2017 - Patios, Fountains, Benches, Statuary and such

By 2017 our landscaping had matured and filled in from our 2011 re-landscape project.  Here we are in our garden and with friends from one of our many garden parties.  This party was the last party we hosted for the county National Organization for Women's group that Mary has been involved with for 30 some years. 

As much as Mary enjoyed the plantings and the flowers she also learned that having pots and planter boxes and other "hard scape" really made the garden come alive.  Here are a few of these special garden additions.

We had a broad, sweeping patio directly off the house...

and another neat patio on the side yard.  

This side patio featured a large "flower" in the middle of it made of rough slate.  It was Paul's idea and a great one it was.

The main patio featured a huge pergola...

Staged for the sale

and there were two arbors in the garden...adding architecture and height.

Planter boxes:

Pots:

Fountains - Mary carried around a photo of the tulip shaped fountain for years until we were able to lay a concrete pad for it (as part of the 2011 landscape project).  The little bowl shaped fountain was an impulse buy:

Statuary: 

Places to relax in the garden:

The hot tub with it's own small patio and mini-deck:

A fun Victorian Gazing Ball on a pedestal.  In the middle of the yard:

Because our lot is on a hillside we ended up with large, uphill slopes in the back yard (generally more weeding and less living space).  Very early on Mary carved two terraces in the slopes to expand our outdoor living areas.  

and in interesting, narrow side yard featuring an urn.

Because our summers were so dry we had irrigation systems everywhere.  But sometimes, especially when it was very hot, we needed to do supplemental watering.  To facilitate that we had hoses placed around the yard.  Since they can be unsightly we ended up finding hose pots and a hose reel to keep them corralled. 

We even had a fun little garden shed in the back of the property where Mary could store all her gardening equipment.

For years Mary used this little potting bench in her garden to plant flats of seeds and repot plants and make bouquets of flowers from the garden.

The side yard beside the garage was eventually paved with paver stones and looked so much better than the original dirt.  And we used the area for storing various and sundry things.