Planting the Pond Berm Area with Annuals & Maple Tree + Laundry Room Counter Install! 🌸🌳🙌

Hey guys, how's it going? So today we are going to be planting lots of annuals. We're starting here in front of the pond with the pond berm planting and I could not be more excited because we are planting some gorgeous things in here like all of these amazing Supertunia Bordeaux which have all the Supertunia colors that exist. This has always been my favorite. I just, there's something about it. I love them. When we're done with this we'll probably work on maybe some annual containers, maybe another in-ground annual planting project. Erin is working on planting a tree right now and I just got a text message from the people working on our countertop and I think they're going to come install it in the laundry room this afternoon, possibly. If they do, we will run up and take a look at that. Hopefully they do. I'm so excited about it. Okay, so let's take a look at this pond berm. You know, things feel like they've shrunk and I mean they do as perennials and trees and things grow and fill in. Your available space for things like annuals does tend to shrink a bit. Still have lots of room for things so I know we'll be able to easily fit all of these in and we're also going to be adding a chartreuse element and then possibly a few salvia because I was going to put play in the blues here but I think I want to do blue suede shoes again, possibly, because the hummingbirds absolutely love it and it's so fun to watch them. I actually saw the first hummingbird. I have a little video that I took last night. We were sitting over here in the little patio area. I had a cup of coffee. It was wonderful. The kids were playing and here comes this hummingbird and it was feeding on the iris, the Siberian iris. I see it right now. Okay, we're going to try not to scare it. It's right behind this crabapple on that patch of iris. Oh, there it goes. There it goes up above the barn. Probably wasn't able to get close enough to see it but anyway, the blue suede shoes salvia are just a hummingbird magnet to the max. So anyway, we're going to lay all of these Bordeaux supertunias out and then we'll head back for our other plants. That's what we're going to do. Also, it's supposed to get to 92 degrees today so I'm out not early early but early-ish to hopefully get stuff done before it gets too hot. Feels too early to be that hot. These are so pretty. I mean, look at that color and we don't even have our second layers in there. So real quick, in the back of the gator, I have the blue suede shoes salvia. We've got the sweet caroline, sweetheart lime, sweet potato vine. We're going to do aromance pink nemesia again in front of the stream area because I just, I can't not. It stays low so you can still see the water. It just perfumes the air. Wonderful in full sun, blooms all season. And then I did bring up one more flat of Bordeaux just in case. You guys, this is going to be so glorious. Look at all the nemesia and all the purple. I love it because the cat's pajamas nepeta are in bloom, the Siberian iris are in bloom. I do have some soft yellow ones and some white ones that will start blooming here soon as well. Purple in particular and the cooler pinks, they visually reduce the temperature. So when it gets really hot outside and it's looking like kind of bleak in the middle of summer, when you have cooler colors, it just kind of, it helps with that. So I stopped the Bordeaux right here and the nemesia here and we'll pick up and do something different. I'm actually thinking because we've struggled a little bit on this berm, keeping things super happy, I'm thinking maybe like some sempervivums or sedums. Maybe we'll come in with some lemon coral right in here and try that out and see if that works. Something that doesn't require as much water. I mean, you would think that with the berm here, that anything that was down below would catch all the runoff, but I struggle to keep these echinacea and the goldenrod and all that stuff happy here. So that's something that we might have to address later on. These chitalpas, just going for it. And the view, oh my word. Ah, it's a beautiful day. Okay, as we walk further down, you see in this section here, this middle section, it's just Bordeaux. That's all we have room for. Here's the rose rhinestones, penstemon, starting to bloom. I think the purple and that really vivid pink, they work. We've got Russian sage and coreopsis coming up right back in here and some more volunteer salvia. There's one there and one right here. They're both blue suede shoes. So if they should continue to grow, which I don't see why they wouldn't, they'll match the other side. And then right here, we've got all the gorgeous Bordeaux with the little dots of chartreuse, which I think is a really nice rest for the eye. And then just a small handful of the salvia. Five there. There's a little pocket of three there. And then I did one, two, three in this section here. Oh my goodness. So now we've got to plant all of these things, but it should go pretty quickly. There are bulbs here, but I can see where they're at. This was a glorious display of bulbs. The Sherborne daffodils from Colorblends is one that I will order more of. In fact, my parents were like, we need some of that at our house. So maybe we'll do a project out there this fall. And the muscari, I mean the bright yellow with that purple muscari, so pretty. All right, guys, we're going to be using the seven inch auger and the three inch auger. We're going to zip all the holes in the ground, put biotone down, and then we'll get them in planted. I'm going to plant these one section at a time, I think. Also, I haven't hit a single bulb yet. All right, you guys, we got that done pretty quick and it looks so pretty. So I still have yet to water it in, but there's already a drip system in place in this area because we've planted it up several times before, which is always nice. But isn't this beautiful? So the nemesia will kind of bulk up a little bit, but it won't get much taller than it is now. And that's kind of important to me because I want to be able to look over it and see to the water. And I think I will like to have kind of the continuity of the nemesia. So I'm just going to go ahead and at least to this point here, and then we can start in with something else. And then having one of the salvia here, we'll have a couple of them come up from last year in the middle section, and then the ones on the far side, that will also be kind of a continuous idea. But as we walk this way and just see all of the pretty things, oh my goodness, and the coreopsis bloom a pale yellow, and we've got agastache in there that blooms a pale purple. Of course, our Russian sage is purple, but lighter than the Bordeaux. Look at this section. Oh my goodness. Now we do have some anemones that have come up for spring. They're little bulbs that you plant. They come up in spring and then they kind of disappear like bleeding hearts do. So those, I had to kind of dodge those. I'm glad they're still up so I could see where they were at, but those will go away. So we won't have to worry about that. And I skipped this little section because I've got some Virginia star creeper in here that's starting to take hold. It's blooming a little bit, but yeah, I think it's just a really beautiful blend. And a little bit similar to last year in that we had the salvia and the sweet potato vine, but last year we had Nemesia in here and a Royal Plum Wine Superbina, which I just didn't care for that color quite as much. It was a little too, like, I don't even know how to explain it. Anyway, it's just not in this application at least. It looked really good with the Aramance Mulberry Nemesia though. That was a match made in heaven. But anywhere you put Supertunia Bordeaux is beautiful. It doesn't matter what you pair it with, I feel. It's gorgeous. So you guys, I think what I would like to do next, because I had a chance to look at it quite a bit this morning, I've got some Suncredible Sunflowers that I think would be really beautiful just to have a pocket of those. And then maybe we can ring around the front with some something else. But having that bright pop of yellow would be so nice. It would look beautiful with the Blue Spruce and the Thundercloud Plum here. And it would be different enough from what's going on over here, I think, that it would really stand out. Plus, it's our direct line of sight from the front gate. So if you have something really brightly colored right here, it just draws you, draws your eye. And last year I had put, we got some 16-inch hanging baskets they sent with our annual load of some of the national recipes. And it had, I think, Supertunia Mini Vista White, there was an orangish lantana in there, and then the Yellow Bidens. Anyway, it was a very bright mix of color, and I just popped all five, I think I had five 16-inch baskets. So I just dug some big holes and popped the baskets in here, and it was so pretty. So I think the Suncredibles will also kind of bring that brightness. So we're gonna go gather those up and get them in the ground. We also need to figure out what to put right in front of the Buddleias. These are Miss Violet, so they'll bloom a purple, but look at how glorious these are. There's 14. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12. We have 14 of them in here. High impact, but I left this little spot right here where we thought about possibly putting a boxwood hedge in. I know, groundbreaking, right? I could do boxwood hedges everywhere though, just because of the formality of this area. And it would provide a lot of winter structure right here, but I don't have the boxwoods for it. And we have another boxwood project we're working on out in the South Garden, so let's just do annuals here. I don't know if we'll do this today, but we've got to think about it. I used Whiteout Superbina last year, which was absolutely beautiful, and I'm leaning towards something white here again, just to contrast the purple blooms of the Buddleia, and then also something to be different enough from this. But it can't be, like, I've got a lot of beautiful Cool Pink Supertunias and other flowers, but I can't use those right here because of our Pinkerific Dahlias. Those are a very warm pink, so I've got to kind of stay a little bit warm, otherwise it'll be jarring to your eye. If I use, like, a Cool Jazz, for example, that would be amazing with the Buddleia, but it would jar my eye to see that warm pink and a super cool pink right here. I've made that mistake a few times in the past, and once you get everything planted, you're thinking, I don't want to go to the effort of digging it all out, replanting. So I've lived with it, but I try not to do that at this point. It'll probably happen again. And then we're also going to have to think of something to put in this bed right here, which, look at these Stormproof Hydrangeas. They have done so beautifully. Oh my gosh. And then we do have the Independence Boxwoods right here, which have suffered a little bit of winter damage, but I think these are big enough. That actually helps quite a lot, doesn't it? That's all we need to do, is go along and just knock all those little damaged leaves off. That helps. Anyway, last year we had some Pink Salvia and Saffron Finch Supertunias, which are a little yellow, but I don't think I want to do anything low in here, necessarily. Maybe something mid-height. So we'll see. But these Stormproofs, these are a new Arborescens Hydrangea, and they are just phenomenal. And I think they do so well here on the east side. See, they flag a little bit, which means they wilt down a little bit in the morning. One, because we're not running our drip system that often at this point still, but they perk right back up. They get into the shade like late morning, midday-ish, and they perk right back up, and they're completely fine. But they have at least doubled in size from last year. And so I'm guessing that they're going to put on even more growth this year, and they're full of buds. All right, guys. This has snowballed. So we've got a few things in here. We've got the Suncredible Sunflowers, which we will place here. We've got the White-Out Superbeena, which is what I'm going to ring around the front of the sunflowers with. And then I thought, while we're at it, this is the Aromance Mulberry Nemesia. What if we put this right in front of the Buddleia? So we do one layer of that, and then we do a layer of Lemon Coral Sedum beneath it. Look at how beautiful that is. With the purple blooms on the Buddleia, oh, it's going to be gorgeous. All right, guys. Let's get them in the ground. I have exactly the right amount. It's meant to be. Oh my goodness. Look at that. That is gorgeous. I love the rows. It's kind of reminiscent of the end of the loop out in the South Garden, where we've got the Limelight Prime Hydrangea Hedge, and then Independence Boxwoods, and then a row of Supertunia Mini Vista White. Kind of that stacked sort of situation, but it leans a little bit more formal, which is kind of perfect for the area right behind us. I absolutely love the bright pop of this Lemon Coral Sedum, and it's going to play really well with the Nemesia. Both of them, like the Lemon Coral will fill in, but it's not going to try to roll right over the top of the other plants. What is going on? Chickens, I see you. She's up in the window looking at me. We need to plant this bed too. Maybe not today, but we'll do that here soon. I don't know if you can hear them carrying on. Maybe they're laying eggs right now, but this is just so beautiful. I love it. All right guys, so this flower bed next. We've got them all laid out. We just need to get them in the ground. Our last section is done. It's going to be beautiful with the bright yellow flowers and bright white right below them. I went ahead and swung all the way around to the Quince, which Aaron loves. I thought it was going to be much more subdued in the color department, but it's not. It is so bright. I want to say this is double take coral, but it sure looks orange to me, bright orange. I think that's going to be it for me in terms of planting. We put in just about 200 plants in the ground today, which is awesome. We've got the couple of beds, the one on the east side of the barn and the one right behind the chicken coop that we'll need to plant back here. But other than that in this space, we are done. So now we are going to head out to the South garden to take a look at the Crimson Century Maple that Aaron planted. I don't know if you can see it, but it's straight over there. It's beautiful. Look at that tree. It is the perfect shape for this area. So you might notice the trunk right there. We had a Forest Pansy Redbud in that spot and it was absolutely beautiful. It was perfect last year, was growing beautifully. And this spring, nothing. Like there was no signs of what might have happened to it or what was ailing it. It just died. There was one branch on it that looked like maybe it was going to try to bloom and then it just got nipped and it didn't do anything. And we left it in there until, I mean, we cut it out maybe 10 days ago, something like that. And our other Forest Pansy, we have two others on the other side of the South garden. So we were able to kind of look at their growth rate and their, you know, what they were doing versus what this one was doing. So we determined that this one was done. And once we took it out, we just realized we need to go back in with something red because I do have a Ninebark here, but there isn't anything tall that's got that color. And this one grows 25 feet tall by 15 feet wide. So it'd be perfect. Only seven and a half feet from center. So our Birch and our Serviceberry here can do their thing and they're not going to crowd one another and they're hardy down to a zone four. But I also love the boldness of the leaf. I love the leaf shape and they're kind of a bronze color in the fall. And we've got a bright red color right here, bright yellow right there. So I think it's just going to be great. And I like kind of the compact, very tidy nature of this plant because we have a Show-Off forsythia right next to it, which is an absolutely wild mange of a plant. They're so pretty in the spring, but like, I don't know. I'm thinking maybe next year we will do a rejuvenation prune, maybe on both of these to try to like form them up a little bit differently. Yeah, we'll see. But I am just so happy with this tree. I think it's so pretty. We should look at it from the other side. Oh yeah, that looks really nice. I did come out with Aaron earlier because it does have a little bit of a crook in it and we made it as straight as we could, basically trying to make the bottom trunk straight because that can kind of be staked and corrected a little bit, but or it'll probably rebound. I think it's just missing a branch right in this section here. And once it fills in, you probably won't even notice the way it's shaped now anyway. Okay, so that is it for us out here. So now we are going to wait for the countertop people to arrive and hopefully we'll have a report for you later today. Okay guys, they got it in and it is a beautiful look at the counter. Oh my gosh. And if we swing here to the left, you can see the piece that's underneath the washer and dryer. Oh, and of course we don't have overhead light. So it's a bit hard to see detail, but you can see on the edge here, we did the cove cut on the corner or on the edge rather. And then for the backsplash, we went with a six inch backsplash and then it's got that little curved detail cut into it, but I'll try to find the name of what this marble is and we can put it on the screen, but I absolutely love the veining in it, like the movement. It's so beautiful and it's warm, creamy, and it looks really good with our cabinet color too, which you can kind of see right here. Again, the lighting is kind of weird at the moment, but we went with the Sherwin Williams creamy and that's what this color is right here, which of course, once we get all the doors and stuff on the front here, the drawers and the cabinetry, we'll be able to see that a lot better, but oh, I'm loving it so much. See if we can back up and look at the whole space here. It is coming together and here we are from the other side. Boy, just seeing that one detail go in has really changed a lot in here. In fact, it shifted our minds in terms of flooring. We ordered marble tiles for flooring in here and we set them down and the colors don't quite go together and it was just kind of a lot. So we're going to use the tiles in a different room and we're going to do hardwood in here. So we're going to go shop for some of that and I think that that will bring some warmth because if we have the light colored cabinetry, lighter base color in the marble, and we are going light for the walls, I think having a darker, darker-ish, it'll be like a medium brown kind of color will just bring that warmth. It'll be so beautiful. So anyway, super, super happy with this counter. I just want to like put a chair in here and look at it for a little while, but that along with the crown molding and then we're going to picture frame molding on the rest of the wall. I think all the detail in here will be beautiful and this whole project, we were talking about this with our contractor yesterday. This room will really help kind of catapult all the rest of the decisions in the house because the flooring, the wood flooring that we choose for this room, will be the wood flooring we carry throughout the rest of the house when we tackle each new space. So like when we tackle the kitchen renovation downstairs, we'll use the same wood flooring. I want something extremely similar to this for our countertops downstairs. Yeah, what else? Oh, the crown molding. We know how we like that. We will have the baseboard sort of thing kind of worked out. We have the window picked out, which will carry on through the whole house. So I think it will and even like the faucets and that and I'm doing mixed metals in here. We're going to have some aged brass in this part of the room and we're doing polished nickel in the powder room section because I like that look. It looks a little bit more curated instead of like I bought a set for the whole room. So anyway, yeah, I don't know. I think it's just going to make everything a little bit easier going forward, hopefully. So anyway guys, that is the update on the laundry room. Thank you so much for watching this video today. I hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you in the next one. Bye.