Backyard Baby Steps

I've moaned and groaned about my backyard and it's craptastic state for a long time now. I got tired of listening to myself and took two little baby steps in making it somewhere that I would like to spend time.

I have to start by telling you that my mom and I SKIN the plant clearance racks at Lowe's on a regular basis. They always have great plants that just need to be watered (most of the time) for like $1.00 to $1.25 and the same plants were going for $7-$10 a week ago. So with that in mind, I decided it was time to beautify the backyard.

So I took these..

And some of this:

 And we turned this dirt patch (with a lovely stump) ...

 

Into this..

I can see this flower bed from my kitchen window and it makes me happy...worth every minute I had manure compost on me (note to self, next time don't wear flip flops).

 The pinkish-red bell flowers attract hummingbirds & butterflies.  I also have Veronica Lavender and Autumn Joy Sedum in this bed.

And the stump is being very helpful in keeping my lovely pot upright.

And look who is still around!! Here is one of the little black kittens from earlier this summer.  Unfortunately, only 2 of the 5 are still here - we named them Kevin & Pickles.  I don't know what happened to the others.  They're scaredy cats and it has taken weeks & weeks for them to trust us.  They eat by the back door instead of the very back of the yard and I can pet them now. I'm taking them to the vet next week..we're just winging it from there.  I'd love to rehome them but 2 skiddish kittens are a hard sell.  Although, Kevin is turning into a love bug..so I think they will be wonderful little kitties once I can really get my hands on them. 

Ok, moving on...here's the second bed...

I already had some of these plants here but it needed to be cleaned up.  A little bit of hump-busting work on a Saturday and we're done!  It looks a little weinee-ish now but these plants will fill out and be gorgeous next year. 

 I'm going to have some fun in the back with color.

And check out these great pallets!!  I am thinking we'll work these into some kind of outdoor furniture around the fire pit (that doesn't exist yet, but we're working on it).

And one little nod to the garden that we've enjoyed all summer...

They were delicious!

 Thai Basil - yummm! We made flavored oil, added it to salads and gave quite a bit away, too.  The flavor is amazing and it smells just as good!

 

So bye to summer fun...until next year...

(Two posts in 2 days...are you amazed?)

Smell ya later,