Harmony Hills Has Moved

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to put an official message here saying that I've moved my blog off of blogger and on to a custom wordpress site.   My new site is:  www.HarmonyHillsHomeandGarden.com.    If you used to follow me at that url here on blogger,  you may need to hit "refresh" or re-set your feed reader, so that you get content from the new site rather than the old blogger feed.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, I hope you'll join me over at the new site and keep following me there!

Thanks,
Jenny

My Newly Updated Must-Have Plants List

Hi folks!   Welcome to Harmony Hills!    I'm excited today to share some of the photos from my recent visit to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.   Because of the gorgeous plants on display there, my checkbook is in big trouble - my "Must Have" plant list is now much longer that it was before this trip!

Sunday Morning Inspiration

Enjoy a beautiful day, friends.    Go do great things!

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Change is Good - Moving from Blogger to WordPress

Change is good.  It brings fresh chances, new perspectives, things to learn and new adventures.  

A Beginner's Guide to Great Plant Combinations

Hi friends, welcome back to Harmony Hills.  Today we're talking about how a beginner gardener can learn to make great plant combinations.

3 Easy Steps to Get That Professional Edging Look

Hi friends!   Today we're going to tackle one of the most common home gardening projects: edging a flower bed to get that professional edging look.  This is one of the fastest ways to make your garden look absolutely great!   Having a crisp, clean dividing line between your lawn and your flowerbed is, well, I think it's the BEST thing you can do to make your yard look well cared for.  I mean, this will make your yard look like you have hired the best landscaping crew in town to come in every week and pamper your yard!

Soft and Serene Bathroom

Hi there, folks!   I'm happy to be sharing photos of our main owner's bathroom today.    This soft and serene bathroom is a remodel that was completed by the folks who lived here before us.    Because our home is 91 years old, the bathrooms must have needed quite the overhaul to bring them into modern standards.

Sunday Morning Inspiration

Enjoy a beautiful day, friends.    Go do what you love!

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Friday Roundup - Aug 5, 2016

Hey guys, it's Friday Round Up!   Time to pull together some of the best things I saw online this week.

Help Me Choose?

Help!  I've fallen into a never-ending cycle of planning, over-thinking, searching, envisioning, and general in-action over the plans in my front yard garden and landscape, and I can't get up!

10 Best Perennials for Late Summer

Hi there, friends!   Thanks for dropping by Harmony Hills!   Our topic for today is Late Summer Perennials.     As I was walking the dogs this morning, I couldn't help but notice that our perennials around our yard are starting to wane, and there's not much summer color going on.   By comparison, many of our neighbors have riotous color happening in their yards with several perennials just now coming into peak bloom.   That got me wondering, what kinds of plants should I add to our gardens so that the late summer color is just a pleasing as the spring and early summer?  Using our neighbors' gardens as a inspiration, here are just a few of the best perennials for late summer color in my area.

Sunday Morning Inspiration

Enjoy a beautiful day, friends.

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Friday Roundup - July 29, 2016

Hey guys, it's Friday Round Up!   Time to pull together some of the best things I saw online this week.

5 Easy Design Steps: From Imagination to Reality

Hi there, friends!  Thanks for stopping by today!  I'd like to talk about how I go about decorating a room - somewhat of a step-by-step brain dump on what goes through my mind.    Maybe something I share here will be helpful to you as you put together YOUR space.  Or maybe you've got advice for me - I'm always eager to learn more!

6 Easy Steps to Re-Pot a Houseplant

Hi there folks!   Today I'm going to show you one of the easiest projects you can do involving dirt and plants... repotting a houseplant.   

This is a project that you'll need to do every once in a while when your houseplants' root systems become "pot-bound" - a tightly packed ball of roots that have not room to grow and eventually will compromise the health of the plant.  

Welcome To Our Sunroom

Hi friends!   Welcome to our sunroom!    I'm very excited to share our very first "finished" room in our home here at Harmony Hills.  Go ahead and grab a cuppa and settle in for some serious photo oohs and ahhs, because I have lots and lots of images to share even in this relatively small room!

Sunday Morning Inspiration

Enjoy a beautiful day, friends.

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Friday Round Up - July 22, 2016

Hey guys, it's Friday Round Up!   Time to pull together some of the best things I saw online this week.

Relax on the Porch

You guys!  I have to tell you that this porch on the north side of our house has been the BEST place to relax outside in our yard!   It's not big - just about 8' deep by about 18' wide - but it's just the right size to put a grouping of four chairs there, and bring a cup of coffee in the morning or a tall glass of a little soothing refreshing in the afternoon, and sit a spell.  

3 Steps For Fixing Clay Soil

Hi there, friends. Let's talk dirt!  Do you have hard clay soil in your garden?   I do!   Yuck!  It's so hard for my plants to thrive when their roots are planted in clay.  So today, I'm going to show you how to amend your clay soil so that it's easier to dig, easier to water, and easier for your plants to thrive.

Front Walk Update - Before and After

Hi there friends!   Thanks for visiting here at Harmony Hills.   I thought I'd take a quick moment to share the change that we made to our front walk and front flower beds.   If you joined me on our Yard Tour in June, you already saw the "after" of this project, but I never did show the "before".  So here you go!

Sunday Morning Inspiration

Enjoy a beautiful day, friends.  

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Garden Blogger's Bloom Day June 2016

Hi everybody!   I hope you're staying cool on these hot summer days.  We have hit a stretch of hot and humid weather here in Baltimore, and I tell you what, I'm so glad our old house has a big, strong window A/C unit pumping some cool air into the house!

It's the 15th of the month, and so I'm pleased to be joining in on the Garden Blogger's Bloom Day party. I'm so happy, and honestly kind of surprised, to see all the blooms we have going on in the garden right now.   It made for a fun photo-editing session, looking at all of the pretties that I found throughout the yard!

How to Divide Hostas

**This post contains affiliate links.

Hi folks, welcome to Harmony Hills! Do you have clumps of hostas growing too big for their space?   Or maybe you somehow got two different kinds of hostas mixed up together somehow in the same clump, like I did?  Today I'm going to share how to dig up, divide, and re-plant hostas in your garden.  It's one of the easiest ways to expand your garden with no cost!

How We Totally Transformed Our Side Yard

I'm super excited about how our yard transformation is coming along!   I had a chance to browse through some old photos last night, and was pretty shocked to see the transformation that we've made in our side yard over the last year since we moved in to our home.   Let's take a look at what has happened!

Sunday Morning

So many hearts are hurting, so many of us don't know what to do with our hurt.  I don't know the answers, but I do  find that there's one thing guaranteed to bring peace:  That is to consciously choose to spread love.   Be kind to your spouse. Smile to strangers.  Reach out to friends.   Talk to your family.   Help someone out.   Build relationship.  Love yourself.

Wishing you a peaceful Sunday, friends.

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Harmony Hills meets Miss Mustard Seed

You're familiar with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint, right?   And you follow the awesome Miss Mustard Seed blog, right?  And you know about her crazy talent for furniture makeovers?   And her keen eye for farmhouse style?  And her beautiful murals and hand-painted landscapes on furniture?

How to Hang Art Damage-Free

How do you go about hanging wall art on plaster walls without chipping or cracking the plaster finish?   There's nothing worse than seeing a hairline crack form, and then race down the wall before your very eyes!  There are several products out there that are designed for hanging various weighted items on plaster walls. For light- and medium-weight pieces, I've found that absolutely nothing beats the 3M Command Picture Hanging Strips. 

Uncovering the Driveway

It seems that this summer has been all about uncovering and reclaiming various areas in our property. When we're out there working, it's easy to imagine that there hasn't been a gardener living here for a very long time.  But in truth, it doesn't take long for nature to reclaim its wild ways if you let things go for even just one season.  So I'm not sure how long it's been since this particular area has been clear - could be just one year, could be a decade or more.    Who knows?

Anyway, we've been working all around our yard to get things into shape, removing weeds and grape vines and all kinds of wandering volunteer plants.   Our latest project has been the driveway.

Touring Ladew Gardens

Last Friday my husband took the day off and we traveled north east of Baltimore to Monkton, MD to tour the beautiful Ladew Topiary Gardens.   This is a beautiful estate situated on the rolling hills of Maryland's horse country.   It's got 22 acres of carefully manicured topiaries which are divided into several different garden "rooms" and sections.   There's a manor home, a butterfly house, a nature walk, a cafe and gift shop, and enough beautiful gardens to stroll all day.   I loved our day there, and am looking forward to going back in other times during the gardening seasons.

Stairway Garden Clean Up

Hi there!   Today I'm really happy to be able to share with you another before-and-after in the garden.  This one makes me so happy because this area has been a vegetative eyesore since the first day we moved in almost a year ago.  Actually - it was an eyesore when we toured the house the first time, the second time, and for the home inspection too.   So yeah, this one feels good to take care of!

The Promise of a Small Vegetable Patch

I'm so happy we found a space for a tiny vegetable patch in our yard!   It's pretty tiny, all things considered. I mean, we have a 1/2 acre, and this is the only spot I could find that might get enough sun to grow a tomato.  It's tucked in, for sure:  it's up against the new fence, hemmed in by the new brick walkway. 

Junk Drawer Room Redo

Here in our new-to-us old home, we have a quirky room in our first floor that houses our laundry area and also serves as a half-bath powder room with sink and toilet.     It's one of my favorite things in the house, this little room behind the pretty door.

Front Corner Hill Evolution

Everybody loves a good "before and after" story, and I'm no exception.  Getting our yard and gardens under control and reflective of our personal style has been a lot of work.  Little by little we've been making changes here and there, but the Front Corner Garden has been a dramatic change since the days we moved in last August.

When we first visited the house during our home search, we fell in love with the house immediately - but the yard was one of those things we declared "had potential" - home buyer code for "It needs work!".     Here is one of the main reasons why:

This is the Front Corner of our lot, as viewed from the street corner.    Where's the house???   That mound of greenery was a huge jungle of wild grape vine, honeysuckle, pokeweed, bindweed, English Ivy and who knows what else.

Yard Tour June 2016

I love our yard - its mature trees, its shade and sun and part sun areas, and I love imagining what it will look like once we really put our mark onto it.   Admittedly - we've done a lot already - we added the fence, the stepping stone path, the brick walkways, the stone covered stairway, the new azalea border and the front corner garden.   But I have so many more ideas in mind!  Just need the time, energy and funds to make those ideas a reality.   

Our House - Empty Rooms Part IV

Welcome back!    I've been sharing photos of our empty house on the day we moved in back in August 2015.  So far, I've shard the first floor (here), the second floor (here) and the third floor (here).    

Our House - Empty Rooms Part III

Welcome back!   When we last left off this tour, I showed you around the first floor (in this post) and the second floor (in this post) as it looked on the day we moved in - cloudy day dark photos and all!    

In this post, we'll pick up where we left off, headed up to the third floor attic space. 

Our House - Empty Rooms Part II

Welcome back!  When we last left off this tour, I showed you around the first floor (in this post) as it looked on the day we moved in - cloudy day dark photos and all!    Here we'll pick up where we left off, at the stairway to the second floor.