Progress at the Farm

I've been hard at work on the flowerbeds - along the driveway, around the house.

Leaves had to be raked and briars dug up. Good grief. Those things have huge tubers...no wonder you can't kill them!

I kept finding more and more until I had a huge pile of potato looking tubers.  The plant is Smilax. It grows all over the place.

They fought me leaving me scratched up but I won! The bed is cleaned out. 

 There were several creeping lantanas in front of the garage. They take over the sidewalk every Summer so I dug them up - all sixteen of them. I transplanted them to the driveway bed which should be the perfect spot for them. They can spread out and bloom away. A big bonus - butterflies love them!

I know it doesn't look like much now, but soon the slope will be covered in yellow blooms.

My oldest sister gave me 4 native lantana bushes. They got planted along the driveway too in the back of the bed.

Oh! While digging the briars out, I kept finding these concrete edger pieces buried under the dirt. Once upon a time, I think there were some really pretty flowerbeds here. #thankyouformerowners! 

I used them to edge the back flowerbed behind the garage. It should help keep the dirt and plants where they belong. :o)

Jay and Bruce got all the leaves raked up in the front wooded area where the little dogwood tree is budding out. I see a flower peeking out at me!

I'm excited about getting this area cleaned up! I can't wait to plant a woodland garden!

Random bulbs that were half buried in the leaves!

I can just picture a pretty bench in this area facing the house with pretty plants. With the years of leaf accumulation gone, I can finally see my vision coming to life!

Plus, I started weeding the front flowerbed. Can I just say it's going to take time? #neglectedforwhoknowshowmanyyears and full of weeds.

Spring is showing up early in all sorts of ways - tiny wild violets

With several of the trees sporting a hint of green and the redbuds blooming.

The bees were buzzing all over the redbuds! #buzzbuzz

And all the outside trim on the studio is up and painted! Woohoo! It looks so good!

Next time the door will get its new red coat. Then the outside will officially be done and it's onto the interior!

Definitely making progress! It sure helps that the weather has been so mild. I just hope we can get most of the outside stuff done before the heat hits. All in all, it was a very productive couple of weekends.

Cecilia (times 2) and Canton Fun

Cecilia from My Thrift Store Addiction and I (yes, there are two of us!!) went to Canton this past weekend. It was her first time to go - she drove up and met me at my house in Pflugerville then on to the B Farm we went.  (Be sure to hop over to Cecilia's blog to read her take on Canton.)

We got to Palestine by supper time - I took her to one of our favorite restaurants in Palestine, Switch, where we had one of their brick oven pizzas. I love their pizzas but may I just say the mushroom pizza is probably my new favorite? Yum, yum! It was so so good! We left stuffed and happy.

Friday morning we got up early and drove to Canton. Two Cecilias, Canton, and Junkin' = Loads of Fun!

First on the stop was Laurie Anna's Vintage Home shop. Oh my! So much inspiration, so beautifully decorated.

Next, onto the flea area of Canton. Acres and acres of junkin' heaven. Just about anything you can imagine, you can find.

Rusty, crusty things:

Windows and doors:

Glassware:

Cecilia checking out some Jadeite

Linens:

And so much more.

Cecilia looking for treasures

Oh the door, the books in the drawer, that sign! How I wanted that sign.

We shopped and shopped. We found treasures.

We found potential treasure.

We shopped until the vendors started closing down their booths. Happy, we took our treasures back to the car and headed back to the farm. It was definitely a successful trip!

Here's what I bought:
The basket for my garden bicycle, the pulley with the star, a spring, some wooden wheels for a project:

This linen with all the days of the week and cats doing something different on each day (sorry for the less than perfect picture...I'll show it another time after I iron it).

And this green chair for the dining room:

I also picked up this pulley for my friend Susan:

She hung it up on her pergola and plans to use it to hang plants from:

It was really a perfect day with perfect weather to shop. We throughly enjoyed it.

Saturday morning, we took a stroll around the farm. The redbuds and wild plums were in full bloom and the dogwoods are starting to peek out.

Sadly, it was then time to pack and head back. But we left happy with the treasures we'd found and the time spent together. It feels funny saying, "hey, Cecilia! Look at this!" - kind of feels like I'm talking to myself.  LOL. But so.much.fun!

I'm so glad Cecilia decided to make the drive to go to Canton with me. It was a blast!

Cecilia Squared

Be sure to visit Cecilia at My Thrift Store Addiction (click here).

A Touch of Spring

Ah, Spring
How we have longed for thee...

The daffodils and snowdrops are blooming at the farm:

The weather was perfect...warm, breezy, and cloudy in the morning with sunshine in the afternoon. First thing I did was  switch out the winter decor for a Spring one.

 I changed all my chalkboard signs to Spring sayings:

And put out this sign:

Changed  up the mantel:

And entry table decor - I need to bring my Spring garland up to drape over the window frame as it still looks a little bare:

I freshened up the look of the hearth with my Spring wreath and flower arrangement:

And then, I did something I've been wanting to do since we bought the B Farm  - I made a flower bed!

The bricks were already there - I discovered them when I started to dig...they were overgrown with weeds. So I dug out the weeds, reset the bricks, moved one of the Lantanas from the other side of the sidewalk, moved some bulbs, and placed my galvanized tub with irises in the corner.

 I can't begin to tell you what a pleasure it was to work in this soil compared to the thick, black gumbo we have in the city. Yes, I'm going to love gardening here!

Another spot I've been wanting to tackle is along the driveway. Once again, someone had gone to a lot of trouble to plant a lot of bulbs and irises. But after years of neglect, they were buried and almost lost under layers of leaves and the thorny vines and shrubby stuff had taken over.

Leaves raked away from the irises

Bruce was sweet and helped me. We raked, cut, and pulled out years of growth. I made several trips back and forth to the burn pile to dump the debris.

 By mid afternoon, we were tired and scratched up yet we were happy with our progress.

top of the driveway now all cleaned up

 I'm looking forward to adding my own flowers and plants to the flower beds. Slowly but surely, the farm is looking cared for again!