DEBBIE-DABBLE BLOG: April 2022

I am a Victorian Soul, who lives in a small townhouse that was built in the mid 1970's, not a huge Mega Mansion!! I just recently lost my Hubby Joe, who was a Retired Letter Carrier. I worked night shift as an RN on a Hospital based Rehabilitation( Physical Medicine) Unit for 37 years before I had Knee Replacement Surgery and officially Retired in 2019 after 41 years working in Direct Patient Care ... I am so glad that we retired at 62 years of age and got to spend that time together before he passed....I still do love Retirement!!!!

I DABBLE IN A BIT OF THIS AND THAT!!!!

" IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO BE WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN"
George Eliot

George Eliot was actually a pen name for a woman named Mary Anne Evans......

BLOGGING FOR FUN AND FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Early Spring Patio , 2022

Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

Just a reminder, I will be posting on Wednesdays and Sundays every week so be sure to check back on those days to see a new post......

Today, I will be sharing how I set up the Patio for the upcoming warm weather months.....

But first, I want to Thank Charlene, over at A Pinch of Joy, for choosing my post, A Huge Patio and Back Yard Project, as one of her features from last week's Busy Monday Link Party!!!

Thanks so much, Charlene!!!

I also want to Thank to Suzan, over at Country Crafting, for also choosing my post, Huge Patio and Back Yard Project, as her feature from last week's Wonderful Wednesday Link Party!!

Thanks again, Suzan!!

Please stop by and link up to these lovely parties!!

In my previous post, I shared a bit of Late April This and That.....

Click HERE if you missed that post....

And now for a few Personal Notes...

I really do not have any Food to share in this post as there was no Reheat and Eat Dinners from the WB Scranton Food Service this week as Chef Steve had to take the day off for a family issue....

And I don't really have any other interesting entrees to share.....

Sorry.....

Our weather has taken a turn back to Winter with temps. predicted as low as 28 degrees with Freeze Warnings issued for the next few days......

Nothing out of the ordinary here in NEPA for the end of April.....

Which is why I will not plant any annuals until right before Memorial Day....

I did take advantage of the nice cool weather on Monday as it only got up to 60 degrees....

I decided to put the mulch down in the front flower beds....

When we did all the landscaping of our yard and 4 of my neighbor's yards last Summer, I delayed straightening out the brick border in the flower bed under the Living Room window because it was mid way through the Summer....

It was one of the things that I wanted to get done this Spring....

Here is a sneak peek....

You can see the border had sunk down in places and is very uneven....

Yes, here I am busting my butt, lifting up all the border bricks and replacing them....

Joe was sitting on the front porch watching me and taking pictures....

Finished!!

Much better!

After I lugged 2 bags of mulch, about 20 feet from where Joe put the bags, set up the bird bath, dug out a hosts that was growing too close to the sidewalk, set out my pots and planter boxes for flowers that I can't plant for another 3 weeks or so, and set up my solar lights.....

I then cleaned out all the dried leaves, graded, removed all the garden art, put Preen down, mulched and replaced the garden art in the flower bed that runs along the sidewalk.....

I drug 4 more bags of mulch up and down the sidewalk to do this....

My back was killing me and the next day, I had such a pain in my left side that I thought I broke a rib....

But I am now finished in the front...

Joe can do our slope as I can no longer crawl on the slope to do so....

And Barna Landscaping is retired so my neighbors will have to take care of their own yards now....

Even though Trish, who now owns the house next door, said we are on retainer to mulch her slope and flower beds yearly....

Joe will also be doing that and maybe once the house is finally finished and the young man who is going to be renting it, moves in, maybe he will take some interest in the yard work....

I did take advantage of the nice weather that we had at the end of last week so and I got the Patio ready for Summer...

I decorate the patio and bright cheerful colors.....

We will take a look at this side of the Patio first, which I call my side as this is where I usually sit.....

I treat the outside areas of our townhouse as if they were inside the house....

I hung this wreath on the lattice and moved this hanging faux plant in to the corner, replacing the hanging flower pot that the squirrels like to jump off the roof into..........

It helps block the strong Sun before it swings round to the front of the house around 4 pm......

For right now, I have this tiered plant stand in the corner but I may move this elsewhere....

You will see a lot of empty pots around that will be planted with annuals closer to Memorial Day...

In my previous post, I shared that I hung wreaths on the windows after I gave them a good cleaning.....

A Mail Man wind chime paying homage to Joe being a retired Letter Carrier.....

Next to the chair is a plant stand that I may put in the corner and put the tiered plant stand here.....

I didn't think about it until I looked at these pictures.....

The pillow on a vintage milk crate makes a great foot stool for me.....

I will be planting impatiens in this pot in the chair.....

On the table is one of my High Frequency emitting Owls I use to try to keep the squirrels away....

It's eyes also light up....

To the side of the back door.......

Last year, I had to throw out the rug that we used for 2 Seasons here on the patio because with the humidity and all the rain that we had last Summer, it actually got moldy!!

It only cost $30...

I still had the 2 outdoor mats that I used for the last 3 years but this year, I decided to flip them over on the other side.....

I measured and found that I would be able to fit one more outdoor mat in between the 2 I already had so I sent Joe to Ocean State Job Lot and wouldn't you know it?

They had one in the same color so I decided to use it with the darker side up in the center......

Problem of covering up the concrete block solved for only $12!!!!

This is how this area of the Patio looked after the Winter......

I used pavers that a neighbor gave us to extend the Patio and I also straightened out the walkway to the shed in the back corner of the yard.....

Click HERE if you missed that post....

This gave me a lot more room on the patio....

For now, I put the green chair and table back where they usually go and I added the wrought iron chair, that I use as a plant stand, on the other side.....

I will see how it looks once I plant flowers in the vintage sprinkler on the chair......

The extension also allowed me to move the pink drum table over to this side of the chair....

The other side of the Patio or what I call Joe's side.......

I have had this mirror hanging here for several years now.....

I love the garden reflected in the mirror when all the perennials start to bloom.....

Joe and Joey love these wobbling figures from Dollar Tree!!!

I am so glad that I bought this new storage chest to keep garden tools in.....

Another plant stand on this side of the patio....

Over in the corner.......

This side of the patio is more of a utilitarian area.....

This is where I have the baker's rack that I turned into a potting stand......

There is another owl on it that is supposed to keep the squirrels away....

Again, I will be planting flowers in all the empty pots.....

On the edge of the patio is my Fairy Garden Tub......

I will be sharing more of the Fairy Garden Tub in a future post, along with a gnome garden in the yard......

Another project I did recently was to install pavers here on this side of the patio to accommodate a second umbrella and base....

For now, I moved the wrought iron table here and I will see how it all looks once I do get to plant all my pots.....

So this is how my newly enlarged Patio looks now......

I need the shade that the 2 beach umbrellas provide as the Sun shines down on the back of our house all day long and in the Summer, you can fry an egg out there.....

Once I do plant all my pots, I will share how it looks and if I moved anything around....

I really hope it will not be such a hot and humid and rainy Summer like it was last year and that I will actually get to spend some time out here in the Patio......

I will be back on Sunday when I will be sharing more of what I have done this Season outside....

So I hope you will stop by to visit again on Sunday!!

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment. If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......