The 'rooms' of summer:

mow, mow, mulch, mulch

The advent of spring into summer gives me four new rooms to decorate for warmer weather living – the front yard, the back yard and two side yards. Moving the indoors outdoors brings a “rug” of grass, a picnic table and all-weather chairs and accessories ranging from a variety of florals to lots of green plants.

Since this is only the second summer in my cottage, there’s still lots to do in decorating the outdoor space.  And the overarching theme is “you never can have enough mulch.” There’s something about finishing garden beds and those odd spots around the yard with the rich brown mixture that says, “I have conquered the weeds.” Especially since I place the mulch plastic bags under the mulch to really keep the pesty weeds at bay.

This season, I really focused on furnishing the room on the south side of the cottage, since it had basically been ignored. A kind neighbor gave me some ferns and my mom is always generous with plenty of her hostas for transplanting. I also added some lilies-of-the-valley to the existing lily population and finished the room off with a small floral banner, two hanging impatiens pots, some small stepping stones, rock borders and the requisite mulch.

Voila – the side room is done!

The other side of the house is my dining room, dominated by a large picnic table I bought last year. This year, I added a new umbrella over and an indoor/outdoor carpet under. It is my go-to spot for breakfast with a good book and hopefully many meals to come.

The front and back rooms continue to evolve as well. I’m mulching out some new perennial beds and adding rock borders. Then there is the mole tunnel erupting helter skelter in the backyard. Since I started feeling bad about exterminating these creatures, I’m trying to convince them to relocate elsewhere with a castor oil spray. Supposedly, it will repell them as they search for worms and grubs. We’ll see, but hopefully not more tunnels.

Other spring/summer wildlife is emerging now, so I’ve added a birdbath and bird feeder in the back. In addition to a wide variety of small birds, there are rabbits, ducks, geese, squirrels, chipmunks, skunks and even the occasional deer and a family of foxes in the neighborhood.

So as I mow, mow, mow and mulch, mulch, mulch, I need to remember to sit back and enjoy my additional rooms for the warmer months. Because, yikes, the Christmas decorations have already at Hobby Lobby.