Welcome Spring...Garden!

Happy Spring!  At least that's what the calendar says but the weather outside is still making up its mind.  The last few days have been warmer here so I decided to take the opportunity to help my little guy with the garden that he has been asking me to do for him for over a year now.

Let me start by saying -- I really hate dislike the outdoors.  Nothing about being outside with the bugs flying in my face and being hot makes me excited.  I don't mind going for long walks but that's about where my love for nature begins and ends, but I digress.  My son has changed his mama in many ways.  I have found myself doing things that are clearly outside of my comfort zone and gardening is way out!  Telling him that he can't try to grow plants and veggies was simply out of the question so I took to my computer and surfed the web to come up with not only ideas but tips on how to do this DIY style.

The backyard.  Short story -- it is uneven and there are very limited level spaces out there (including the space I chose to use).  The problem.  Hard ground and little time to get this project finished before heading out of town.  The solution.  Get creative and work with it as is!

The little prince watering the marked off area while pretending to be Rescue Squad Mater  :-)

The original plan was to dig out the space to create a level bed so I had my little guy get the hose and begin watering the area to moisten the ground for digging.  Well, that plan changed as soon as I realized how hard the ground was and exactly how much work doing that was going to take.  Time for plan B.

A trip to Walmart and I purchased a roll of weed cover, laid it in the marked off area and then placed his raised bed where we wanted it.

Marked off an area with brick pavers and filled with paver sand and pea gravel.  I used the sand as a base because of the unevenness of the ground.  This area will make it easy for my little guy to water his garden.

Added the flowers to the bed and some garden soil to the back area.  It's beginning to look like a garden!

My son picked out several plants that he liked but we also had vegetables to plant as well.  The raised bed is called 'My First Garden' that we found at Lowes Home Improvement and it's pretty small {2x2}.We quickly realized there would be no room for the veggies so back to the store to buy another bed.

We made a matching pea gravel area on the other side of the new bed and filled the entire back area with garden soil {I plan to add some bulbs back there}.  We planted seeds -- green beans, carrots and cucumbers and he wanted his strawberry plant to go right up front {we have a tomato plant that we'll put in a vertical hanger to grow that way}.  My son insists that we have signs for the veggies so people will know what we have growing, so I'll be working on that soon.

Welcome to our garden!

I found this sign last year in the dollar store.  What a sweet little addition and we lucked out, it even matched the garden beds.

Here is the final product.  As you can see it isn't level {we'll work on fixing that later} but we are so proud of what we accomplished as a family!

His beautiful flowers!

And his fruits & veggies!

His watering can hanging above for easy access.

We even thought about our little bird friends and bought this colorful feeder.  I found a cute bird bath idea on Pinterest that I think we'll incorporate some time in the future.

Garden area DIY and a feeling of complete satisfaction that we did it ourselves!  What a great way to spend our Easter weekend.  It wasn't conventional but it was filled with family and that to me is how you celebrate a holiday!

***PHOTO UPDATE***

Time to show the progress of our little garden.  We are very happy with how well things have progressed so far -- as the saying goes 'so far, so good' {smile}.

April 13, 2013 - the beginning of green beans.  YAY!

April 13, 2013 - we even have cucumbers.

We don't have any carrots yet, but the seed package said 75 days, so we still have some time for those but we are hoping that they are as hearty as the other two.

April 25, 2013 - Look at all the growth! YIPPEE!

April 25, 2013 - they are more than just green bean sprouts now.

April 25, 2013 - the cucumbers have grown too. 

April 25, 2013 - our strawberries look good.

April 25, 2013 - our tomato plant in the Topsy Turvy

April 25, 2013 - Flower bulbs beginning to grow

I have a confession to make -- I'm more excited about this garden than I ever thought I would be.  My son's enthusiasm for growing food we can actually eat has me hoping and praying each day for a good outcome with our garden experiment.  As you can see from the pics, our veggies/fruit are growing well.  I do have some concerns such as spacing of the veggies {too much/too little??}, the depth of the container for the carrots {learned that when they hit the bottom of the container that they stop growing}, and the coloring {white-ish} on the leaves of the cucumbers, but we plan to see this thing out to the end.

Stay tuned...our next update will be a post showing us harvesting some good veggies and fruit {we pray!}


Where we like to party!

Pinspired ~ Backyard Patio

What is a woman to do when she has an absolutely wonderful sized backyard that is in pitiful condition?  Renovate, renovate, renovate!  After four years in this house and only a playground out there, it is time to start putting some energy and effort into creating a peaceful space that we all can enjoy.

Pinterest to the rescue!  I've found some great ideas that have me jumping at the bit to get this project underway {still waiting for HOA approval...fingers crossed}.  My excitement is almost too hard to contain.

This amazing backyard transformation came from Apartment Therapy {here}.  When I saw it, I immediately fell in love but not just because it was exactly what I was looking for but also because of how much this looked like my own backyard!

I am so attracted to the colorfulness of this patio project.  I'll let you in on a little secret...I'm not the colorful type when it comes to decorating.  I don't know that I would have the courage to try this inside my home, but I'm daring myself to be so bold on the outside!

Pops of color in the form of patio chairs -- brilliant!  Of course my plan will be to do this as inexpensively as possible, so I'll be on the hunt at thrift stores and yard sales for gems that I can transform with a can of spray paint and some cushions.

No backyard redo is complete without lighting and a fire pit.

Now that I have all of the inspiration, time to get ready to make my dream a reality.  Stay tuned!