A Big Casita + Garden Update 🌿 Here’s Everything We’ve Been Building

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Well hey there, friends… It’s time for a Casita Catch Up! Today I’m sharing a quick update on everything happening in the garden. We have chaos in the side yard, a new mini-split install, cut-flower walkway plans, and fresh ideas for tree placement and privacy.

Inside the casita, the lighting is up, the paint color has been chosen, and the space is finally starting to feel so darn real. It’s going to be ao fun to decorate this space!

Wish you were all with me… I’d make us a pot of tea and we’d wander together. 💕
Kate

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00:00 – Welcome Back + Side Yard Chaos
01:44 – Greenhouse Pathway & Cut-Flower Walkway Plans
03:40 – Obelisk Plans
06:52 – Tree Locations, Privacy & Garden Structure
08:58 – Pathway Ideas
12:42 – Inside the Casita
19:26 – Back Border & Standout Plants

Hey friends, welcome back. It is time for a little tour. It’s been a minute since I’ve given you a proper status update and we’re just going to call this a cassita catchup. This is you and me and we’re just going around the garden and I’m showing you a few things that have been going on behind the scenes because we have been very busy. So, first and foremost, I’m walking down my now chaotic sideyard which looks like this. uh because we are in the midst of having our new heating system put in. So, in case you missed it, we decommissioned our oil tank at the start of the backyard renovation project and we have been without heat ever since. But this is the week we are finally putting in a mini split system, which is great because what it means is we can get rid of all the ducting running through the lower story of our home. Um we are in a tiny house. It is like probably 1500 square f feet and we need as many inches as we can get up in the basement so that the boys can have some proper head clearance in their bedrooms. Now, what that means for me as a gardener is I now have some things that I’m going to need to disguise. Namely, this beast right here. So, I think I’m going to need to get creative about some kind of screening that may be movable. So, I’m kind of like already the wheels are spinning there. Trying to think about, you know, how I’m going to create a movable screening system. So, it still has air flow. It still has access for service and maintenance. Yet, I don’t have to look at it when it’s in my sideyard because now this is like a very utilitarian pathway. All right. Next up, we have our ground cover installed here. Pathway to what is going to be the new greenhouse. And we are about 1 month away from this greenhouse getting on a boat and heading over from France. And I am freaking out with excitement. We’re probably a month and a half in truth. A month and a half. But because we are a month and a half out, I need to start my dreaming like now and I need to start working on some decisions. So, a couple things. Um, you know, we have our host bip over here, which is a great location. We did do a little stub out in that corner cuz I just never know what I’m going to need inside the greenhouse. This will be my first time having my own functional greenhouse. And so, I want to be prepped to bring in whatever utilities I need. Now, the next thing I’m working on is I have a little bit of a design inspiration here for essentially a cut flower pathway. Now, funny enough, a cut flower pathway is something that I played with as a concept at the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival last year, and now it’s coming home to my own garden, which is kind of hilarious. But essentially, I’m trading out that big lower garden for a more simple cut flower walkway. And so, the walkway behind me is going to be lined with dalia, cosmos, zenyas. All of my cut flowers are coming up here and they’re going to line the walkway to my greenhouse, which I’m so excited about. Now, the other thing I’m going to do up here is I had an impulse purchase of a bunch of super niche narcissist varieties. And so, stay tuned because that box should be shipping this week. And I think I’m going to be doing like a beautiful installation along this walkway to give it like an extra big oomph because it is going to be a minute before I get my DAS going on. Now, because it’s going to be a minute before my dalas are in and my zenyas are going, like there’s a lot of like time until all that warm weather stuff really kicks into action. I actually moved my obelisk structures from the front veggie beds. I have two of them and I moved them back here. Because the other thing I did last year is I feel like I finally perfected my sweet potato sewing and growing method. So, let me spin you around because I’m going to show you what I’ve done and what I’ve played with for placement. So, I have two of these obelisk forms. You can see them here. I either got these from Sky Nursery or Swanson’s. I can’t remember which one, but I tried a couple different placements. I actually tried them over here on either side of the pathway, but it actually like narrowed it in significantly and I really didn’t like it. Then I actually came down here and I tried them at the start of this pathway, but again, it actually just felt so squidgy in here. But what’s interesting is as soon as I moved them to the edge over here, it automatically started to balance the height of the house. And so I’m actually really in love with them over here. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to pick my eight favorite sweet pea varieties from last year and I’m going to grow them up these two little obelisks. Now some of you have also asked about fencing. And here is the the skinny on that. We have never had a fence here. We bought the house without a fence. And obviously it’s um you know, it’s an older home, so they just had different rules back then. But what I’m kind of thinking is in the next year or two, I may end up doing an espalier fence along here. that this is a trick I do at a lot of my clients homes, but I do think there could be something really charming about an espalier apple fence coming right down the side of the greenhouse leading over towards um our little pathway, which you you basically go right down there to the lower garden. So, let’s head down. So, you can see the lower garden behind me. And it’s so funny because I actually have felt a little nervous about putting plants in the ground and I think because it’s my own home, it’s my own project and I want things to be perfect and I also am going for this aesthetic that is somewhere between well-designed and also like a plantswoman’s paradise. And that is really kind of an interesting place for my head to be because I produce beautifully designed gardens. But this one, it also needs to be super interesting. It needs to have space for me to expand and grow as my tastes grow and change. This past week was the first week where I really got in there and started chucking things in the ground. And it felt so good to have just a few decisions made because I feel like that helps with the unfolding of the rest of the garden. So, I’m going to walk you through the hard decisions I’ve made and what I’m feeling super duper good about. I want to start with the tree locations that I have specked out because one of the first things I always decide on in any project is tree locations. So, tree location number one is going to be right here. I want my garden to be unveiled in a really slow natural progression. And so it’s really important that I bring in some of this height so we start building a lot of dimension within the landscape. The second tree location is right there back beneath my swoop of hydrangeas. This is a hydrangeanger called Moonrock. It’s a Blue and Easy hydrangeanger. You know, I love Blue and Easy. They’re just the nicest group of people. They’re such a lovely company and they’re doing this really thoughtful roll out of really intentional plants. They’re not blasting us with like 20 random varieties. It is all so curated. Right over here is one of my other tree locations. And for this tree location, a couple things came to mind. I always think when I’m shopping for a tree, I want to know what are my characteristics. Well, I want something for this location that has a beautiful canopy. I want to sit on my little bench below a tree. I also would love something multi- trunk, something that’s really broad, something that’s going to fill the space. And then also right here, we love our neighbors, but I do want to have a little bit of privacy. You can see they’ve got a um a deck up above. We’ve got a window here. And when you’re looking at designing your space, you kind of want to know what you want to hide from a little bit. So, I want to get a little bit of veil of privacy. And then also having a broad canopy. You can just see already how much that’s going to disguise my ugly retaining wall as well as hide a bit more of my neighbor. So this garden feels really enclosed. The other thing is when I was at the Eley nursery, gosh, like a year and a half ago, there were so many moments where you would walk under a tree and it was such an insane way to enjoy a canopy. So having a seating area underneath a robust canopy for me that was top of mind. And you can see I’m also playing with a few ideas down here. This is the other thing I’m playing with. Um, I just had two here. I would probably want to add a third and space them a bit more. And of course, I would dig them down and put in a crushed gravel base, but I do kind of like the idea. I’m just sitting with the concept of having a pathway here. I want it to be a secondary pathway. I didn’t want to like cut in with my gravel, but I do think having a few stepping stones here is going to be nice to get to the bench. And then I can play with a lot of ground covers. Now, I don’t know if I really want three here or if I want two that are just really beautifully spaced out. My thought says three, but we’re just playing with this. I like to set things in place for a while before I make a final decision when it’s when I’m playing in my own garden. The other place that I have been playing with a pathway is actually over here. So, as you know, this is my adorable cassita. We’ll go in there for in just a second. But off of the front of the cassita, we are going to build a 4ft deck. This is going to act as like a singular super deep wide step. And so, you’ll actually step down onto this area. And over in this area, I was thinking of having an maybe an outdoor potting station right here. I do have my hose bib located right here. My hose bib is now run off of my irrigation system. And so it does have a valve that you just lift up. But I thought, you know, it might be nice to have a little sneaky pathway here to get back to the hose bib. And then in the back here, I’ll just kind of show you what’s going on over here. Oh, there’s my garden stool. Um, but this whole area is now going to be transformed into uh like I’m going to probably bring in crushed rock. Uh, and this is going to be storage for actual tools because I don’t want to see them on the daily, but I want them to be accessible. And instead of having a shed, I now have a cassita. We still do have to add our um gutter off of the back. The other thing people have been asking about electrical and all that back here. We do have electrical. Uh we’ve already passed our pre-co inspection and so now we are moving right along to the final inspection which oh my gosh, I’m going to be so excited to have that done. So Brian has been working feverishly on the casita and so I think I should take you inside to show you what he’s been up to. Oh, and by the way, I’m choosing spots for to heal in plants that I don’t know what to do with yet. And here is my location for my arrantia. Um, I decided that the more west facing or excuse me, the more west garden bed, it just got too hot for the arrantia and it was really struggling over here and I didn’t know where to put it just yet. So, I’ve tucked it in that little corner. Finally, time. Finally time for the cassita ketchup. Okay, first and foremost, yes, I realize it’s not painted under there, but that’s going to have a deck on top. But you will notice I painted all the way to the ground because I decided I actually really like that look. So, got that all done and Brian installed the sconces. You guys could see them in today’s little mini tour cuz he to catch up. Um, we are too cold for me to paint the door trim and the exterior door, but that’s okay. that it can just wait until spring. It’s going to be fine as it is. It’s already primed and of course the cedar trim is is so durable in our climate. And then because our garage is currently full of tools, we decided that the vintage table goes in here. Is that so cute? I’m actually really loving it in here. And you know what’s kind of interesting is when we have the doors open here, we were kind of looking at it and we’re like, gosh, that is actually going to look really pretty if we do just maybe a clear stain on them cuz it’ll just kind of meld right into the decking below. Um, so here is the big update. Obviously, we have our giant table in here just for now, but Brian has gotten all of our little puck lights attached. These ones are really darn cool. There’s a little contraption. There’s a box up in the ceiling that allows us to set the intensity of each light. The other thing is, do you see that inner ring? We can actually direct these wherever we want. So, I can direct it down at a work surface or if I’m filming, we can move the light away. I mean, it has been they are just the handiest little lights. And we actually got these off of Amazon. So, if you are doing a renovation, um, I really love these. The other reason I like the directionality of them is because we have a sloped ceiling in here and it will allow them to not all be glowing towards the face of the casita. And then we also put them on a dimmer so we don’t have to have them always on super bright. We can actually narrow them down a little bit. It is darn cool. The next thing I’ve been working on actually is paint swatches. And that has actually well not surprising to anyone. It is so hard. I do think I’ve chosen a winner. Um, you know, the more I thought about the use of the space, the more I realized I actually do need to go with something super duper neutral. So, behind me, you can see I was kind of like playing with this beautiful kind of sculptor’s clay putty. I thought it would be really fun to have something nice and like warm, kind of a toasty brown in here. Turns out like this is not a good color for me. I feel like I need to get my colors done. You know what I mean? I don’t know if you guys have ever seen that. Um, over here I chose another kind of like lightly toasted color. This one is I think called Venetian plaster or warm ivory, but again they’re just like super yellow with my skin tone. And so as neutral as this looks in real life, it’s actually not super neutral on camera. So then I tried on I was like, “Okay, what if I go with like a pink?” Actually, that looks really good next to my skin. But what we decided on to keep it super duper neutral is this bear paint. It’s called um Swiss coffee. It has just enough warmth in it to make it feel alive and not, as we like to call it, insane asylum white. Uh but it’s still super neutral and it’s going to act as a really good background. So, one of the other things I was thinking about was what if I took my cute little like pink paint and did that as the trim? I mean, this is my cassita. So, doing something that’s pink, that might actually be super duper fun. So, here are the colors in a different light. I also brought this one. Um, this one is called Sculptor’s Clay. This is another bear. And I thought, you know, that might even be an interesting trim color. But I do have to say I am kind of liking the pink. It’s like a very, very dusty rose. Okay, the last update I want to show you. I’m just going to pull this back a little bit. This is our flooring. We went with an LVP. And this is just like a nice kind of medium plank. It’s probably about 6 in wide, maybe 5 in. And we actually got this on super duper sale at Costco. And this one is a water resistant where it might even be waterproof flooring. And so I know I’m going to be in here doing projects, all sorts of crafts. The chances that I spill on this floor are quite high. And I wanted something really wipeable. I wanted to be able to sweep it out and I didn’t want to have to worry about any other more delicate flooring in the cassita. So, my next plan of attack here is since we’ve decided on the bare Swiss coffee, I’m going to go ahead and at least get the body of this interior painted. And what’s great is it’s might be too cold outside, but I have a little space heater that I can plug in in here and I can paint this very, very fully. and then we’ll move on to trim and all those other little details. But if I can at least get the interior painted, then I can also start on furnishing this space, which you guys is going to be so much fun. That is going to be so much fun. And then also, how joyful that I get this space to work from and film from. And then I can finally vacate the kitchen table because my family needs a table to eat dinner, not for me to work at. And I do want to give you just one last look from inside the casita going out. And you can kind of see I hope you can imagine the finished product because I think looking out onto a meadowscape in here is going to be so soothing and so relaxing. Of course, now I really need to get after that fence. But, you know, budget, you got to have money for all these things. Uh, but what I’ve done in the meantime is you remember my tutor obelisk? I’ve placed it at the far end of the garden. And so if nothing else, I will have another little element back there to help this feel a bit more nestled and stop the eye from going straight into my neighbor’s garden. And it’s still daylight out. However, you can see the beautiful warm glow of these downward facing sconces. Again, I wanted something really subtle. I wanted a little bit of metallic. I wanted a warm glow out here. And this is ticking all the boxes. It’s really subtle right now obviously because it’s not sundown, but a great little addition to the front of the cassita. I gave this back border a little bit of a glow up this week. And some things really stuck with me as I was assessing my own garden and reflecting on my own design choices, especially as I now need to rework this because this is a lot of bed depth to fill. And so I need to rework the entire thing. And and really what’s so cool is I can bring in a lot more height back here that I I didn’t think I was ever going to be able to do. Um but one thing that has stuck with me is my blackbird pens. I mean, I will just show you right here. Look at this thing. It is December 2nd today and it is churning out buds like crazy. I feel like on camera it’s a way more of a vibrant raspberry. In real life it is just a very deep, moody raspberry. Just absolutely gorgeous. And so I’m not quite sure if I’m going to try to take cutings of this and root those in or maybe see if I can divide this pensammen, but I want to get at least three to five more of these so I can plant them in larger drifts around the garden. The other one that is really killing me right now, and both of these are massive hummingbird attractors, is my Salvia Graii. This one, I believe, is called Heatwave Glimmer. And it is a very beautiful, beautiful peak. Uh, it’s like a it’s like a peachy coral. And this one is still blooming as well. Now, I am not sure whether it’s going to stay back here in this back border because I almost felt like I wanted something that was more of a vibrant orange than this is. And so, this may actually get transplanted up to the front, which I think it’ll be a beautiful match for those conditions. And then moving on down, Darcy Bustle. Darcy Busel is still trying to bloom. It is cracking me up. Um, we have had our first hard frost and it’s still going. So, loving that. And then down here, my scabiosa, my little lilacy colored scabiosa. This is one of the plants that I need to dig up and move to the front of the border so that it can actually have like proper pride of place. But I again, another plant that is covered in buds. I can’t believe this thing is still going. Now coming down here, you can really see where we reworked the space. And I’ve had a couple days to reflect on it. And it was just this was the move, you guys. It is so awesome. And now the hunt becomes super fun because I get to decide what I’m gonna put at the base. And then moving down here again, I still feel really, really solid with all of these decisions. You guys had great feedback on the Japanese anemmones, the grasses. I feel like we have a lot of different options to play with for this little special back corner. One last little update is my beautiful tutor structure has made it way made its way kind of over here to this right hand side and I’m not quite sure what I’m going to put on it yet. I was thinking I was thinking a clatus would be beautiful back here. But then also there are so many gorgeous climbing roses that I love. And I thought that might be really fun too. Even like a a petite rambler I thought would be a really pretty addition because then I can anchor it with some beautiful evergreen um kind of lower elements and create just like a nice solid moment here. So there you are. Quick little update. I still have so many design decisions left to make, but I think the next order of business that I have in my head here is making some decisions on trees. So, I want to take you tree shopping in the next couple weeks. And then also, I have started selecting evergreen hedging elements and kind of like blobby mound shrubby items that I really want to include in this garden. And a couple of the thoughts I was having were, you know, I love a little taxis hedge, an Irish u. I love that look in the garden. And I was kind of thinking that maybe what I bring in is I bring in something that I can clip into a mounded ball shape. So maybe I’m going to bring in like a taxis uh densififormis. That might be a really good option. Uh because I think that would be a really good match for the garden. It’s doing really well in the sight conditions here. The other thing I was thinking of is bringing in an osmanthis burke woody eye. This is a beautiful evergreen shrub. Gorgeous little white flower. smells heavenly in the spring. I was thinking that actually has a really strong place in this garden as well because I want to make sure that I’m getting some flowering elements with every single season coming through. So, lots of things yet to do, lots of decisions yet to be made, but I at least wanted to give you a little update on the casita. Look how cute she is. I mean, my goodness. And also, the table looks so good in there. But if I float the table in the middle, I’ll have nothing. I I will have literally no room for anything else. So, in any event, thank you so much for coming on another little garden walk, another garden adventure with yours truly. I’ll see you in the next one. And in the meantime, say hello to your garden for