Everything looks wonderful and inviting!

What is the plant in the back between the hostas? Is some kind of sedum or is it the hydrangea you mentioned? They all look fabulous!

It's pretty sad when your screened in porch looks better than my living room! lol.

Are you in a neighborhood with acreage? The scenery is drop dead gorgeous!

We still haven't bought furniture for the new porch which is ashame because it's one of those big, deep porches. All we have are two benches and a planter for now.

But I do hope other's share their porches!

Gorgeous! I love the frog pillows too! We are in the process of building an open covered porch. Your post is very inspirational. I'll keep Steinmart in mind. Where did you get your patio furniture? Is the fabric Sunbrella?

Your plants look luscious. I love the hostas! I am so itching to be aplanting...

Simply stunning...It's an inspiration.

Natal, I'm confused (which is not uncommon LOL). Was there a problem with your mom's azaleas? (You said another issue?) I am not familiar with Korean azaleas, I'm going to look that up. I am in Zone 6. Where is your mom located?

NHB, is your clematis blooming now? My white one is and it's fantastic. It has larger blooms than my purple one and it is so snow white - it's gorgeous even at night when the lights illuminate it. My purple one blooms a little later and I have a sweet autumn clematis that blooms late summer. Tiny little blooms on that one.

tina

natal - No nearby outlet, but I have been looking for solar lights for my umbrella, so the frog is a good thought.

When I said my azaleas have struggled, I meant that it has taken a while for them to get to where they are. The frost got them year before last. I thought this last winters weather would get them, but they seem to be thriving. I should probably fertilize, but have no idea when, with what and how much. lol

tinam61 - All my neighbors azaleas have bloomed and gone. Mine just came out...late bloomers. My lone tomato plant is blooming and is in one of those hanging pouches this year. Thought I would try that for a change. It's on a back tree. My purple clematis on the shady side of the house is in full bloom. The one in the above photo has not begun to bloomed yet. Looking forward to seeing your photos!

nikkia2112 - We do have a special view. Rolling hills, cows, horses, and unfortunately because our property backs up to county property, we get smoke from an occasional controlled rubbish fire. Our neighbors burned one yesterday, and someone called the fire department. I looked out to see firemen converging on my yard. Scared me to death until I saw them continue on down the fence line and to the neighbors field. Then I saw the smoke.

tomorrowisanotherday - Yes, I have two Autumn Joy Sedum planted there. Will move those before next season. I have three down near the driveway entrance. I love them, and the dried flowers make the best cutting arrangement. The hydrangeas are below that wall on the side of the house.

oakleyok - As I mentioned previous, our property backs up to county farm land. We live in a golf course community, and right across from a # hole green.

I am sure your home will come along just fine. It takes a while to get a new home established. Ours is almost 4 years in the making. Enjoy your porch!

doonie - believe it or not, we got the porch furniture from Target. This will be the 3rd season of it's use. The fabric has faded a tad bit because we get the strong afternoon sun. It would not have been my first choice in color, but we were on a budget. The furniture has held up really well.

Thank you, cliff_and_joann.

Am I the only person sharing?

Oh Natal - I see the *issue* now - missed that in the first post! So, please disregard my question. LOL (Just disregard me today - I told you I was confused!)

tina

very nice NHB...how on earth do you get those hostas to loook so lushious? I have some in shaded areas around here, and they come back each year but never get very big!!!

I wish I had an enclosed patio...a must in the next house we buy!!

I just got some new to me patio furniture (wicker/resin) and am wondering however I'm going to keep the red cushions from being pink by the end of the summer....

I am going to post another help me post soon on how to best arrange my patio's...maybe you'll see it and chime in with your ideas...

How lovely and inviting your whole set up is there...

"It's porch and yard time..."

Oh, how I wish!!! Two nights ago it went to 24F and last night to 28F. Have been up setting up and running sprinklers in an attempt save blueberry blossoms that are about 2 weeks ahead of time because of unusually warm weather earlier in April. Have lost about a third of the strawberry blossoms even tho we set up 4 layers of row cover.

I was hoping to have the porch set up earlier this year, but it looks like it will be the usual Memorial Day project.

Well, I've never seen a more perfectly misspelled word in all my born days! ....hostas to loook so lushious? That is exactly how those hostas look - LUSHious! Just perfect! You coined a good one, rjinga.

As for the porch and property, well, it's beautiful. Just beautiful.

Is your porch wall material stucco?

Your patio/porch and yard look wonderful ! You are so lucky to have views of your neighbors cows & horses.

Being in Zone three, there is nothing here to see yet - we had a snowstorm only ten days ago! Our trees and lawn are just starting to green up, and it is still a little early for bedding plants (unless you are a gambler...).

But your yard is beautiful!

Carrie

rjinga - I saw some free patio furniture design software pop up somewhere on here yesterday. I'll look for your thread and would be glad to give ideas.

barb5 and carriem25 - That's a shame that y'all are still having cool weather! Luckily, we didn't have any damage this year. Suppose to be in the 80's today!

Thank you, sherrmann!

jeannie01 - Yes, the walls are stucco, like most of the house which is also brick. DH and I had a disagreement on what should go on the porch walls. He wanted to use the painted Hardy Board shingle like we had at the last house. While I love the look of the painted shingle, I didn't think it looked right with this house, which has more of a Mediterranean feel.

Well, I have a big computer project going on for a friend, so I will check in periodically when I get a chance.

Oh Barb! I hope the ice insulation worked!

ha, ha, got me on that one sherrmann...too bad GW doesn't have a built in spell check!! OK, I spell checked it and those hostas, still LOOK luscious ;) and LUSH

As usual, I am drooling! I love Frogs and have a few items myself but my outdoors needs so much help this year and with my new job, I have no idea how to get it all done.

You have a beautiful outdoor space! So inviting!
Alicia

Thanks Natal, me too!

The strawberry blossoms you can tell right away- they turn black in the center. If there is a way to tell about the blueberry blossoms, I don't know it. It is a wait and see.

If were we able to keep the blossoms at 32F they should be alright.

I'd love to see more pix of porches though I love NHB's (new house and old house). The frogs are so cute.

My cousin-in-law is going to start trimming out the porch (perhaps today) with the white PVC we bought last fall, we also talked yesterday about pulling down the wavy vinyl beadboard ceiling and putting it back up (running the short way, he wants to put plywood over the joists to have something to nail the BB to), adding recessed lights while we're at it. I got the lights, priced out the plywood and (hopefully matching) more BB in case we run short cutting it. Labor is going to be the big expense even at "family" rate. I wish I had been able to convince the builder to come back and run the BB the correct direction when I asked him 2 months after we moved in. I'll start a new thread about spacing. But after we get the reconstruction done, including the stone walls (and maybe all the wicker furniture out, though I only made 1 cushion!) I'll post pics. Should be around ummm, 4th of July LOL?

Barb - I just walked out, most of our blueberry bushes look good, lots of blossoms/buds, so I hope this will be a good year and they didn't freeze. The laurel has lots of new growth and some pink buds too, so maybe nothing froze here. We're pretty close together, aren't we? Sorry about your strawberries.

AJsmama, we have beadboard/V-groove on all porch ceilings. It runs the length of the porch on the longer porches. Why do you want it running the short way? It only runs that way on our smallest porch.

Since you're tearing things out you might consider a couple ceiling fans if you don't already have them.

natal - what kind of BB do you have and how is it supported? All my neighbors have it run the other direction, my cousin and cousin-in-law says that's how it's supposed to run, they only know of 1 guy (builder's own house) who ran it the way ours is b/c of time crunch and says it looks as bad as ours.

I'm not sure we need ceiling fans - it does get hot out there but when it's that hot out we go inside (AC) and mainly it's the floor that gets hot, not the air. If it were a screened/3-season porch I'd consider it but I like the recessed since they won't show and won't contribute to light pollution (we would like some light for enjoying the evenings, but we'd turn them off for star-gazing since we have incredible night skies - no light pollution here yet!).

camarodreamer67 - Thank you!

Real bead-board can be run long ways (see my ceiling.) The vinyl needs to be run short. It is too flimsy to run long. We had it on the other front porch and hated it! Good idea to put up the backing board. Ours had nothing and the wind would get up under the vinyl and knock them around.

Someone earlier asked about how I keep my hostas so lush? I don't do anything! They get a little more sun than they are suppose to (actually do better than the hostas I have on the side of the house that gets only limited late afternoon sun) and they get water every other day from the watering system. That's all! I have always had great luck with hostas. Here is a photo from my other house. These got very little morning sun.

Actually, since there's going to be a solid backing I don't see any reason we can't run it the same way it's going now (long way) since we can nail it anywhere. No cutting saves labor and material. I'll ask. Cousin IL didn't come today - we're going to try this w/e or Monday (rain tomorrow) to get the front skirt and risers trimmed out. Ceiling will have to wait til a nice w/e so DH will be here to help lift/support the plywood. Maybe next w/e?

I might have pix to post by Memorial Day (w/o blue striped cushions)!

I envy people with lots of sunshine! (and manicured yards!)
You have to like the color green, birds and crawly things to enjoy my yard and porch.
I admit I did think twice about posting these because I did not dust and finesse the porch and pretty up the yard before I took these. It is what it is - but does look better in real life!
I have inserted 5 pics but only one is showing up in the preview, let's see what happens....
If the side of the drive pic shows up, that is what I have been working on. Bringing in more rocks from the creek and fallen logs from the woods to terrace it. Grosbeak is at the kitchen window. Screened in porch faces the back and the creek which is a raging river after last nights storms.

Dusty porch

side of drive

NHB, about the azaleas and fertilizer - I just planted some, and the info I came up with said to fertilize after the blooming is over. They like acid. I jsut bought some Miracle Gro for azaleas & camellias (the blue box, not the green). Some people don't like using MG; there are soem organic things you can buy, saw it at Lowes.

Pretty place! The fabric on your cushions looks very similar to the cushions I bought this season at Lowes.

Thanks for that info. I have a Camellia on the side of the house. The first year I planted, the frost got it. I thought it was dead, and it has suddenly come back to life! It's about 16" tall, but no blooms, yet. I will be sure to get the Miracle grow for both.

deedee99 - I love it! So peaceful in the woods, and with a river running by. Heaven! I have lawn mowers running beside my porch.

BTW - I got a warning from Photoshop that I am about to meet my bandwidth limit, so if my photos disappear, they will be back in a month. By then, I can post how my plants are doing. lol

Thanks nhb! Love yours too! b5, I am wishing you kinder weather.
I did just go down and dust the porch and plump up pillows a few minutes ago. It's still a "very rustic" retreat.....:)
I was brave enough to post my "as is" porch. Who's next?

This is our new screened porch we had built the end of last summer (we're LOVING it this spring)! I haven't really decorated it yet, but it'll get there VERY slowly but surely!

I still haven't gotten around to painting the daybed frame, but it's on the TO DO list:

Our landscaping is being put in a little at a time, so everything's still in baby stage. The pretty tree is our new (last year) Venus dogwood -- LOVE it! For Mother's Day, we started putting up the lattice I've wanted since we built the house three years ago:

And we are definitely going to paint the frame around the lattice white -- we're just now installing it, so that will be next on the list!

Here's mine. As you can see, I'm sorely lacking furniture on the deep end of the porch, but we're going to paint the benches eventually. My dh made them. In his spare time he makes benches for people's cellars.

But I'm so proud of my flowerbed, I planted all of it last summer, and most of the plants came back. The smaller one's I put in recently, and on the porch you can see where I have more to put in!

By the end of summer I hope I can't see any dirt in the flowerbed! lol

hoosiergirl - It's good to see the finished product from the inside. Looks like you have a lot to work with. :) I loved helping you with that moc-up before construction. Your lattice looks good, as well. And that dogwood is in a perfect spot!

Remember my mock up for an outside pergola for my house(see below)? It's still in the planning stages. We had to put it off when our daughter announced her wedding for last fall. Maybe next year, IF we stay in this house.

{{gwi:1705246}}

oakleyok - Lovely...you should be proud! I also like your topiaries around the front door.

Benches for cellars? Do you live in tornado alley?

Deedee! I LOVE your view and area! I much prefer natural to manicured. I guess ours would be somewhat in between as we are in a rural, partly wooded area. Lots of trees, wildlife, etc.

NHB I had forgotten about the pergola plan - hope you get to do one. Would be pretty easy to build. We had to partially redo our arbor - thanks to wisteria (which is now gone, see my rose post LOL).

I also meant to ask you (NHB) the name of your brick. It looks very similar to ours, which is Aztec.

tina

What draws me to all your beautiful yards and porches is the fresh and airy feel - which is hard to obtain in the woods. That being said, I am fantasizing about my porch with a much more "cottagey" feel. I did have it built for dh's b-day a few years ago and don't know how much he would appreciate that decor, but luckily he usually lets me have my way without too much of a fuss. What is in there now are things that really had no home elsewhere in the house. It is comfortable and functional. I am appreciating the inspiration from everyone's pictures so far!

Beautiful porches, everyone.

Wonderful garden Oakley! I spend so much time planting veggies in rows, that I yearn for time to spend making a pretty flower garden.

And Deedee99, I absolutely love your porch. It is like being in a tree house!

NHB, I remember your help, and SOOOO appreciated it (and still do)! Did you ever see the exterior pics? It's STILL not finished (have to stain the deck skirt) and we have just started on the landscaping so it looks kind of rough, but it's getting there!

Deedee, I love your porch! I think it just needs a punch of color here and there to liven it up a bit. I'll bet that's a nice, cool spot even when it's hot out.

Oakleyok, I envy all your gorgeous color!

NHB, I agree your framing would look wonderful stained cream, and a pergola would be heaven there! Would you grow a vine(s) over it?

hoosiergirl - I drool every time I see your porch and deck. I'm partial to dogwoods too. Your "babies" look nice, before you know it they'll be grown LOL. It's amazing how much our boxwoods and Siberian cypress have grown in just 2 years.

oakley - your flowerbeds look lushious LOL. What do you have for plants? I'm totally different zone, but I need color! Everything's just green right now. At least I got purple (says blue but really purple) petunias in the baskets I hope to hang soon.

The white skirtboard is half done, CIL had to go to fire but hopefully it's a small one and he can finish this afternoon. Funny, at least 2 fires here (maybe 3?) this AM and it poured last night. Was supposed to T-storm this afternoon so maybe we won't get skirt done today.

Porch is looking so good I may post pics once he finishes the other half of the skirt, not wait for ceiling, stone walls, or decorating! Though you've all probably seen the mockup.

Speaking of mockups, I really like the pergola. Don't think I'd ever seen that pic b4. You should build it and have the wedding there.

Oh my, more beautiful *WHITE* porches. You're all going to cause me to go on a shopping spree!
Agreed on a punch of color for my porch. I'll be dreaming of fabric swatches tonight.

Deedee, just adding a few potted flowers or hanging baskets will give it a little zing! It has good bones!

I envy people with lots of sunshine! (and manicured yards!)

All that sunshine can be overrated ... especially during a drought (ongoing here) and when it makes shades necessary to enjoy the porch. Not a big fan of manicured yards either. It's more fun when the rules are relaxed. ;)

Deedee, I like your porch. It reads cool and comfortable. Bet you see a lot of bird activity. Allison has a natural screened porch too. Hers evokes a similar feeling.

newhomebuilder, what a great cozy space you've created... feels like you are inside a living room.

deedee99- love the woods!

Some great spaces here for inspiration. We haven't even moved in yet. But I'm really excited about our covered patio.

The bump out on the right is for a future outdoor kitchen. For now it will be a nice place for our grill.

Tina - My brick is either General Shale Salem Creek Tutor or Spaulding Tudor. Cannot remember which.

hoosiergirl - Yes, I have seen the outside and commented on it in an earlier thread. That's why I was happy to see the inside. It really does look very similar to the moc-up.

No vines!

ajsmama - The wedding was last September! That's why we had to put off the pergola last spring. Still recovering from the wedding, so I got the umbrella this year.

I was writing and watching Ellen at the same time. I missed your post. What a gorgeous open patio. Wonderful view of the woods.

pps7. That patio is simply magnificent.

natal, 50+ different species of birds have been to our feeders over the years. I even make their suet:)

hoosier, just got back from Home Depot w/dh and he was not in the mood for flower/plant shopping. But I will go back and pick some up this weekend. A simple and inexpensive start for a punch of color. You know how it is. All it takes is one new item to get the momentum going to want to finish a space. Thanks!

NHB, I'm so sorry that I had forgotten that you responded to that thread! I remember wanting you to see it since you were so helpful with the design, but I also remembered that you were gone from here a lot since you were busy with your daughter's wedding. So I wasn't sure if you had seen it or not. Thank you again for your help! And BTW, I *LOVE* seeing any and all pics of your home - inside and out. You have wonderful taste, and I love to see how you pull it all together!

Deedee, I hope you find just the right plants that make you happy! And I hope you'll post pics when you get the porch the way you like it -- I love pics!

I LOVE seeing ALL the great pictures you all posted. My pictures are from last year. We have several decks. The stone work is from the lower stargazing deck. None are covered.

A stargazing deck!
That is the most romantic deck and the view is spellbinding.

NHB I am sooo embarrassed! Too many GW weddings to keep track ;-)

Hinges broke on laptop so I am typing 1-handed while I hold screen w/ other hand. Just had to post pics from last night - not as nice as mockup (don't know why some boards look grayer b/c we tried to match them at L0wes. But here it is - makes the house look finished (wish inside looked as good)!

And looky what I found near the driveway - thinking of moving some to edge of lawn where we can see it.

AJ, is that Honeysuckle? How pretty! Our's is blooming now, it's white, but the blooms don't last long then it looks like weeds.

I grow Petunias but they don't do well. Everything I grow is super easy. Everything I plant blooms profusely all summer. If not, I won't plant it. lol

Knock Out Roses-
Floribunda Roses (my first year)
Cosmos (first year and they've tripled in size already)
Carpet Roses-
Zinnias
Coneflowers
Tickseed or coreopsis
Hydrangea, the easy one, forget it's name.
Dianthus, the real colorful mounds you see
Impatiens for shady areas
Caladium, which I'll be planting more of. They thrive in front of the porch with morning sun.

I still have other plants to buy! My dh planted a large plot of wildflowers so I can't wait to see them. They're on the other side of the garage which you can't see in the picture.

Oakleyok It looks like a wild azalea, we own a lot along side a creek and we have several on the creek bank. They are so beautiful.