Gardening 101

Hey there! Hope everyone had a great weekend! This was the first weekend with nice weather in the last few weeks that we've actually been at home, so I was finally able to do some "gardening". Confession, I really know nothing about landscaping or plants/flowers (although I'd like to learn) so I'm throwing this term around very loosely;)

The outside of our house/yard needs lots of work and P has a ton of ideas for things he'd like to do, but the last 2 summers have just been so busy that fall ends up coming and we've accomplished none of the outdoor stuff we wanted to do. Don't get me wrong, the lawn looks amazing...this is P's mission...and when he's not golfing, he's mowing or watering it. But the rest of it (mulch, new plants, taking down some trees, starting over with some flower beds) well, we haven't touched it. So last year I did 2 quick and easy things that at least made me feel like I attempted something (and I didn't kill them, which means I was ready to try again this year):

• flower boxes on the back deck
• hanging baskets on the front porch

So, on Saturday I went to Lowes and got the flowers and mulch I would need to repeat my stellar performance from last year. And since I didn't want to fix what wasn't broken, I went with pretty much the same kinds of flowers this year. (When I have more time and a little more experience, I'll start experimenting.)

The previous owners of the house left us 2 cute white wooden flower boxes on the back deck railing. Here's what they looked like last year once I stepped up to the challenge and filled them:



Our small back deck is not a ground level, its one story up. And as you can see, we have a lot of trees in the backyard and they are pretty close to the house (part of the outside to-do list that we've haven't done anything about yet). They offer nice privacy, just not a lot of usable back lawn (we do have some on the side of the house).

This was also before we bought our new deck furniture at the end of last season from Overstock. Take a look at the new and improved deck this year:)



I thought I might as well and take 5 minutes to add some accessories to the table to make it look prettier for you guys:) Pretend that P and I are going to have some chips and salsa and margaritas out on the deck...maybe it would look like this (of course, there would be actual food and drinks). And P would be drinking a Budlight, not a margarita. This is actually what it would look like if we pretended I married a guy that actually liked the same things I do!!!




I love our little front porch but I thought it needed something other than the rocking chairs, so last year we put hooks up and hung 2 baskets. I saved the wire baskets over the winter and just bought new coconut hut liner thingies for this year. Since I used pretty much the same flowers, I'll just show you the pics from last year;)



Well, there you have it! My attempt at gardening:) Did you guys get anything done outside this weekend?