I'm just going to come out and say it: I adore these plants. I had a picture of them up a few days ago, and Teri from Beach City Life Style commented on them (hint: she liked them), making me think that a few more pictures and some words were in order.

We have a whole wall of them, and Neel added two more to other parts of the yard this weekend. I never ever get tired of them. Ever.

I first remember really noticing hydrangeas in my grandmother's town in southern Illinois. We were traveling through one spring, and took a drive through town. We stopped at the Logan Museum because my grandmother had a connection to both the Logans and the house itself, I think (Mom, you'll have to weigh in here.) If you look at the house on the right hand side of the page I linked to, you can see the house itself with its dreamy front porch. Between the fence and that porch are a gorgeous row of plump and fluffy pink hydrangeas. When you're standing on that porch, looking down on those hydrangeas, you feel like you're wading in a sea of pink. It was quite stunning.

I've been in love with them ever since.

Our hydrangeas, the ones in the backyard at least, line a wall of our shed. The shed itself (actually condemned when we bought the place) provides one of the "walls" of our backyard. These hydrangeas were little babies when we put them in there. One of downspouts of our house lies just across a small path from them, and after some flooding issues in the yard, we installed a French Drain right in that path. Let me tell you, those hydrangeas L.O.V.E. that French Drain. Apparently hydrangeas like having their feet wet, so this is the perfect spot for them.

A lacecap bookends the trio of Niko Blues.

We occasionally lose a beagle behind that wall of flowers, and just this weekend, Neel remembered that there is an azalea tucked in between each of the blue guys. And that vine climbing up the wall of the shed? Well, that's a hydrangea too.

It's not a bad view.

Poor Neel. Do we say that a lot around here or is it just me? Don't feel too bad for him. He loves playing in the dirt.

For some reason I've been working at our desktop in the family room lately rather than my laptop, and said desktop looks right out onto the garden. This means that Neel often gets texts from me during the day that say things like:

I think we should paint the fence charcoal gray.

After we'd painted it forrest green. (As as aside, designers, help me out here, why is green so hard to get right? We have the toughest time with that color.)

Last week, after watching the sun throughout the day, I told him that I thought we needed to move the raised beds for the vegetables from the side of the yard to the back of the yard where they'd get more sun.

Neither spot is ideal, really, but the back part of the yard bakes in the late afternoon, and the side yard is mostly dappled during the day. Fortunately he listens to me. He got started before I could snap any "before" pictures. These are the beds without their beds.

And these are the beds. Back safe, home again. (You'll note that the fence is not yet charcoal gray. I just thought of that this week.)

He moved the beans too. He said that when he had all the plants laid out, he almost forgot which ones were the cucumbers, but one whiff of the roots, which smell distinctly like cucumbers (go figure!) reminded him. It's coming along.

This morning I said, "Rather than going here; I think the grill should go here." He mulled it over awhile and agreed.

Me, being sarcastic: "Aren't you glad I'm staring at the yard all day so I can think of all sorts of changes for you to make?"

Neel, being sweet: "No! I like that you do that. It helps me out a lot." Long Pause. "Really."

hydrangea heaven {life}

Neel's Garden :: Late May {life}