Thanks Donna! As you can see from the pictures in my post, we started out having all the grass removed and then refilled with soil, so we haven’t had any grass pop up in the gravel except for some along the border with our neighbor, which isn’t a big deal. I use Preen to prevent weeds — this is not a paid endorsement LOL — but it works great AND it is invisible against the gravel. I sprinkle it around the stepping stones and carefully near the arborvitaes and boxwoods. For existing weeds that do pop up: I do the good old-fashioned hand-weeding. I made the mistake of trying to use one of those spray-on weed killers last Summer. Never again. Perhaps from the rain it spread towards my shrubs, not sure, but whatever is in that stuff started to turn things brown. I flushed the soil with lots of water, snipped off the brown parts, and then prayed to the garden gods to please let my shrubs rebound. They did, and I learned my lesson. 🙂

Welcome, Lisa! So glad you found my blog! I’m amazed at the amount of blue flowers out there too — it’s such a unique color in the garden, as it isn’t one of the colors most readily noticed at garden centers among all of the usual pinks and yellow and reds and purples! Glad you enjoyed the photos — I enjoyed going out at different times during the same day to take them, partly as my own experiment to see how they would “translate” from what I see every day / evening into pictures. I’ve got a few old posts on here about Little Egg Harbor, as we were hit pretty hard by Superstorm Sandy years ago, although our neighborhood was spared, compared to so many devastated areas around us. Hope you’ll stop by again!

I just discovered your blog via the Pinterest world. Your Lithodora post was very helpful. I created a board of blue flowers for a dear friend of mine who loves them. I’m amazed at how many there are!

Your side yard makeover is lovely! I especially enjoyed the photos showing it in the different light settings. Thank you for sharing such an informative gardening transformation!

I am so curious about the name of the town you live in…. Little Egg Harbor sounds so charming! I’m off to Google it now…. 🙂

Warm regards,
Lisa in Lake Oswego, Oregon