Outdoor Gathering Area

We were lucky enough to inherit a really cool fire bowl when we moved into our home 10 years ago, but we've never really thought it was located in the right spot.

This is to the West of the house and South of the pool.

It's right in the path from the sun room to the big yard where the swing set and chickens, etc are located. It's also a little too close to our pecan and magnolia trees. At the end of July, I came across this lovely photo in my FaceBook feed and was inspired to make a change.

Ganked from Slice of Life

I would like to move a bunch of the flagstone into the unused area to the East of the pool along with the fire bowl. Thinking it will be a nice set up once we remove that Almond or Peach tree which has not made me happy over the years. To the North and West we will enhance the support for the hops vines to add more interest.





Instead of big rocks on the outer edges of this gathering area, I want to add some plants that we already have - my black diamond crepe myrtle (currently in a pot on the porch) and a Vitex Chasteberry tree that we relocated from the garden to the front yard last year.



It's gotten out of control making parking in the drive an issue. I am super excited about this plan and cannot wait until we have a free weekend to get started on this project.

Last week when I was scoping out things in the yard and filling up the pond, I found a huge turtle living in the pond! Later, when I went to get a picture of the turtle, a huge snake slithered from my flower bed into the pond! I don't know if I will EVER get over this case of the Heebie Jeebies so I can do yard work again!

My friend is a little camera shy. He looks very healthy so maybe he's eating all of those tadpoles!!!