Come ho speso le mie vacanze estive, la mia parte tre

How's that for a post title? Hee hee... A little italiano tossed in there. So now it's time for the final installment of the story of our patio building project.

The third Saturday we went back to Spokane to help Tommy & Shannon pick out some flora for the area around the patio. The goal was to get plants that would take minimal care, wouldn't become overgrown in no time flat, and would add color and soften the hardscape. We had some ideas but weren't sure of availability until we actually hit the nurseries. Tommy would not be available to help as he had an all day "engagement" scheduled - the big NFL Fantasy Football draft. Sheesh. Tom decided he'd work on the sealing of the patio while Shannon and I hit the nursery.

I'm a big fan of Stella d'Oro daylilies. They stay small, they bloom all summer long, they are super easy to take care of, and come back thicker and more beautiful year after year. Tom thought some tall perennial grasses would be nice to help screen parts of the patio from the street and I agreed. We ended up with two beautiful grasses, some blue fescue to accent the junipers already in place, some sedge around the bottom of the fountain grass, the daylilies, and a small groundcover that would have blue flowers most of the summer. We decided to plant the plants inside rings to keep them contained, keep the weeds down, and make them easy to care for. What we did was use those red cement tree rings with the scalloped edges, turning them so the scallops are in the ground and the ring just has a nice flat edge. You have to see the photos to understand I think. Tom and I planted the grasses, the fescue, and one of the daylilies, leaving the rest of them and the groundcover for Shannon to plant. You can see in the photo the blue fescue between the junipers. The tall grasses will, of course, thicken and get taller in time. I think it will all be perfect next summer.

So... that's it. The project is complete. Now Tommy & Shannon need to find a few chairs and bistro tables to furnish it and it'll be finished.