Outside Fall Decor


My iPhone takes such pretty photos. This is my favorite. 





A small pot of mums in my wheelbarrow planter out front. 






I bought a bad of these tiger pumpkins at the 99 cent store. 






The Mother of all Mums - 






I bought these at Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago - They are metal. 





Still needs something - maybe some straw.,.






This bench belonged to my parents - they bought their redwood furniture off a truck in our San Francisco neighborhood - 1960. They gave them to me when they moved to Tennessee and that was around 1988. I've had them ever since. 

Every few years I had to pound some new nails and wood screws into them. The picnic table has been gone for a long time. 

The fake pumpkin and the dolls I have had since my boys were little. Once I threw out those dolls and placed them in a donation box and then changed my mind. 

I really can't decide if I like them or not. I think I'm just sentimental. 





My outside table display. 





Gorgeous! 






 

The ground is so hard the stands won't go into the ground so I had to improvise. 

Maybe some stray or hay in the pots...For the triple pumpkin sign, I had to dig in the hardened dirt and bury the ends of the stand in it, and placed some big rocks behind it. 

My Sweet Gum trees are starting to change color - 
I'll get some photos of them soon. 

We're having 85-degree weather for the next couple of days but it will soon change. We have some winter rains forecasted and some low temperatures. 

The air smells so sweet - no smoke makes a huge difference. 

THE GARDENERS

The husband wanted to hire gardeners with his own money. I was not a part of the whole deal. So he tells me he is paying them, $180 a month. I find that to be outrageous. So I asked 2 friends who live outside of my county. Mary lives in San Carlos and she pays 120. Cindy lives near Sacramento and she pays $80. Monday I am going to get some estimates. It's not like we have this huge property. We have very little lawn area. They mainly just Mow, Blow and Go. 

If you have gardeners, how much do you pay? 

Frankly, I can't see it - that's why we have not had them before. He needed help and I am not much help anymore. I was okay with it plus it's coming out of his part-time paycheck but even so, he didn't check around. 

With prices going up with everything - and the gardeners have done the bulk of the work we needed anyway with the trees and scrubs, I really think we can get rid of them. Like I said before, I am the cheap one and he spends money like we have it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.






20 comments:

  1. We pay $200 a month for my sisters yard and it is less than tenth of an acre.

    I love your flowers and decorating The dolls are pretty.

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    1. Wow. Heck once my shoulder is fixed, I’ll do it! We just need help maybe twice a year for a seasonal garden clean up.

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  2. Really marvellous photos. Especially the first one with droplets of water.

    It's so expensive over here to get help in the garden or the house. Prices are going up all the time. I try and do as much as I can in the garden; like mowing the lawn and pruning trees.

    God bless.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, we have always done our yards ourselves until about 2 months ago. I think at that cost, we'll be back to doing it ourselves once again.

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  3. My parents bought redwood furniture just like that off a truck in the 60's in
    NJ when I was a kid!
    Your fall decorations look great.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. That redwood furniture has lasted a long time.

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  4. Those are such a lovely photos.
    No gardeners here. We do our own. I did get an estimate to "just mow" in case the mower doesn't work or I don't. *lol* Our local guy said he'd charge us $100 to do the 6 1/2 acres. No trimming, blowing, or bagging. It felt like a good deal.
    Blessings. xx

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    Replies
    1. $100 for 6 1/2 acres - that is a really good deal. I really don't think we need gardeners. It's trying to convince my husband.

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  5. Beautiful and I love the dolls. Here, it is barely hanging onto 50*, wow what a change in the weather, smiles. P.S. No gardeners here, my husband cuts our grass, I should say postage size yard, LOL.

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    1. We got rid of most of our lawn area the last few years due to always being in a drought. My husband wanted to treat himself now that he has this part time job. It's not coming out of our main household account.

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  6. Sorry no gardeners here so I have no idea of what people pay. We do our own...not really the best, but good enough.

    I love your décor for the fall.

    God bless.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Jackie. We've always done ours - the husband wanted to treat himself and to me, its just a huge waste of money.

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  7. Your front porch is festive and charming, Debby. I thought that the pumpkin was real
    sitting on the bench. That's nice that you've had it since your boys were little. I like
    your parents bench too. That first picture of the flowers is sooooo pretty. They are
    so Fall looking. You did a great job decorating your front porch. It's 85 degree weather
    there? I got in my car early one morning, and it was 40 degrees. It's already really cold
    here. Have a good October week ahead. : )

    ~Sheri

    ~Sheri

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah it's a pretty realistic fake pumpkin. Today is sure not 85. I believe those warm days may be behind us. It is 55 right now.

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  8. Your phone really does take good pictures. Your decorations all look so nice.
    At this point Bob does the gardening. He would never pay to have it done! In our family we are rather similar, but he is cheaper than me. :)

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    1. Yeah my husband thought when we first got married I would be his dream wife - apparently his first wife spent money like they had it. Now he sees that I am a saver and while he appreciates it he still wants to spend. I do wish he was more content with what he has.

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  9. Your phone definitely takes great photo. I love all the fall decor!

    I do my own yard work, but then again I have a strip of grass about 20 feet by 6 feet. The rest of the gardening is done in containers, with the exception of the front perennial bed. My daughter had a young fellow mow her lawn the first year she was in her house. She paid $20-30 per mow, depending on how long between mows. No raking, or bagging though.

    Take care, stay well.

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    Replies
    1. Thank You. Yeah we paid a teenager once at $25. Lousy job but it was when my husband broke his toe and it had to be done.

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