had in here, the topiaries that I had in here, and yes, I do consider balls to be a topiary form. They just weren’t thick enough. They weren’t grown out enough, like this one right here. And I had another one that was kind of small and spindly. These will grow up and they will ultimately be beautiful, but I didn’t feel as if they had the visual weight to really hold down uh their position, their very important position on these steps. So, this one got moved over here and these got moved to these two steps. Now, interestingly, the other thing that I wanted and what was my dissatisfaction number two was none of the evergreens looked as if they kind of matched. They were just different kinds of evergreens that were in different shapes and in different styles. And I wanted more cohesion and more uniformity. So, I actually shopped my garden and I looked around to see if I could find some really full boxwood balls or in this case, these are kind of egg-shaped boxwood forms, boxwood topiary that all resembled one another. And happily, I could. In the front yard, in between the roses and the budley and everything else in the front yard, there were some really good, strongly shaped, very full boxwood. So, what I did was I took some of the things that were here before that were a little bit less full like this. I dropped them into the flower beds and I pulled those up, dug them up, and we transplanted them here. And this was pretty heavy work. And Victor helped me with this. So I had one, two, and then you’ll see over here that I have a third one. Now, all of these pots are the same. They’re a nice backdrop for what seasonal flourishes and seasonal color that I want to have running up and down the steps and in the backyard just in general. And because they are larger, that does two different things. And this was a source, my third source of dissatisfaction, I guess. Number one, I didn’t think that the pots were big enough um to support the plants themselves and that they may not make it through the winter. So, these larger pots, uh, they more accurately match the scale of the plant itself, and they will also be more resilient for wintertime. So, there’ll be more volume of dirt, of gravel, and a thicker pot wall to insulate that root ball over the course of the winter. While we’re working on the pots in the back, the work continues on the new border out here. The grass has been killed. And Sergio and his guys are removing the sod that was on top. It’s pretty much been killed out. She’ll probably she may or may not treat it in another way chemically um to do something if there’s any roots in there, but it was pretty thin soil over here because of the amount of shade. So, they are taking off. Sergio, what do you say? About 4 in. Yeah. Four to five inch. Four to five inches off the top. Yeah. And then you’ll come back in and we’ll amend this soil. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. We’ll get really really good soil in here. And then what they are taking out is then going into the back in that uh forgotten places bed in the alley. So see they’re using their brute strength to remove that bermuda. You can see it’s pretty much dead. And then we’ll start planting this in September. I’ve got a big shipment of Southern Living plants coming and this should be beautiful. And yes, I do know how fortunate I am. Okay. Now, I think the magic sauce to creating a beautiful presentation like this is a mixture of both architectural, highly clipped and structural. and then things that are a little bit looser, a little bit uh more romantic and flowing. And so that’s what this pot with mubeckia does, what this sedge does, this everillo uh carrots does. And then ultimately also what all of this free I might add, colus is doing because all I did was just take clippings. You can see some of it is drooping a little bit because it’s still uh still waiting to get its root system established. And then once all of this is done, when it is pumpkin time, I can come out here and I can stage those pumpkins and gourds running up and down the steps. And I think it’ll be well, I I hope I think I pray it’ll be pretty magnificent. So that’s my question of the day. Tell me what you think. And tell me, should I go with just traditional orange gourds? Should I go with green gourds? Should I do a mixture of the both? Uh, tell me what you think because I think in the front it’s going to be a much more restrained palette. [Music] And here is where that extra dirt is going. So, we’ll put it in here. A lot of what’s underneath there is that garden debris that will rot down over time. Compost in place and all of this will settle, especially after another big rain. I still have some weeds on that end to pull out. But then this will be ready for all sorts of fall seeding and transplanting. And I and it’s not irrigated, so I I really don’t want to put anything back here that is too precious, but I will be transplanting some perennials and things. I want this to have a very naturalistic look. So, there’s some cone flour, um, some salvia, things like that that I’ll put back in here. And then some of that additional soil will go in this forgotten place around this tree. Not a lot, but just enough so that there is a little bit more top soil here so I can continue planting this trade dishonia and it will fill up this area and then I’ll also see it in this spot. Now, here’s my question of the day. In addition to do all doing all of this, I’m thinking maybe I need some to plant some bulbs in here this fall that will perennialize. So, crocus, maybe some daffodils, something like that. So, you guys give me your input on that. Um, because these then they could just die back in place. I don’t have to worry about the appearance of the browning foliage to feed the bulbs. So, give me your thoughts on that. So, in our last video, five things you want to be doing right now, I talk a lot about common sense gardening. And here’s an example where I did not practice very good common sense. So, I have a boxwood right here, and it was browning out on the backside. And I checked, and it wasn’t water. It wasn’t too much light. I just really couldn’t figure out what it was until a little common sense kicked in. And remember, conditions on a 100 degree day are a lot different than they are on a day like today where it’s not even probably going to hit 70. And I had a large shovel right here. And that large shovel had a large uh had a large head on it. And what it was doing was refracting the heat from the metal off of the shovel onto the back of this boxwood. And that was what I determined was killing it. Once I moved the shovel, yes, Detective Linda, there quit being a problem. Now, I should have intuited that earlier, but I just kind of like that little shot of red right there. Um, but nevertheless, that is another thing to just exercise good common sense of why something may be dying and I don’t know, just kind of channeling your inner Nancy Drew. I want to take a couple of moments here to appreciate two different things. Number one, you may recall how destitute I was when my Chinese snowball viburnum did not bloom last year um or this p I should say. But it has all sorts of fat buds on it right now. So unless we just get extremely extremely frigid temperatures, it should bloom beautifully next spring. The other thing I am just loving this effect and that is the way the pink carnation encorelas are starting to get tall enough and and their branches are protruding through the flower heads of the moon dance hydrangeas. So everything is happy here. This seems to be just the right amount of competition as these things mature. it. I will have to cut them back a little bit so they don’t impede the path, the stone path to the back, but I am loving this effect and I’ll love it even more as they continue to mature and bloom. Okay, the garden is full of surprises right now. The biggest surprise probably being rain in August and cool temperatures in August. So, you guys know that earlier in the year, I was really, really mourning the fact that I didn’t have any flowers on my Snowball viburnum. Now, I have lots of buds now. But, interestingly, another surprise, look here. I’ve got blooms. And I think I might have some blooms over here before too long. And I really don’t want them to bloom right now. I want them to save I want them to save it for next spring. But hopefully there’s enough tiny little buds that there’ll be some in reserve for spring of 2026. Meanwhile, the work over here continues and they’ve just about got this whole section excavated. Trust me, this is a lot easier work to do on a day when it’s the highs probably are not even up to 70 than it would have been on a traditional Oklahoma August day with temperatures around 100. Of course, you already know that it’s so interesting. There’s just no substitute for real rain. We can water all we want, but there is no substitute for what comes out of the sky. And the seasonal color is already starting to perform. It looks a lot a lot happier. And boy, those figs look pretty happy, too. So once the heavy work is done, then I can start playing back here and putting what I’m hoping will be most of the final touches before the garden tour on October 4th. And I will be putting up a link so you guys can buy tickets. They’re sending me something from Eventbrite and as soon as I have a link. They’re doing all of the publicity on this. Uh oh, you breast institute will get that out to you. So, as is my practice, we are filling up the bottoms, which all have good drainage now with a bunch of garden debris, just garden trash that will break down over time. And then we’re making up our own blend of about 50% compost and 50% um potting soil. And you can see here, this is the shape that I’m going for. Kind of um an eggshaped almost. And hopefully all of them will be approximately the same scale running up and down the steps. I may or may not underplant them with anything. That remains to be seen. Now, this is the part that takes the longest. It’s for me to decide what goes where, what things look out of proportion, which will look in proportion once they get some other things around them. But boy, all of that green is just gorgeous. And of course, we have to mulch the tops with gravel. Lots and lot. Well, it’s like a puzzle. Lots of different pieces moving around. And the work continues. There is lots of It’s like moving furniture. And I’m so fortunate to have these gentlemen with their strong backs. But boy, all of this green is just lush. Now, some may argue this is too many boxwood, but I personally think you can hardly have too many boxwood. Now, what it does need will be some accent color. And that will come, well, let’s just say that will come with a little bit more sun, but we do need that sun to get that kind of color intensity. But before long, the sun will come out and this whole area will look a little brighter. So many of you have asked me what mulch am I using now that I’m not using Happy Grow. Well, you know that I used to use Happy Grow and as mulch and then the formula changed pretty much when the bags changed and it was it was more woody, it was paler and it just wasn’t as good a quality. Well, then one of you said that it was back and so I am trying it again and what is in these bags now looks to be far superior to what was in these bags last time. So I’m not sure. It’s just I It’s just one of those risks you might have to take. It is in a different bag now. It’s in this Happy Grow bag. I got it at Lowe’s. It is about $4 a bag, I think. Um, and so far I’m I’m liking it. And we’re going to put down some more of this mulch in the front. Now, Victor was commenting that a lot of his customers, they like to use it as mulch, but to them, it doesn’t look like mulch. just looks like dirt and they want more traditional mulch that looks like hardwood mulch that will last for a long time. And I guess I’m just the opposite. I like this look much better. We’re also amending our potting soil with it because it is just a wonderful soil conditioner and it’s just a lot more receptive, I think, to things that go to seed for root development. and I just think it’s more attractive. So, that’s that’s kind of like a a very personal thing, a you do you, I do me kind of thing. But right now, I am back to recommending this mulch again. It is happy grow. Here’s something else that I wanted to do and today is the perfect kind of weather to do it. And I have two Pota Tims or pots of thyme. It’s just this standard creeping time. And I’m going to fill in that spot right there. And then I think I’m going to start it over here a little bit. There are several tricks to getting this kind of ground cover to really look good, and I’ll be talking about that in another video, but right now, I just want to get these in place. A lot of the gravel had washed away or just because of planting and things it had traveled a little bit. So we had extra gravel from doing it within the brick wall and the fence on the potting area side. So we are using the remainder to remedy all of the areas where the gravel had denuted in the past. Now, I consider all of this to be prefall staging. I’m not ready to bring out any pumpkins. I’m not ready to bring out any mums, but I am wanting to get everything ready for that fall layer to be super imposed over my steps and over the backyard and the front yard in general. Something else that I’ve really been waiting to do was to move my fire pit, my solo fire pit from over there near the air conditioner to over here, right by our two chairs right near the windows that we can open and hear the football game that we’ll be playing tonight as OU plays its first game of the season at 5:00 tonight. I think they’re playing Illinois State. Is that right, Stuart? And so we might be able to light a little fire and open those casement windows. And I think it’s just absolutely going to be wonderful. And I’m also ready to start dining outside. You can see I’ve got my Windex bottle here. And I’ve cleaned off the table. And I think we’ll be able to eat dinner out here tonight. Some of you are going to ask me, Linda, what about the wooden top that used to be on here? Well, the wooden top need a a little bit of maintenance and we took it off. But then I decided, oh, I’m really liking this lighter look again. So, it’s one of those kinds of things. Tell me if you all are the same way where I kind of like it both ways. And so, just depending on my mood, it can come on or it can, you know, and it can or it can go away. But I think it’s going to be really nice for this whole area to finally feel as if it has been groomed. I have been clipping and pruning and deadheading my little fingers off and I think it’s going to be really really satisfying to sit out here. Particularly now with my new walkway and my new potting area. It makes me well it makes me feel like I’ve gotten something accomplished. Now, we’ve got kind of a hiccup in the works of things um that may impact what all we can do next week and when we come back I’ll let you know about that. So, we had a little bit of a snafu last week. Um I did not tell you because I never tell anyone when my husband is out of town, when HubS is out of town, but week before last he was in both Fiji and in Australia. And while the trip was fine, his knee wasn’t. And his knee started to hurt him while he was in Australia. And when he came back the following Monday, he went to the doctor. And this was his knee where that he had had his knee replacement in five years ago. It was suddenly swollen and it really hurt. Well, they did an X-ray and hubs is part of a very very special 2% of people whose knee replacement comes apart and literally his knee replacement is just kind of floating around in there. The the cement just I don’t know what happened to it. It just degraded or something. The doctor had never seen it before. He was amazed that HubS, the legend that is Jamie Vodder, was able to even walk on it, much less make it through Australia to Fiji, through the airports around the world to finally make it back home. And so next week, he’s going to have to have surgery on his knee again. And I’m not sure how that’s going to affect our shooting. Um, it may or may not, but knee surgery always is something that can be rather disruptive. Let’s put it this way. It’s not going to be as severe as a total knee replacement, but nevertheless, it’s going to be very, very inconvenient and it can make Hubs and Hub’s wife kind of a little grouchy at times. So, we’re just doing the best we can. Thankfully, we’ll have some college football, I guess, to keep us entertained while we’re conilelesing or while he is conilelesing. The other thing that I’m doing is I’m holding a Linda Otter live tomorrow. So, please make sure that you join us at 2:00 p.m. Central Standard Time. That would be 3:00 on the East Coast, I guess. And we would love to have you join us. We’ll be talking about the new grandbaby. We are going to be talking about some fall decorating and well just anything else that you all have on your mind. I also next month in September am going to be revealing a new collaboration of sorts that I’m starting. I’m very very excited about it and it is well let’s just say it is an entity that you are very familiar with. We’re really excited about that and we’re also excited to start September our get to know yourself better month. So, be checking out my Instagram feed, be checking out uh the community or the posts tab on YouTube, and of course, be checking out here because I’m going to be sharing all sorts of fun quizzes uh related to just about everything. Your style, your decor style, um the books you like to read, what your personality type is, all of those kinds of things. We’re going to be taking quizzes to get to know ourselves better. And I think it’s going to be a ton of fun and a great way to kind of segue into fall and well just kind of know ourselves better before the holiday season begins. So there you go. I hope you guys enjoyed this video today. If you did, make sure to give us a thumbs up. Make sure to share. Um Stuart, are you going to tell us about this whatever what’s it called? It’s called hype. It’s a new thing that we don’t necessarily know everything about yet, but we’re working on it. For seven days after a video posts, there is and/or will be a button near the like button that says hype. And I’m not even necessarily sure what it does besides somehow hype up the channel. And let us get I think help us get more feedback on the kind of things that you like and that you don’t like. Hopefully, you will also like my new book that comes out in October. We will put a link right here and I’ll be talking a lot more about that as we discuss fall decor and seasonal flourishes as we live a garden inspired life through the seasons. You guys take care and I’ll see you tomorrow. [Music] [Music]