We bought a house

[sub_divided]

Two bed one bath, 15 year fixed rate mortgage with 20% down, the whole adult package :) Not something I ever thought I'd be saying...

Some pictures behind the cut because it just looks so awesome and I'm proud that we got such a sweet deal, can you believe this house was on the market for two months with no offers? People have no taste, it's not new build but IMO it's even better because it's mid-century modern and eclecticly finished so everything looks good.... like apart from the couches we didn't buy a single new piece of furniture. It's all stuff we either already had, or stuff we picked up for free on the streets of New Brunswick.

Also, I wanna ask everyone's advice about flowers to plant in the front yard!












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It's really just... so great XD XD XD and it's OURS which makes it even better!

For flowers, I'm thinking vegetables in the back corner of the backyard and some low-maintenance perennials to fill in the gaps in the front... some combination of lilies, daisies, hydrangeas and hosta maybe? But with like wildflowers in front. I took some flower inspiration photos down at the shore today but I don't know a lot about gardening so I'm looking for advice. Full sun mostly, see photos below.




So I was thinking may something like...








You can see the images full size if you cut and paste the URLs btw, I'm just too lazy to set a click-through link for each one. If you know the name of the last flower, please let me know... I think I like that one the best.

Comments

[marej]

Congrats, Subdee! The house looks wonderful. As does the boy with his cat :)

[sub_divided]

Hey thanks! The boy is the best thing about the whole arrangement, he is indeed wonderful :)

We actually have two cats, the second one is still hiding in the basement since the move and only coming out at night. Hopefully soon...

[petronia]

Looks like achillea (yarrow)! I only know this because I happen to have written it into a Hannibal fic. XD

Congrats on the house!!

[sub_divided]

Thank you :D

The daisies I planted out in front have mostly died, probably because I didn't mix in enough compost and was gone for a long hot weekend when the instructions say to "keep moist" for the first year. So there's a space for yarrow now >__> Esp since the description says it grows in poor, hot and dry soil. But do I really have to wait until next spring to plant it? Would you happen to remember, from your Hannibal research, which plants are OK to plant in early summer?

I really want to catch up BTW, we kept missing each other on tumblr messenger >__>

[petronia]

In our zones you can plant pretty much anything in early summer, except trees. The issue is that it's too late to start from seed, so whatever you plant, you'd have to go to a gardening center and get actual plants. They will have started from seed at the right point so the plants will be however big and ready to go into the ground. And you will have to keep them moist, at least in the first week. TBH, if it's an area that gets direct afternoon sun you'd have to water it once every 1-2 days regardless, unless it rains. Even if the plants tolerate dryness, it will attract pests like whiteflies and aphids, where the best way to keep them off is just to blast the area with a hose every day.

I might recommend lantana for you: it likes sun and is relatively drought-tolerant and it might be perennial in your zone, idk. (If perennial it'll grow into an attractive woody flowering bush.) I've had good success this year with a signet marigold (tangerine gem), it's not at all like a "regular" marigold - grows a foot tall and spreads and smells nice, and you can pick the flowers as salad. I can see that a row of those would make a really nice border.

I only check Tumblr once or twice during the day these days and don't get notifications, it's more likely I'll see DMs on Twitter? If you're into that. XD;

[sub_divided]

I'm not into twitter, but if we're going to DM and not chat I'll just email you :P Chrissie said the same thing, she's totally over tumblr and on reddit now (me too, but not the same subreddit). I would probably be over tumblr too if I'd been a regular user for the 10 years I've had one, instead of randomly getting into it now because that's where the fanwork-producing anime fans are. I'm back in fandom because I finally made tenure this year and I can finally breath a little at work, I think.

Thank you so much for the flower advice, my mother gardens but I really know nothing >__> I already half-killed the daisies by only watering them every other day, in the afternoons. According to mom they should be watered in the early morning, or the water will just evaporate in the sun. This area gets a lot of direct sunlight and it's been hot recently, there's evidence that other flowers were planted and died in the same spot previously. I'll look into lantana, yarrow and the marigolds next time I go to the gardening center, and maybe I'll go to an actual nursery this time and not a Loews gardening center (even though I have gift cards). They only have stuff that's at the height of full bloom at loews, I'd rather have something that will last into the summer.

[petronia]

I'm on Reddit too but I only lurk on subjects of interest, like I've always done with message boards for some reason. ^^; TBH feel free to ping me however! I will respond, even if time-lagged. Or yeah, just send me an email. XD You can hit reply to the newsletter emails and that will reach my inbox too.

[superborb]

I looove lantana, but I don't see it around much in NJ, so I wonder if it grows well in the area.

[sub_divided]

No lantana at the store, so maybe you are right... I haven't tried a dedicated nursery tho cause I have store credit at Home Depot. Anyway, how's things with you???

[karalee]

Congratulations on the house! It is lovely. I especially like the tub, it looks so luxurious <3

I don't know anything about gardening (other than "you can plant boxwoods anywhere" which is very boring advice) but good luck! I think flowers would be so gorgeous in that space.

[sub_divided]

Thank you, the tub is a major reason why we bought it XD.

I put some flowers from my mother's garden, which are so low-maintainance they are one step up from weeds, in today and accidentally dug up some bulbs. So it seems like that space already had flowers in it... :(