My Secret Garden Oasis

I am missing my home and garden. I have been away since Dec. 18th, so I thought I would revisit my garden oasis and link with Kathy's Home and Garden Thursday at http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/. I a also linking with Sarah's Homemaking Link Up Weekend at http://bloggingwhilewaiting.blogspot.com/ and Chari's Sunday Favorites at http://happytodesign.blogspot.com/ . You should go visit them for some inspiration.
I can't wait to start working in the garden again. I hope you don't mind me reposting this. This was originally published in the spring of 2011.
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Last Wed. was probably the busiest day of my life. I don't think I've ever worked so hard in my whole life. At the end of the day when I finally was ready to rest, I sat down in front of my computer (it's my way of relaxing) and I started trembling from exhaustion. I could not even get up to take a shower. I sat there for a long while until I was a little rested and then I was back to my normal activities.

Let me enumerate everything I did. I got up in the morning and as usual, made my coffee and just grabbed a muffin and sat out on the pool deck just enjoying the surrounding and the peace and quiet.
After a while, I got my mom up, fixed her oatmeal and hot chocolate and sat her by the pool to eat. She likes her oatmeal with lots of milk and I usually sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon, since I read that it lowers Triglycerides.

Then I refilled the bird feeders around the gazebo. I don't know why those birds are always hungry. They always empty the feeders so fast when I feed them all the time!

Then I took a garden walk. The grapes are growing well. No chance on the strawberries though. The chipmunks eat them before they could get big.

Then, the delivery came for the arbor. If you follow my blog, you might have seen when I posted about it. I wasn't sure yet that we would buy it then cause I did not know if I had room for it in the garden. But I figured out a place for it if I moved some garden structures around. So I called the owner and had it delivered and here it is being set up. There was an iron swing there that I asked the delivery people to move for me. You will see it in the lower photos

These are the "Before" pictures.

I moved the table to the left side to make room for the delivery people to place the swing where I wanted it moved. And I actually liked how the table and chairs look there so I decided to leave them there.
I originally planned to put it on the other side of the yard (see picture at the bottom of the mosaic below) in the corner next to the fence and move the bench to the left. But that did not happen.
I painted the candelier that we bought from the same garden shop where we bought the arbor.

There's the arbor, all set up. I still have to lay more bricks under the benches.

I laid brick flooring under the bar height table and 2 stools but we ran out of bricks so had to buy more.

See those grassy edgers? I dug out a lot of them and moved them to other places. They were just over growing and over crowding that area.
We also bought this angel. I like how she is looking up praying. Since this area is low and the deck is way up, it's nice to see her looking at you when you are up there.
Do you see her by the tree on the left?

This is where the swing was moved to. The cushion was very dirty and is a little longer than the seat so I took it apart, bought a water proof material from Walmart, cut the padding to size and sewed the cover.
I also moved the other iron bench to the left of the swing and the glass tables to create a little grouping.

This is what you see if you are sitting down there.

See the cushion on the swing now? It is clean and sized to fit. I planted the hydrangea to the right of the stone bunny rocker.

I laid more bricks under and around the table.

Those bricks are heavy. John would lay them on the deck and I had to climb up and down and carry them 4 at a time and then lay them on the ground.

I hang the candelier. I could not find any cushions to fit the 2 benches. I went to several stores with no luck so when I saw 2 cushions for chairs at a good price ($14 each) in a discounted store, Fred's, I bought 2 of them. I stayed up till 2:30 AM ripping the cushions apart so I could cut them to size and then resewed them. They worked pretty well so even after needle pricks here and there, I was pretty happy.

I added throw pillows

I bought these stepping stones from the same garden shop in St. Francisville. I think I will stain them a terracotta color eventually. For now, I am going to rest.

How do you like my dragonfly tea light candle holder?

Now that my secret garden metamorphosis is all done, it's time to party! John invited a few couples for an outdoor barbecue on Saturday (today) and I am getting the tables ready.
Thanks a lot for viewing my many pictures. Whew! I am just so glad that project is done and I am loving the outcome. John and I would go to the end of the deck and just stare down where the secret garden is and admire it.

I have worked so hard on this project that I just want to have some fun now, so I am going to join a lot of parties and be a party animal, lol.

Thanks for hosting, Kathy, Sarah and Chari!