A Little Bit of Curb Appeal
Last year I didn't get to plant any plants because it was too late in the season to start anything by the time we had received the keys to our new house, and there were other things we needed to focus on first.
The summer before last I didn't plant anything because we didn't want to stay in our apartment and were looking for another place to live. Then as that summer progressed we switched from the soul-crushing act of viewing apartments to rent to the soul-crushing act of viewing houses to buy.
All this is to say that I am excited to be planting stuff this summer.
My back yard is still a mess and will take a lot of work to get to the point where I'm thinking about gardening beds (first I'd need to address the uneven ground, the encroaching wild birch trees from the lot next door, and all of the holes Mitzi keeps finding in the dirt).
So I turned my camera to my front yard.
It's pretty bland and not terribly welcoming. First thing I did was hand Donovan a rake and told him to get to work. After a lot of whining about moose poop and having to touch it WITH HIS HANDS OMG GROSS, the front yard was a bit nicer. But was still lacking the welcoming oomph I wanted to see every time I came home.
Using my iPad sketching app, I put some thoughts down.
I ended up liking the combination a lot:
- hanging basket by the front door
- small bed lining the fence
- small bed lining the walkway
- round tub of flowers at the end of the walkway
- bed around the tree
Last Sunday some plants jumped into my cart at Costco and I knew that this plan had to at least start this year. No more putting it off, no more garden-less summers.
Then when my mom was in town for my niece's graduation we did some running around town looking for specific things for her, and I saw red concrete stones were on sale at Home Depot. While we were driving her big truck.
Fate whispered into my ear, "Spend money," and so I obliged.
I had no idea how many to get, so I guessed 30 (I was 4 off). And I got 4 cubic feet of soil (I ended up needing 8).
And then this weekend I got to work.
I pulled a bunch of the grass up around the tree, and discovered there were a lot of white decorative landscaping rocks in there two inches under the soil. So that was fun.
Using a Costco cardboard box as a wheelbarrow, I hauled load after load of landscaping rocks and sod to the wooded area behind my fence. After the area was clear enough, I laid out the concrete blocks, filled it with soil, and plopped in some flowers.
After hours of digging and hauling from the area, the assembly went together very quickly, even including the extra trip to Lowe's for the aforementioned missing blocks and soil.
I planted marigolds, petunias, and lobelia. Plus a hanging basket by the front door. I cannot wait for them to get big and pretty.
