Back Yard BBQ |

With outdoor entertaining season coming up I thought I would post a few photos from a 'green theme' birthday party BBQ I had last year for my husband's birthday.

I hope there are a few photos that spark some inspiration for your outdoor event this summer.

  Green Theme! Green lanterns, table cloths, place mats, pillows, napkins, cutlery, plates, food, drink etc.

Lanterns left over from my wedding and a table runner I made with outdoor fabric.

Green and white food covers for all our munchies!

I made green straw flags with everyone's name on them (so they could easily identify their drink) - you can order custom straw flags for your event from me HERE and I got green stripe paper straws from Hey Yo Yo!

Green Punch and Pop choices.

  

 

My husband is a healthy eater and doesn't like sweets so I made him a cake made of fruit (not to be mistaken for a 'fruit cake' hehe) I also made another 'garden theme' cake for a friend whose birthday was close to our BBQ.

I also made these fun BBQ theme cupcakes. I used orange sprinkles to look like fire, black icing gel for the grill lines and cup up jube jube, hot tamales and caramels for the meat and skewers.

I forgot to take a photo of my veggie and fruit trays - but I did ALL GREEN veggies and fruit on each tray.

Veg: Green pepper, celery, broccoli, cucumbers, snow peas.

Fruit: Green apple slices, kiwi, green grapes, honeydew mellon

I made green outdoor pillows for our Muskoka chairs to make them even more comfy!

I gave my husband a Birch Tree for our back yard as his gift!

We played Ladder Ball and Bocce Ball & had a bonfire & fireworks!

Sophie is all tired our from too much partying!

Happy BBQ and outdoor entertaining season!

Looking Forward to Garden Season 2012 |

With all of this warm weather that we have been having I have been making plans for what we want to do with our gardens this year.

Last year I posted quite a few photo EARLY on in the summer, but not many from later in the summer when our flowers and veggies were growing big.

So I thought I would post a few 'reflection' photos of last year as well a few things that I want to try to do this coming season, based on what was successful last year, and what didn't really work out.


Here are some shots from our Garden 2011 |

Early Spring - Lots of Tulips in Bloom

When we cleaned out the gardens in early spring we put down brown mulch everywhere.

Fresh brown mulch.

The Front of the house once we cleaned out all the gardens and put down the mulch.

Our back deck planter, early summer. Herbs planted in the planter and two types of tomatoes and chives in the pots (see below for how big the tomato plant got).


We planted a birch tree in the back yard in late May, it was Ben's birthday gift.

We got two brown Muskoka Chairs and I made some outdoor pillows for on each of them.

Beautiful Bluebells.

LOTS of irises in late spring, purple, yellow and white.

An early summer rose attracting a bee.

Early summer Allium!

Pretty Solomon's Seal.

Mid Summer Lillies.

Beautiful orange roses on a bush that I got for my bridal shower.

In mid June we created this 'water garden' for on our deck. We got some water lettuce to put in the pot and a pump and fountain spout to make it more of a feature.

I planted Marigolds, purple potato plant and ivy in the front flower box.

A Snow Ivy and purple potato plants in the wall hanging at the back door.

Our table area on the deck with globe lights and green lanterns.

Our Fire Chimney.


I hung some plants and candles from an old curtain rod that I attached to the top of the deck planter.

The Rainbow Coleus did REALLY well in our backyard (as it gets mostly shade).

Mid August our tomatoes were almost ready for harvest!

Our Tomato plants did really well considering how much shade we get.

Plans for this coming season |

Last year we created a new garden area and I planted sunflowers and zinnia in it. BUT due to the fact that we get so little direct sunlight in the back yard they didn't do very well. So since the Rainbow Coleus did SO well in our back yard last year I definitely plan to plant more of it in that garden as well as in a few other areas such as along the garage and at the back of our yard.

I also want to plant a bunch of rainbow coleus along the front of the front garden to bring more colour to that area, as in July/August there wasn't a lot of colourful plants blooming in the front.

Last year we discovered that one of our lilac bushes right in front of our house had died (probably from the salt we had used on the front porch during the winter). SO we have taken that out this year and I hope to plant a nice Japanese Maple in its place.

While I liked having the herbs on the deck last year - there were some that I didn't use that often. I plan to plant Parsley and Dill again this year as I got good use out of those, but I plan to plant more florals in the planter this year to bring more colour to the deck area.

I would also like to fix up our fire pit area this year. The last owners laid cement slabs and have it off to the left corner of our back yard. It would be nice to center it in the yard and put some new stone down around our new fire chimney and maybe make some benches or table to place around the area.