Yard work isn't always FUN but it sure is worth it! #gardening #homemaking #summer

With the temperatures so mild out here in the San Francisco Bay, things pretty much flourish all year round. Nothing freezes, you don't have to bring plants in or tarp them, and the sun shines almost all year with a really healthy dose of rain through the Winter months (except for these years we've been in a drought) so, it's really easy to keep up a beautiful yard and garden all year.

Unless you have two kids and a maybe work or have a very busy schedule!

Ugh. I always promise myself I won't let the yard and garden slip...

The yard work and tending to our garden just gets away from me every Winter.

And every Spring, David and I have to work for three or four weekends in a row to turn over the soil and bed everything down with mulch, mow and edge, plant some flowers, and maybe even re-plant the herbs and fruits and vegetables that were neglected over the Winter.

We recently finished the yard this past month and I wanted to show you what we did.

We weeded and bedded down the garden bed with mulch as I just didn't have the time to do lettuces, tomatoes, or anything else large in this section of the yard this year:

The patio furniture got some new, blue pillows and you can see our grape vines handing along the fence:

Emily picked out begonias to hang around the furniture:

And purchased a new, HUGE, umbrella that has solar-powered lights underneath and tilts to provide better shade in the afternoons:

I ripped out all my herbs from last Spring and replanted new organic herbs in pots in the ground and planted organic strawberries in the window boxes above:

Here's my main man helping me water, his very favorite thing ever to do outside:

We have a sprinkler system in both the front and back yards and droppers for all the herbs but I still have to hand water the berries and the begonias. I love that it gets me outside for 15-20 minutes every other day. I pull weeds or pick up wilted flowers, I pick up lemons that have fallen from our tree, I sweep up and leaves that have fallen from our grape vines, and I water. It's very peaceful and I really enjoy this space!