Well, first, let me say "hat's off!" to Tracey of Helana and Ali who pointed us in the right direction on the gray. It's not as dark as she suggested in this blog post, or as dark as we could have gone, perhaps.

But we think it's a huge improvement over the green, and we're pretty happy with it.

The green was feeling a little too baseball-y and clashy with all the other greens going on. I guess it is possible to clash in nature. But the gray (Dark Slate Solid Stain by Cabot) provides such a lovely contrast.

It frames the yard and the plants beautifully. This little picket fence will soon be getting its own Dark Slate treatment.

Neel's been working his butt off, and things are shaping up beautifully.

I'm just going to come out and say it: I adore these plants. I had a picture of them up a few days ago, and Teri from Beach City Life Style commented on them (hint: she liked them), making me think that a few more pictures and some words were in order.

We have a whole wall of them, and Neel added two more to other parts of the yard this weekend. I never ever get tired of them. Ever.

I first remember really noticing hydrangeas in my grandmother's town in southern Illinois. We were traveling through one spring, and took a drive through town. We stopped at the Logan Museum because my grandmother had a connection to both the Logans and the house itself, I think (Mom, you'll have to weigh in here.) If you look at the house on the right hand side of the page I linked to, you can see the house itself with its dreamy front porch. Between the fence and that porch are a gorgeous row of plump and fluffy pink hydrangeas. When you're standing on that porch, looking down on those hydrangeas, you feel like you're wading in a sea of pink. It was quite stunning.

I've been in love with them ever since.

Our hydrangeas, the ones in the backyard at least, line a wall of our shed. The shed itself (actually condemned when we bought the place) provides one of the "walls" of our backyard. These hydrangeas were little babies when we put them in there. One of downspouts of our house lies just across a small path from them, and after some flooding issues in the yard, we installed a French Drain right in that path. Let me tell you, those hydrangeas L.O.V.E. that French Drain. Apparently hydrangeas like having their feet wet, so this is the perfect spot for them.

A lacecap bookends the trio of Niko Blues.

We occasionally lose a beagle behind that wall of flowers, and just this weekend, Neel remembered that there is an azalea tucked in between each of the blue guys. And that vine climbing up the wall of the shed? Well, that's a hydrangea too.

It's not a bad view.

fenced in {life}

hydrangea heaven {life}