Summer came early to us here in Wisconsin this year.

We were SO happy about that!

While Blake and I were in Florida we made some decisions about finishing our little nest we call Twin Oaks!

One of the things we budgeted to do was add some landscape to the front of our home.

I was SO excited about this!

Thankfully I have a neighbor who has a very bright green thumb!

She was super generous in getting this project off the ground – not only by splitting a bunch of her plants to share with us – but also by coming over to help plant them all.

She’s a keeper – both as a neighbor and a great friend of mine!

A couple days after we got those first plants in the ground, Blake and I had a date to shop for the rest of what we needed to finish this project.

It was fun picking everything out!

The guys worked on getting this project going and finished when they could, but they did most of it the weekend after my surgery.

I was sad to miss helping with this, but enjoyed watching them!

We also added a new bench on our front porch and I love it so much!

Look how great it turned out!!

We added lights throughout that are solar powered and light up at night, and also a spot light on the new tree on the very end of the house.

It’s beautiful!!

Another May planting project was our garden beds!

Tate was the most excited about this, and is definitely the most enthusiastic gardener I have ever had!!

I shopped for some plants with my trio at our favorite green house at the beginning of May.

We planted the garden on May 12th this year – which is way earlier than we normally do!

We did have a couple night of frost after that, but we covered everything and it did great.

Addie rounded up the planting crew – and of course my hubby showed up like this.

We had an ice cream party after we finished it all that night, and I snuck a photo of this guy – so funny!

The garden has done extremely well this year so far!

Here is how it looks now!

Being outside working on these projects has been really nice!

Without getting too deep and mushy – there is a feeling of healing of sorts as we make our house our home.

Lord willing, we have more plans for Twin Oaks that will take place in our family room in the lower level!

Time will tell!

Did you all plant a garden this year?

How is it doing?

I hope you are seeing the fruit of your labor!!

I love having our little garden space!!

It is a joy to take care of and very satisfying to harvest for our meals here!

I’m glad summer is only half over, aren’t you?

Here’s to many more days in the garden before the cool weather arrives!!