i know all of you are probably sick and tired of hearing me blather on about flowers and vegetables and the great outdoors... well, i'm sorry. you are just going to have to get used to it. that said, we actually did something to our yard this past weekend! this is one of the pretty begonias i got...
and this, my friends, is our little storage building in the backyard. i got some plastic pots and with a little help from the in-laws, screwed these puppies into the side of the building and planted tomatoes, parsley, rosemary and basil. mainly to keep the dog from chewing on the plants, but i like how it looks as well. we also planted some zucchini and squash in the actual ground...
this is most of the rest of the backyard. we do have a little patch of grass closer to the house (towards the right side of the photo and the storage building from above is on the left hand side). this is the patch of dirt that is driving me crazy. we think the previous owners had fake grass/turf in this section because we keep finding stakes pushed into the ground... anyway, we added some more dirt and sprinkled a little grass seed and have been watering it twice a day so that soon we may have some actual grass right there...
i have other plans for the backyard (and front yard, for that matter)... the problem is time and money. right now i would love to just have more time to do things... we have a patio set that is currently being refurbished (read: FIL is remaking the table top for us) and we have high hopes of owning a grill this summer as well. there are some trees we would like to cut down and replace with a snowball bush, a gardenia and some boxwood... i'm also hoping to plant some peonies and would LOVE to grow some hydrangea (though i'm thinking i would have a hard time keeping it alive) will post more progress photos as we continue along, these were just a few quick snapshots from the weekend...
my obsession with design and pattern does not stop at print media. i have been longing to add some texture and color to our very concrete backyard and i think i found the answer. we have a little spot of concrete near the back corner (where our 'second patio' will someday be) that is in very sad shape. we looked at that area last night and quickly learned with our handy shovel that the concrete wouldn't be too backbreaking to remove. so... now we just have to find a bunch of different colored small rocks and come up with a design! we are actually thinking of just making a bunch of stepping stones so that we can move them around and work on them over a longer period of time. here are a few inspiring images... both are from fine gardening, and jeffrey bale has a great article/how to on actually creating your own...
