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Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens

by | Jun 26, 2018 | Decorating Inspiration, My Backyard, My Seattle House, My Side Yard

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Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens

I‘ve always been quite inspired by gates. They aren’t just a way to keep unwanted visitors out or beloved pets in, the right gate can feel like a special invitation to enter a secret magical garden. You know what I mean?

As far as I’m concerned, a gate doesn’t even have to be fancy (but a little charm is nice!), I just love what they represent. I actually go gate hunting in neighborhoods as often as I go just to drool over houses!

Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens

You may have seen those two gates from my previous drive bys. If you missed them, you can find the drive by posts here. But if you’re curious about our gate …

Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens

We’re still Gateless in Seattle, at least on this side of the house. I know.

Years ago (insert eye rolls over how long it’s been) I started talking about how excited I was about installing a gate to our side patio.

Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens

Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens

In fact, we had two other gates built around that same time, the double gate between our side yard and backyard (which we just painted, you can see a bit of it above) and a single gate on the other side of the yard (above).

But the side patio gate? It didn’t get done. It’s a long story, just a series of unfortunate events. So we still have to use a bench and assorted garden supplies piled up in the opening to keep the dogs in. I agree, it’s truly quite ridiculous.

The good news is we finally have a new contractor lined up that I’m confident is going to do the work (thank goodness for Lowe’s contractor service, I should’ve called them years ago! So much easier.). The new contractor is going to build our gate and wrap our side porch posts with wood trim (which we’ve also been waiting on for a long time! Wrapping a post gives them a more substantial, finished look).

Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens

This photo above is before our railings were installed (they look amazing, you’ll see soon!), and how our posts look now before they get wrapped. Note the pallet in the background acting as our gate. Lol.

Fingers crossed, knock on posts and gates, we’re on the home stretch here.

The gate and the porch posts are actually the last two projects we plan to complete in this long spree of outdoor projects this summer. Most of our projects have been on a small scale, like planting our veggie barrels!

Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens

These are the same barrels we have been using for the past few years (they are chemical-free for planting). I still envision a big garden in our backyard, but these barrels are so easy to plant! They tuck in quite nicely to this small space, too. Since we had so many other projects going on we decided to use them for another year rather than start another large project.

Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens
We planted a lot kale and lettuce (we got a late start so these plants were bought ready to plant, we didn’t grow from seed). I love watching them grow and can’t wait to eat ’em. We get a lot of our vegetables through a weekly delivery box from a local organic farm, but it’s still fun to grow some of our own.

Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens
Speaking of small gardens and growing, Lily’s little fragrant garden has really filled out! This was from a couple of weeks ago.

Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens

We spent the last couple of weeks setting up the deck furniture, planting the garden and flower pots. We planted these miniature rose trees (bushes?) that we bought last year. This spring they sadly got totally destroyed by aphids. I cut them all back thinking I’d have to wait until next year to see them flower. Well, they surprised me! They leafed out again and bloomed. The aphids came back, though, so I was going to go get ladybugs, but I tried some essential oils in a spray bottle first and it worked. Good-bye aphids! So far, so good.

Gateless in Seattle + Growing Gardens

As soon as I got all furniture set up, it rained so we had to put all the cushions and rugs inside again, ha! Yes, we live in Seattle so you just have to expect that rain might happen. I do bring cushions and some of the rugs all in if there’s going to be a longer spell of rain, otherwise I don’t worry about it and just let ’em get a little damp . We mostly have had fantastic weather, so I can’t complain about rain too much this time of year.

I will definitely show you the furniture and flower pots when I take the photos, and of course I can show you the porch posts and the gate as soon as they’re in! I might even be able to show you some progress on that in the next week or so.

I know lots of you have been asking about how we stained our side patio concrete (you can actually see it in the white gate photo with Jack, above). We’re just about done so I’ll update you on that project, too.

And of course, as promised, we’ll be hosting our virtual deck party for the big reveal! I’m really looking forward to all of the yummy dishes y’all offered to bring :). I’ll announce the winners of the Simple Gatherings books this week so if you didn’t enter yet, it’s not too late to enter by sharing what you’re bringing to the virtual party (you’ll find the giveaway in the previous post about the deck progress).

We can’t wait to be able to just get outside and relax in our entire outdoor area, I’m so ready to enjoy it all!

You can catch up on our deck and exterior projects here:

Painted Brick Exterior and Outdoor Projects

Outdoor Projects Part Two

Designing and Shopping for our Deck Project

Trex Deck Building Process

14 Comments

  1. Holly

    What is the essential oil recipe for aphids? I don’t have any in the garden at the moment but want to be ready if they invade…..thank you.

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      I’ll have to post it sometime, it definitely helped. I used about 5 drops each of Thyme, Peppermint, Clove, Rosemary and 1 tsp of Castile soap in a spray bottle with water. I just kept spraying it every day for about a week until they were pretty much gone!

  2. Lynn W

    Looking good! Can’t wait to see more :)
    Neem Oil is another great product that is organic. It comes from the Neem tree that comes from Africa. Great organic product to use for aphids, mites and other yucky bugs!! Use it on edibles and other plants, even indoor plants. You can get that at Lowe’s too.

  3. Brenda

    Did you set up your patio pond again this year? I bought one last year (thanks to you!) and am enjoying it a lot!

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Hi Brenda! Yes! I did. I’ll need to take a photo of it for you. I actually got more neat water plants for it this year! Enjoy!

  4. Darlene Hockin

    What are the names of your flowers you showed?

  5. Michele (Finch Rest)

    We’ve used Neem since our son-in-law told us about it for a few years now. It totally works!

    I am so excited for you – your outdoors is really taking shape – and these big last things will be the cherry on top! Congrats!

    Are you going wood or are you opting for an ornate metal scroll gate for that space?

    • Michele

      ps

      Will be going to Seattle on July 28th – never been there. I hope to find some time to sneak some peeks of gates!

      • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

        Oh fun, yes, enjoy! If you have time, drive around Queen Anne (up by Kerry Park!), Magnolia, and Madison Park. Those are a few of my favorite neighborhoods.

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      I have heard about Neem, but haven’t tried it! Good to know.

      Thank you, Michele, it is exciting to see things taking shape. We are having a wood gate built for that space :).

  6. Linda

    Looking forward to seeing your patio pond and the new water plants. You posted about the roses from last year and didn’t mention the bougainvillea. I’d like to see the bougainvillea too, one of my favorite plants.

  7. Linda Grubbs

    Looking beautiful! Excellent choices on the colors.
    Can’t wait for the big reveal.

  8. Melinda

    “Gateless in Seattle”…love! Although it’s not fun waiting….can’t wait to see the finished project!!
    I’d bring Young Living bug repellent and a kale salad. Kale holds up so well at parties!! :)

  9. jo jo

    I’m with you, Melissa..I love a charming gate and feel they do becken you to wonder inside. I love the progress you’ve made on your side porch and fence. Lilly’s garden is so pretty! I can almost smell you the Lavender! Looking forward to your patio/ deck reveal. Outdoor living is so, so sweet.

 

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