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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for Home Living Handbook, HGTV.com, and a handful of other websites. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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Backyard Laziness + Home Anniversaries

May 15, 2013

I’m usually pretty amped for anything spring-cleaning related by the time my home-a-versary rolls around in mid-May, and this year was no exception; today marks the day four years ago that I came home to this place. It’s most fun to check out the change that has happened to this home in the before + after section, so check it out if you get a chance today.

What is different about this casual celebration is that it’s (dear-god-hopefully) the last of the years we’ll celebrate in this little home.

State of moving aside, we never, ever should have put off tending to our planter beds last fall when the flowering and harvesting season ended, no matter how distracted we were by banks and house shopping, or our wedding, or whatever it was that we were preoccupied with. Shame, shame. We just about deserve to be having to look at this daily. Death and overgrowth in the form of dried out and leafless tomato plants, and weeds so big that we weren’t 100% sure that they weren’t actual plants.

Hello spring, how do you like them dead tomato plants?

What makes me feel especially lazy is that working together, our clean-up efforts only took about 2 hours, and covered much more ground than our little square planters. With a little bit of hand weeding, tilling, and edging with a flat edge shovel, we left the backyard looking like this:

A better backyard with easy weeding and edging.

If you’re wondering what it is we left in those planters, they’re raspberries that either shot under the ground and up through the planter holes (big mama plants are in the back left corner), or, more likely, we experienced some significant bird poop seed transport. The babies that seeded are doing really well–and by that I mean most are already as thick as my thumb–so we decided to leave them to flourish. Also worth noting, a bunch of plants along the left fence were perennials from last year’s deck planters. They survived!

P.S. You can read about my second home-a-versary here, and last years, here.

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Backyard  / Casual Celebrations

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast living a very merry, DIY-filled lifestyle. As a freelance writer, you can find my work on many popular home and garden sites, including HGTV.com, HomeLivingHandbook.com, and other outlets. Follow me on social, or drop me a note.

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  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    You can find me writing for Home Living Handbook, HGTV.com, and a handful of other websites.

    Thanks for visiting!

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    merrypad

    I’ll always say yes to a maker space experience, I’ll always say yes to a maker space experience, and The Shed at @timberland’s HQ did not disappoint ✌️🥾 @homelivinghandbook 

Final footwear design not shown 🙂

PS tagging some cute shoes they gifted from the Fall 2024 collection!
    I made the call and snapped off the elephant garli I made the call and snapped off the elephant garlic scapes yesterday evening. Who’s going to help us harvest and eat the next 1,000? 🧄🧄🧄🧄
    Hi! Boy, do I have things to share. 🎉 🫶 Fr Hi! Boy, do I have things to share. 🎉 

🫶 Friendly reminder to focus on balance and wellness: Pete and I lived abroad with our family for the entire month of August 2023. If you ever have the opportunity to work remotely, I promise it to be a worthwhile adventure that’ll change your POV in so many ways. And, If you need an in with an incredible AirBnB in Denmark, DM me. From new playgrounds and museums to the culture and design, making this trip a reality continues to be something we celebrate every day, and I wish everyone can experience it on some level.

💻 Friendly reminder to say yes to new (overwhelming) opportunities: The professional celebration happened upon our return. Last fall, I was approached to launch @homelivinghandbook, a new Pursuit channel for @mensjournal that highlights home improvement and DIY! It has been really fun to see it come to light, and truly one of the most exciting partnerships I’ve ever had. Timing couldn’t have been better, and I’m really happy to see how it grows over time. Please follow along — the team published 150 articles in two months, covering all kinds topics for home enthusiasts! So much more to come. #linkinbio #homelivinghandbook

✌️ the end, many thanks for your support!
    How much garlic is too much garlic? Maybe we’ll How much garlic is too much garlic? Maybe we’ll find out in 2024. Finished planting 1,005 cloves (and 19 shallots) in three new beds at the farm, and crossed one huge chore off my list 📝 #gardennotes #garden2024
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    We grew these fools. We grew these fools.
    pumpkin patch is doing great✌️#year1 #squashbl pumpkin patch is doing great✌️#year1 #squashblossoms #pumpkinpatch
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