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Planting A Dwarf Pieris Japonica Variagated Tree

Yup, we’ve been digging. And my arms are sore. But they don’t look like Madonnas yet so it couldn’t have been that bad. We still have a ton of things to do outside, so this is one of those it’ll-take-years-things, and not a ta-da-here’s-the-after-by-the-end-of-the-post things, but it’s nice to focus on one small area at a time to keep from getting overwhelmed (last year we limbed up the magnolia, transplanted/removed a lot of the bushes, and painted the front door). And for this installment of Petersiks Vs. Wild, we tackled the sad little garden bed to the right of the front porch:

Landscaping 1

If you look closely, you’ll see what looks like a rectangular brick patio on the right half of the garden bed, which prevents us from planting anything there. But for reasons of balance, function, and curb appeal it had to go.

Garden Before

So $herdog got her shovel on:

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The brick wasn’t mortared together or anything, so it was easy enough to dig one out and free up the next brick, one by one. It wasn’t exactly quick work or light work (I must have carried 100 bricks to make a neat pile next to the carport) but it was nice to start clearing things out. As for what we’ll do with those bricks, we’ll either use them somewhere else down the line or craigslist them. We’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile John started digging up the liriope on the side of the garden bed right next to the porch as Clara played with all of her friends nearby. No she doesn’t have invisible friends, the girl actually loves worms. She loves talking to them, waving at them, and crouching down to watch them wiggle. It’s weird yet hilarious and adorable. Whenever John or I found them while digging we’d just gently put them in front of Clara so she could watch them inch by (at this point we were both wearing gloves mind you, $herdog doesn’t palm worms).

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The liriope was a beast. Check out this sod-like run of tangled roots he dug up in a strip:

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Then we found what we thought was the mother of all worms but actually was a tiny garden snake. So snake alert- don’t scroll down and look at John’s comical expression if you have nightmares about those guys. Although, if you’re gonna see a snake, this one’s pretty small. John was flashing a smile and I said “look scared” so he gave me one of these:

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After about four hours we had our little 13 x 7′ zone stripped down and ready for some actual plant-life (it always looks less wide in photos for some reason- probably because I can’t exactly take aerial shots being 5’2″ and all).

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It took us a while of hunting around at a bunch of nurseries and places like Home Depot to find two more things to add to this part-shade garden with the otto luyken laurels we planted here. We usually go for a group of the same thing (or at least try to repeat a few things), but we fell in love with the idea of a feathery little maple and a sweet white-flower-covered shrub (which we also planted around our first house’s perimeter) so we just went for it.

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We looked at some red maples but thought they’d blend into the red brick too much (and some would get too big). But this feathery green one (a virdis laceleaf) had us at hello. It’s a small dwarf version that’s great for a 7 foot deep bed in front of a house (it will only get 6′ tall, and is often recommended for a house’s perimeter since it has a small root base and can easily be trimmed if it crowds the house). We planted it almost 4′ from the house, so although it looks more cramped in the pics, there’s lots of room for him to fill in.

The small flower-covered bush in the middle is a Dwarf Pieris Japonica Variagated, which only gets to be 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide (so it’ll just get around 6″ wider on all sides). It’s covered in white flowers in the spring and is a pretty leafy shrub for the rest of the time. It also works in part shade like the maple so it just felt like they were meant to be. And they both have a one year warranty so we have high hopes for their survival.

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So yeah, there are lots of rules of gardening (like “group a bunch of the same type of plants, repeated three or five times since odd numbers are great”) but in the end our two rules were: 1) pick plants you love – no placeholders allowed and 2) make sure they’re right for the spot and that you plant them with the recommended amount of room around them and sun on them – so you don’t end up crying over dead plants or having to dig them up to place them more thoughtfully

We remembered doing some yard work in the back yard at our first house and in the first few years we just bought whatever was cheapest or seemed like a quick fix instead of really thinking things through and holding out for stuff we loved. And it either ended up dying because it was wrong for the place we put it or we ended up wishing we had put the money/time towards something we actually liked a bit more. So we learned our lesson and course corrected just in time to redo the front yard there, which we really loved. But back to our planting project. We dug in our new tree and our bush following the directions on the tag (read them! they help you know how to space them, how big to make the hole, how to break up the roots, what to add to the soil, how often to water, etc).

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And speaking of spacing, we originally planned to pop two annuals in front while we wait for things to fill in (everything will grow a foot or two over time, but thanks to proper spacing it shouldn’t get crazy/crowded). But while we were at the nursery we saw these inexpensive perennials called Garden Variagated Dead Nettle. They only get 6-8″ wide and tall, so they won’t overwhelm our little garden- and they should be easy to dig up down the line if things fill in and we’d rather move them somewhere else. The great thing about these little purple flowering guys is that they bloom in the spring and summer year after year (instead of just for one year and die like annuals). And they work well in part shade. Holla!

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Once they were planted and everything was mulched to keep the weeds away (and keep them nice and moist between waterings), we were really happy with our small side garden.

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And now for some plant-tastic detail shots. No allergy meds required:

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Shucks, they’re sweet. All told, it probably took us about seven total hours of work (done sometimes with Clara and her worm friends nearby and sometimes while she napped) to go from raw and bare…

Garden Before

… to this not-grown-in-yet-but-much-better result. But we hope these guys will fill in a bit more and live here for the next few decades, just doing their thing. So a little work up front will hopefully pay off. We’ll keep ya posted!

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It’s funny how much smaller this planting bed looks in the pics. Doesn’t it look 4 feet deep in these shots or something? Meanwhile, all the plants in the back are almost four feet from the house and the whole bed is 13 feet wide by 7 feet deep. Oh and here’s a tip we learned in our last house from a master gardener: it’s always good to place things a bit further out from the roof overhang so roots don’t mess with your foundation, so runoff doesn’t flood your new plants, and so they get a bit of sun instead of always being in the shade of the awning.

Now the plan is to attack the garden on the other side of the porch while Clara’s out there whispering “wooooorms? where the worms go?” We’re also starting to plan our big deck project (we called in Miss Utility to make sure there’s nothing dangerous in the ground and then need to get a permit). So that’s on the docket along with finishing our bathroom and hopefully tackling more Dude Get On That Already things. Ah, spring. It never fails to get us excited to hop from project to project, Easter-bunny style. Speaking of which, what did you guys do this weekend? We got to see a bunch of our family (including Clara’s youngest cousin Ben who is just six months old) and had a grand old time. Lots to be thankful for. We owe you a Young House Life post about it soon. Hope you guys had the perfect mixture of family, food, and DIY fun.

Comments

  1. Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says

    Looks great! I love that mini maple tree! My parents have a Japanese Maple in front of there house (it’s shady) and it’s more of a purple color so it doesn’t really blend into the brick, which is nice. It’s also not super tall so another win!

    Reply

  3. Ade@fortheloveofpainting says

    Oh my…I did not realize you guys had cobblestone in that bed! It looks great! Clara is really getting a good lesson on what hard works means…my 4 year old has seen all our house projects and she now wants to help us…it’s pretty cute!

    Reply

  4. heather says

    This looks really nice! There’s something to be said for fresh plants and mulch. Our weekend consisted of putting the siding up on the barn. We got the front done and one side wrapped before heading on over to the neighbors for Easter dinner / birthday party. By “we” I mean, my husband and my brother in law…and I took photos and played with the dogs to keep them busy. It’s a team effort hah. I’ll be editing the photos later today and putting a post up on it!

    Reply

  5. Crystal says

    Ahhh…The space looks like it can breathe now! My yard had a bunch of old bricks lying around and buried in the ground when we first moved in, too.

    Reply

  8. Katy @ The Non-Consumer Advocate says

    Looks great. It’s always good to get new plants in early enough in the season so they have a snowball’s chance of making it through the hot season.

    I really love the Dwarf Pieris Japonica that you chose. Mostly because the leaves are (usually) a deep dark green, which contrasts nicely with most other plants, but also because it flowers at a time when few other plants do. Did you know there are varieties with pink flowers? And I’ve always heard it called “Andromeda,” which is Star Trek-y and cool.

    Enjoy your pretty planting bed. Now you won’t have to be bothered by “I need to get on that already” every time you enter your house!

    Katy

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Ooh never seen the kind with pink flowers! Sounds so pretty! And yes, haha, we strategically picked the garden we see the most to get started on. That way at least we feel better when we pull into the driveway. Haha.

      xo,
      s

  12. Mandy says

    We (husband mainly) took apart a solid oak (we were told, only to find out it smelled like maple syrup when drilled into!) pallet to make a raised veggie bed, did some weed control, and pulled out the hoses. The wind has been something else, so we had to restake the pear tree for fear it would come right out of the ground!! Hoping that a trim will make it open more as well as decrease the wind effects.

    Love Clara’s love for worms, and things that most kids find gross. I was like her growing up :)

    Reply

  14. Wendy says

    I should have read your snake disclaimer BEFORE looking at the photo of John. I’m actually one of those snake-phobic people that has nightmares about them! Just had one last week in fact… :-)

    Reply

    • Alex - Old Town Home says

      True story. I actually woke Wendy up because she seemed to be breathing really hard. When she woke up I asked “were you having a bad dream?” To which she groggily responded, “yes…snakes…in the gravel beside the house…,” then right back to sleep. I told her that by waking her I get credit for saving her life. I think fake snakes in the alley beside our house might be a good Halloween-ish prank. :-) I think I feel more like John about snakes.

      Also, I know what a huge pain digging up roots under bricks can be, ugh. But it’s looking great and well work the effort.

  16. Alissa says

    Is this the place where you dug up that other tree already? Was it growing in between the bricks or something?

    Looks lovely! And another benefit of maples is that they look oh-so-beautiful with their fall coat of leaves. :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, it’s the same garden bed. The bricks were on the right side of that bed and the tree was on the left side (basically hugging the porch).

      xo,
      s

  19. Karen F says

    Looks great! Gardening/landscaping is one thing I just have no confidence about. Last year I did plant some annuals, though, and managed to keep them alive all summar. So I may do that again this year. We also received a few pots of tulips and daffodils for Easter that I may try to plant in our front garden and see if they come back next year! We hosted Easter at our house this year, so they will be a nice reminder of the great day we had with family.

    Reply

  20. Katherine says

    The little garden looks lovely! This was a great weekend to work outside. I am in Central Maryland and it was mild here, too. So I finally ‘got on that already’ and worked on a garden area off of our back patio. It a shady area and has tree roots throughout that make planting really difficult. The plants I placed there 6 years ago have never really taken off. So, I relocated the astilbe and rhododendron to sunnier spots in the yard and planted ground cover (carpet bugleweed) and ornamental grasses (corkscrew rush, which is a funky cool plant). I am looking forward to a nice shade garden this summer!

    Reply

  21. Chrissy says

    Such a big difference that 7 hours of work will last for years and years! In your experience, ow does mulching compare to the weed fabric for the long haul?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We heard from the certified landscape designer that she despises weed fabric since weeds can just germinate right on top of it (it’s true, they can grow in cracks between pavers for goodness sakes!). We did give weed fabric once down by our mailbox just to see how it worked and of course weeds grew right on top of it. Haha. In our experience, once you completely clear out an area like we did for this garden bed and plant new things and mulch it all, if you stay on top of it you can just pluck any weeds out really easily (maybe once a month walk by and pull up a thing or two that’s small and easy to tug out). The beds we didn’t mulch at our first house were crawling in weeds compared to the ones we did, so we like mulching since it gives things a clean look, holds in moisture, and definitely keeps weeds at bay for the most part!

      xo,
      s

    • Chrissy says

      Thanks for the insight! What is the upkeep for purely mulching- do you “winterize” the bed somehow in the fall? Also, remulching would be an annual task right?

      I just want to thank you for always answering all the questions readers ask, it certainly helps home owner newbies like myself!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We usually just mulch every spring and if a bed needs more mulch in the fall (ex: looks really bare and we see dirt) we might add a bit more mulch then to insulate things. But usually just doing it annually works out (it crisps everything up each spring and makes things look fresh and clean again).

      xo,
      s

    • Meredith says

      I’m not trying to be critical, but when you did your mailbox plantings last year, you guys put a layer of soil on top of the landscaping fabric. That was likely how the weeds were able to germinate. Last year, I did two flower beds, one with 5 year landscaping fabric and one with 25 year and mulched both of the beds. There is still liriope (hate that stuff!) that pops up in the bed with the 5 year fabric (which actually has a thicker layer of mulch, and the liriope comes from underneath the fabric) and I have yet to see a single weed in the bed with the 25 year landscaping fabric. That’s great if mulching alone works for you, but I wanted to share my experience. The yard is looking great!!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, that makes sense! So you don’t cover your landscaping fabric? You just leave it exposed? Or do you cover it with mulch? So great that you haven’t had any weeds!

      xo,
      s

    • Meredith says

      Sorry for my belated reply! Yes, I mulch over the landscaping fabric. Like you mentioned with the plants, the fabric comes with instructions. It basically says, “This is fabric. Like all fabric, it will break down in the sun, so be sure to cover with 2-4 inches of mulch.” I must admit, I probably am on the low side of how much mulch to add, but we hope to get a truckload soon and really beef things up. One tip when you’re mulching over the fabric: the fabric moves around easily if it’s not held down, so using some stakes (or flowerpots, shoes, whatever is laying around) is helpful until you get enough mulch spread to keep it in place. Then when you’re finished, remove the stakes (and shoes, haha) and move on to the next bed.

      Also, landscaping fabric is kind of ugly! So I would mulch over it even if it would last without the added protection. :)

      You might not have as much trouble with weeds since your beds seem to have enough barriers (the sidewalk, the house) to protect them from weed intruders. Most of my beds are largely surrounded by grass, so it’s really easy for unwanted greens to sneak in.

      Your yard is looking fantastic, by the way! Keep up the good work!

  22. Lauren@FilingJointly says

    Oh worms. I’m right there with Clara on sort of loving them.

    We had two turtles that loved to eat worms growing up. So my dad would send my sister and I out “worm hunting” after it had rained.

    I always felt sort of bad for the little things that were unlucky enough to be caught by us though. Because being eaten by a turtle is probably not pleasant. So now, as a 28 year old that lives in a big city, I “save” worms that I see on the sidewalk after it’s rained by putting them back in the soil.

    I get a lot of weird looks. Mostly from my husband.

    Reply

  23. Rachel says

    Ooh those are some pretty new plants! Gardening can be so slow, but it is rewarding for sure. We are closing on our first home the end of this month (!!) and are already considering things to plant. We definitely want to put a smallish tree in the front of the house. We like Japanese maples, but your maple is really pretty too!

    Reply

  24. Shinay says

    Hi Sherry and John. I can so appreciate doing this job in stages because it does take time but what you have thus far is looking good and coming along. My husband and I are in this status too. Were working step by step and in the process of re-mulching with black mulch and repainting the trim and shutters all things we must do to welcome in summer so no complaints here. Oh by the way- Garden Snakes’ would have loved to see my face in that situation. I think it would have looked like a crazy person running out of the yard. Anyhow thanks for your inspiring post and blog. This is my first time commenting so scary but I’m glad I did.

    Reply

  26. Ariane says

    The mini garden looks really nice ! I actually did one myself this weekend (for basil, thyme …) and put it in pots to move around easily. I have to tackle bigger projects around the garden though (which is big here, 89000 sq. feet !!).

    Reply

  27. Stephanie says

    I had a lovely weekend yard sale. The only bad part of my weekend was one of my neighbors dropping a huge tree across mine and my next door neighbor’s back yards. Lovely….I don’t know what we can do about it, but I am MAD!!! Sorry to vent here, anyone with any advice?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Woah- were they cutting it down and it fell the wrong way? Or did it just fall of natural causes? I think when a tree falls on your property by an “act of God” (not a cutting accident) you just call your home insurance and they cover it. But if it’s their negligence (like the tree was dead a while and they didn’t remove it or they dropped it on you while cutting it down) it’s on their insurance. Anyone know more?

      xo,
      s

    • Meredith says

      If they dropped it, from cutting or negligence, they need to pay you for removal and any damages. Obviously talk to them first and see if they’re planning to handle it, but if not you should consult with an attorney (general practice or property issues). Sherry’s correct about “act of God”.

    • Stephanie says

      Okay, thanks! It looks like they notched it to fall our way on purpose. I was too mad at the time to ask the neighbors anything, but maybe soon I’ll be able to without being mad. Unfortunately, my hubby is not fased by it, but I am! Thanks for the info and support!

    • heather says

      As far as legal goes – not knowing their intent, or the health of the tree, take a photo of it including the way it was notched towards your home just to make sure they don’t try and say it fell down on it’s own, or some other host of reasons how it happened.

      Giving the neighbors the benefit of the doubt, maybe the tree was damaged and there is the possibility they had fell it so it wouldn’t fell on it’s own in a storm (and in the wrong direction). Since it seems to have felled across multiple properties, there’s a good chance if it was damaged, a storm could have taken it down and caused a lot of damage across the yards. I’m used to a lot of felling around here so I don’t think it would phase me either as long as they didn’t damage anything, cleaned all the bucking up, cut the tree and cleaned my yard up after. Then again, I’m used to seeing trees come down, and I have really nice neighbors.

    • heather says

      (btw – I’m sorry if they are just inconsiderate neighbors :( Definitely take the photos though from angles showing it in relation from their property to yours. I’d at least talk to them first though, and if they say you’re SOL – then walk right out and start taking the pictures.)

  28. Melissa says

    Keep an eye on that worm fan of yours. My middle son was the same way – happily squatting and waving and cooing at them. Next thing I knew he was picking them up and giving them kisses.

    Reply

    • Heidi P. says

      So glad Clara is following the no touching rule. Unlike my nephew: http://robandcrystalhinman.blogspot.com/2012/04/new-year-new-garden-hopes.html

      I’ve been working on my Madonna arms too! This weekend I finished scraping off the paint from my counters and sanded it down. My right forearm is s-ore! But I’m so excited to repaint, this time not taking any shortcuts with applying the primer :).

      Dead Nettle – At first I thought, ‘Huh. That looks an aweful lot like Lamium.’ Then I realized, it is. It’s a groundcover, here, so it should stay short and spread really well. (But it starts looking pretty gross in the winter. But maybe there it won’t? I dunno.) Hardy Ice Plant is a cool groundcover and creeping jenny and thyme are some other great groundcovers.

    • JulieW says

      Haha. I’ve pulled worms and caterpillars out of my son’s blue jean pockets before throwing them in the wash.

  29. Krystle @ ColorTansformedFamily says

    You guys did a lot of work this past weekend! It looks great. My husband and I are thinking about purchasing a foreclosure. If we do it will need a ton of yard work. Definitely will need to spread it out over time. Seeing the end result will be worth the effort though.

    Reply

  30. Angela says

    Keep an eye on Clara with those worms. I also used to love playing with them when I was a little girl, usually while my grandma was gardening. Totally adorable until I ate them. Grandma was mortified… now that I think about, I’m pretty mortified too.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, thankfully she doesn’t touch them. She waves at them and talks to them and crouches down to study them but I worried she wouldn’t be gentle enough with them and would kill them, so we have a no touching rule for now.

      xo,
      s

  31. Allyn says

    Way to go!
    Every time I see your cute front door, it really makes me want to ask our landlords if we can paint ours.
    Going with the whole “scared of snakes” bit, the fam went to the zoo this weekend, and my sister is TERRIFIED of snakes. I made her go into the reptile house so that her daughter wouldn’t be too scared to go in, and would physically place her in front of tanks that didn’t have snakes until we caught up to her, abd then lead her to the next one. I don’t know the last time I laughed so hard.

    Reply

  32. Mary says

    I love the combination that you’ve started with. The garden variagated dead nettle that you added will grow together and form a nice fringe at the front of this bed. Stick with wood mulch as the rubber stuff always has a smell. The wood mulch can be worked into the soil a bit to improve it each year when you’re top-dressing to keep the mulch in the beds fresh. When I start beds, I use bagged mulch, but when the garden gets going, I order mulch delivered by the cubic yard to freshen my garden beds each spring.

    Another thought, I ‘name’ each of my beds around the house and enter the plants into a spreadsheet that I can easily carry when I’m shopping to replace a dead one or purchase something to go along with whatever is there. Each year gets a new tab so I can go back and see how things have changed. I used to have a cost column but had to ‘hide’ that so my husband wouldn’t know how much I was spending! The last house had grown to 10 pages; I’m only up to 3 sheets on this house!

    Reply

  34. Nicole says

    It looks great! Isn’t it amazing what swapping up the landscaping can do for the curb appeal? We have a brick ranch as well and I also veer away from anything else that is red! Our house even had all the trim work painted rusty red (porch railing, window trim, etc…). Talk about red overload!!

    I love that Clara loves worms. Does she have any Sea Monkeys? I bet she would love them! They remind me of worms.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh man, I bet she would love them! Maybe we should get her some for her second b-day! I was thinking about a goldfish the other day but those are fun too!

      xo,
      s

  35. Maureen says

    I love what you do…you are so creative with everything! That look on John’s face…priceless! I would have been screaming my lugs out!

    Reply

  36. Kristen says

    We had some bushes (cheaply) cut out of our garden area in the fall and on Saturday we decided to tackle the stumps that were left. Four “fun-filled” hours of stump shoveling and root pulling. And we’re not even halfway done! By the time we get through them all, my arms will look like Madonna’s too!

    Reply

  37. Liz says

    Nicely done! We have been working on our front bed for the past two weekends as well. Last weekend, we dug up all of the ivy that was choking our azaleas, and this weekend, we rented a tiller and planted. Ended up finding and removing a 6′ long and 3″ wide tap root headed for our house that was shooting out from a silver maple at our curb. Such a beast! But now we have some hydrangeas, creeping phlox, salvia and pinks for color and curb appeal! Keep up the great work and thanks for the weekly inspiration!

    Reply

  38. Carrie says

    Looks awesome! We have similar outdoor issues at our new place so your gardening is inspiring. I have a black thumb and no idea what to do outside, so much harder to me than the inside! Maybe if I keep reading about your outdoor adventures I will be ready to tackle our beasts. I pray for no tiny snakes though, I might pass out or do something else really lame (-:

    Reply

  40. Carli says

    Love the improvement on that flower bed. Isn’t it funny to see how much we learn through trial and error. Like, from the first landscaping you ever did, to what you’re doing now? Hindsight is handy I tell ya! We’re in the same boat with our back yard. Learning as we go, and it’s lovely. Can’t wait to see the rest of the yard transform!

    Reply

  41. Rachel says

    If that purple nettle is the same as what I have, it will get bigger than what you are figuring on. It is very pretty though, and for myself I don’t mind it growing huge in the spot I have it.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, seriously! I said that to him and his response was “after finding as many worms as we did, along with a snake… no thanks” – haha.

      xo,
      s

  43. Missy G. says

    Looking good! I’m curious if y’all have ever posted about your organization of receipts. Just curious since you mentioned the warranty for these plants. I try to be organized, but apparently I still need help. I searched for hours this weekend for the receipt for our leaky kitchen faucet that is under lifetime warranty. No luck!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We have a house binder with clear sleeves so we slide all the plant warranty receipts and tags into one clear sleeve so we can go through them all pretty quickly and hopefully find what we need. You can do it for applainces too (keep the paperwork that came with it along with the receipt in a clear sleeve).

      xo,
      s

  44. Jen G. says

    Thanks for the snake alert! My 3-year-old niece loves worms too. She found one the other day and carried it around for ages, naming it Slimey (after Sesame Street’s worm) and talking to it. Until all of a sudden, she said, “Oh no! Slimey broke!” Oops.

    Reply

  45. Ginny says

    We planted some of the purple blooming nettle along the part shade/east facing part of our house last spring. It’s growing back just like it’s supposed to. We’ve also had good luck with gerber daisies, and they come back each year, too. Yard stuff isn’t my favorite, so I like it when we plant stuff that keeps coming back and doesn’t need much tending.

    Reply

  46. Lauryn says

    It does look a lot smaller in the images! I just had a funny thought of John laying down in the driveway next to it to show that it really is 7 feet deep! Cant wait to see it all fill in!

    Reply

  47. Alyssa says

    Looks wonderful guys!! I can’t wait until it warms up a bit more here in WI so we can start our outdoor adventures as well. you’re giving me some great ideas and great tips as always! Thanks.

    Reply

  50. Leigh says

    Loving the work you’ve done on the flower beds.

    $herdog, does gardening work bother your allergies? I am pretty much allergic to the outdoors so I was just curious since you have allergies too.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Allergies are trying to kill me this year, but I have found that I just have to bring out a box of tissues, go to town (and sneeze whenever I need to) and then I just run inside and try to shower everything off. It’s bad bad bad if I itch my eyes, so I try not to touch my face while I’m out there and then shower and I’m usually a bit better. But when I’m outside I just sneeze and dig. Haha.

      xo,
      s

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