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back yard again!

Woke up this morning without an alarm. That felt awesome. I slipped out of bed after snuggling with Olive for a few minutes, then went out to catch up on some gardening. I was inspired yesterday by the parents of the bride. One of JM's friend's got married to a beautiful young woman name Mystry - her parents, though, were my biggest interest. They have this property in Lake City that is absolutely breathtaking. The grounds are lush and full of gardens, they have chickens for fresh eggs and a green house for fresh produce (neither of which I can accomplish at my home but...). The gardens were incredibly inspiring. Granted, they've been working on their property for 37 years. Pamela, Mystry's mom, said "we started with the chicken coop. Then we saw where our natural paths were and put in gardens according to where we typically walk."It's pure awesome, truly. I have photos, but haven't uploaded any yet. The best parts were that I felt inspired to work on my ultra shady backyard and that Pamela said if there was ever a time I'd like to come up and get some plants, to just come up and she'd be happy to show me around and get me some starter plants. AHHHH!

I'll attach photos of her home when I get my memory card out of the computer.

Today is a weird day - I went for a long walk by myself this morning for fun. It was super relaxing and inspiring. Like I said, I've been trying to decide what to do with the back yard for awhile now. I know I want a lattice wall for (ideally) a jasmine vine to grow on. I also know I would love a pergola for the back yard. And recently I decided I'd LOVE to try and grow beautiful, hearty elephant ears. One inspiring piece of Pamela's yard was her bamboo forest - that was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. One of my biggest struggles with our yard is that it's so shady grass doesn't want to grow and the ground is covered in brown leaves from the trees overhead. If I rake (which would suck) we'd just have dirt, but it might allow for the spread of a different kind of ground cover - maybe crawling ivy or border grass? I'm not sure. Still - it won't stop the leaves from falling, so IF I did a ground cover, it'd be a constant project of raking and blowing the leaves away. Weeeeee!

I need to decorate my outdoor foyer - I want a small, narrow table for the left hand side to put some plants on. I'm working on bringing nature into the house. I have several small house plants in the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom already.

Basically what I want to accomplish with the back yard is a more secluded feeling. We love our neighbors tremendously, so this is no reflection of them. I just want a sense of privacy when I'm out here. I think the lattice wall would help accomplish that.

I have spent the whole morning searching for inspiration. Now it's noon and I have much to do to prepare for work tomorrow. I'll come back to this and try to reorganize my thoughts, as well as add photos, later.

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