It started out innocently enough.  I took down the kitchen curtains to wash them.  I decided to put up some valances I had in the linen closet that I had picked up from Target on clearance for only $3 each.  The valances alone made the kitchen brighter, no easy feat since there is a Florida room off the kitchen that blocks and diffuses much of the light coming into the kitchen.  I did not take proper before pictures of the “project” but this will give you an idea of what was before.  Cafe curtains with upper valances and bottom curtains. Off topic - is that not the biggest hydrangea bloom ever?  Why are they all no longer white?  Now they are all greenish.  Still pretty but not white.

So anyway…I put up the new valances and the light just poured in.  And then I could see the dirty windows in all their, ahem,  glory.  So I cleaned the windows, inside and out and in between.  Not easy.  Especially since these old windows don’t open up all the way.  I have good leverage under the window by the door but it must have been quite the site to see me feet in the sink, trying to pry open the window enough to get at the storm windows.  Between standing on a stool over the sink and standing in the sink I was able to lower and raise the storms, I couldn’t pull them out.  So now the view out the window looks like this.

If you look closely out the windows by the storage canisters you can see the tippy tops of our garbage cans.  Nice view.  So again, no “before” picture.  You’re just going to have to trust me that it wasn’t pretty.

So that’s what I was working on yesterday.  I ran to Home Depot to get ideas only.  I have no budget for this and was just going to move what I had planted on the other side of the fence in the side garden over to this spot, but I knew eventually I’d like to add some height.  I had one Pieris (Japonica) bush that was in the side garden that will grow to about 5 feet tall.  I thought an Arborvitae or 3 would be perfect for hiding the garbage cans and the fence but wanted to see what else would work in this area.  I get part sun in this area, a lot of the day it is shaded.  I hit the jackpot at Home Depot as many of their prices were slashed.  I picked up a very small Arborvitae for $5.99 and a small Azalea for $6.99 and two tiny garden Mum plants for $19.

I cleared the section where the garbage cans were and carved out an area for the garden.  I then  removed the Hostas and Pieris bush from the other side of the fence/gate (on the side of the house) and replanted them in the yard, along with the new plants.  It took about 3 hours total and I am so happy with the results.  You still have to pass the garbage cans if you walk through the gangway to the backyard but we rarely do.  We mostly enter the yard through the kitchen door and I spend a lot of time at the sink doing dishes and looking out that window.  The view is so much better now.

As you can see from this side angle, the garbage cans are on the other side of the fence.  I can’t see them though, from my kitchen window.  I think I’ll slat the fence or plant something that vines over it to block the view until the plants grow into their own.  everything is teeny tiny but if you use your imagination, you can see how it will fill in.  As things grow I’ll have to move some of the Hostas, but I love using them as “place holders” - it looks pretty and helps keep the weeds down.  I still need to add mulch.

Far left you can see the Arborvatie and in the back corner is the Pieris.  Once they grow it will fill in that area nicely.  The Azalea is the lime green plant just behind and to the right of the white potted annual plant.  They say it will get between 3 to 6 feet tall and just as wide.  We’ll see.  The mums are the really tiny purple plants to the right of the picture.  I may need to move those as they might need more sun.  I bought them because I love mums and couldn’t bring myself to buy two big pots of mums yet.  I can’t mix them with the annuals - it looks funny to me and I’m not ready to lose the potted annuals yet.

I’m so happy with how this looks.  Such a small change that makes such a big difference.  And super budget friendly.  And, since this is such a hodgepodge of how one small project went astray I’ll post another example of how things lead from one to another.  As I was outside taking photos, I noticed some ripe tomatoes in the garden and so I walked over to pluck those.  Here is todays tomato haul.

Mmm. Off to make Caprese salad.

Then.

Now.  In the corner by the fence (closest view) there is a Pieris bush that flowers, can’t see it in this picture.

Then.

Now.  The tall plants in the background are Annabelle Hydrangeas.

Then.

Now.

Closeup.  The ball type plants are Autumn Joy Sedum.  The smaller balls are from last year, the larger ones are 3 years old.  A butterfly bush is behind one of the large Sedums.

More closeup.  The yellow yarrow was added last year it is much larger in this photo - about 3x the size!  Behind the yarrow is an Ivory Halo Dogwood.  To the left of the dogwood is Spirea Little Princess - the picture is from 2 weeks ago, it has little pink flowers all over it now.  All the greenery behind, in front and to the side of the Yarrow are daisys - they’re starting to bloom as well.

Another closeup.  Dianthus in the forefront and Coneflower foilage beind in several locations.  No blooms yet, but soon.

I am loving the garden at this point in the Spring and there is still much to bloom.  I will need to thin out and remove some of the hostas as they are huge this year too.  I’ll update some more when more is in bloom!

With the warm weather here this weekend I have the itch to go shopping.  I can’t wait to head over to Lurvey’s for some annuals for my pots and for the garden.  The colors always make the yard look so pretty.  Next stop, Home Depot for plants for the veggie garden.  I will plant a variety of tomatoes again this year as well as peppers.  All did well last year.  I am thinking about adding eggplant and zucchini this year.

The garden is pepped and ready to go, I just need to add the plants.  I love this time of year and am excited to think that when I am done with grad school perhaps I will land a job teaching right away (positive thoughts!) and will be home for the summers from now on.

This summer will be crazy busy with school and all but I’ll make time to care for the garden.  I will post pictures soon to show how far it’s come.  I was just looking at the photos from years past and what a difference!  Pics soon, I promise.  What are you doing this weekend?

I was ever so tempted to get rid of this planter.  I’m glad I didn’t.  Although the plants in the pots overhead are not trailing as in their name “trailing verbena” and the potato vine hasn’t really trailed either - that’s some simple tweaking for next year.  Picture pots overflowing with trailing, flowering plants.  Not so bad huh?

What was once a really unattractive area of the yard is actually becoming attractive.   In a few years when the Annabelle Hydrangeas that I ordered from Michigan Bulb last year grow in the area will be filled with Hydrangeas.  The bigger Hydrangea plants that you can see - to each side of the planter were picked up from Home Depot for just $12.50 a few weeks ago.  They were on their last legs.  Looking at the pole of the planter the one on the left is doing really well, the one just to the right of the pole (hard to see as there is only one flower you can see in the photo) is not doing as well but I think it will make it.  Next year it should be pretty.  Fingers crossed.

I just love it when you can pick flowers and use them as arrangements inside.  Free.  Totally.  And so pretty.

Just a nice “pick me up” to the day.

Patio Garden.  And I use the “patio” word lightly.  It’s not so much of a patio nor is it really a Florida room.  It’s more of an eyesore.  The structure was at one point a Florida room - really a rather nice attribute back in the 1950’s and 1960’s I’m sure.  It was wired with speakers and a sound system of sorts and electricity.  Off to the side (out of picture range), near where the vegetable garden is remains the remnants of a small pond.  A neighbor tells me there used to be fish in it and everything.  Now all that remains is rock and concrete.  And man, is it hard to break that stuff up and get it out of there.  They built it to last.

Our short term goal is to rebuild the roof and supports over the foundation, fix up the cracks in the concrete and use the space as a patio.  Long term goal is to build out and add a family room in this space.  For now it has an old fiberglass cover which will remain until money falls from the sky (or wherever it comes from).  My vote was to pull the roof off, my hubby wanted to leave it on as it provides relief form the rain (or snow) when you access the garage from the house or when we let the dog in and out.  Guess who won?  He did.  As unsightly as it is, there was an even more unsightly patch of dirt directly in front of the “patio” that was the very first thing you saw when you walked into the back yard.    That I could fix.

I added a Spirea japonica “Frobell”, a Yarrow plant, three Rose Coreopsis plants, some transplanted Hostas  some container annuals, transplanted some rocks and added 2 solar lights.  The patio itself is still not a pretty place but the view is adorable.  At least when you wak into the backyard you are greeted with a little pretty.  

I have admired the Spirea in other gardens and have a Spirea “Little Princess” in the back.  The “Little Princess” lives up to its’ name though and is small and compact.  The Spirea “Frobell” should get a nice 3′-4′ spread and height and fill in nicely.  Plus the “flowers” look pretty enough to snip and bring inside to enjoy.

The Yarrow was an impulse purchase.  I would have bought more but this was the only one in this color, the rest were “Summer Pastels” and multi colored.  I heard from Nicole that htis has a tendency to spread.  I hope it does, otherwise, I will be adding more in the future.

View as you walk into the yard.

All in all, a quick, easy and fun fix to an eyesore.  All accomplished in an afternoon.  Looking at this post, I have to go out back now and remove that piece of wood that is falling down behind the garden.  I started to do it and was distracted, until I saw it now in the photos.  Hope the whole darn thing doesn’t come tumbling down (or do I?).

The sixth and final garden on the Garden Walk was a corner home.  This home did not boast a generous back yard so the gardener made the most of the side gardens.  Much of the backyard is hardscape and dog friendly.

I see they have Bishop’s Weed.  I too have it in my yard, in confined places.  People love this plant for it’s coverage and people HATE this plant for the same.  This plants spreads under the ground and spreads like crazy.  It is really hard to get rid of.  Mine seems to be pretty well under control so I have learned to tolerate it.  Nicole was a little more positive in her thoughts and said I should learn to embrace it.

This is the back yard, more hardscape than lushness.

Yep, that’s Nicole in the distance with Eleanor and Francesca.  Eleanor got a lot of attention at the Garden Walk and I cannot begin to tell you how many people made comments about her being the youngest garden walker and that it’s “good to get them gardening early”.  Too cute.  Everybody loves babies, but I’m thinking gardeners - natural nurturers are even more partial to babies!

I liked this leaf sculpture on the side of the house.

Ok, this concludes our Garden Walk Tour.  I hope you enjoyed it.  This was my very first garden walk but I am hooked and will be attending every year from now on.  Who knows, maybe someday my garden will be included in the tour.  Until then, I will continue to mold and shape our space into a garden that is just right for our family.  I got so much inspiration from the walk and look forward to future projects, like the water feature pot.

The 5th garden on the Garden Walk was labeled as a Tuscan Villa and was just a block down from the last garden.  I think, more appropriately, that it was a garden filled with art.  It was a busy space, with a deck and a patio area, and instead of just grass there were stepping stones all over, filled in with grass.

Even the parkway, which in our city is typically all grass, was filled with plants.  

See.  Art.

This I love.  I like when folks have ponds in their yards but for me, with the dog and the kids I can’t see adding one to our yard.  I would venture that they come with at least a fairly higher degree of maintenance  than I have time for.  This small water feature would be just right.  I am officially adding it on the my next summer to do list.  I have maxed out my garden budget for this summer, although this can’t be very expensive.

More art.  I like the round discs on the string hanging from the tree.  It reflected so prettily in person.

The patio area of the yard.

They have little doodads tucked in all areas of the yard.

A pretty pond.

The stepping stone yard.

There was a lot to see in this yard.  I think my very favorite, silly as it may seem, was the small water feature pot.  There were some pretty plants too but the project is what I came away from with here.

Coming up soon in my next post will be the sixth and final garden on the garden walk.  We didn’t get to the real final one, house 7.  I think we may have missed an amazing garden as house 7 had the raffle and auction items.  I think they usually reserve that for the creme de la creme of gardens. Oh well.  It was a fun day for us anyway.

After a pit stop at home and moving on with one less child, we proceeded to the fourth home of the garden walk.  This one was created out of necessity.  A rescued German Sheppard mix puppy did a number on the lawn and the flower beds.  With some raised beds, containers, pavers and pathways this is what the garden evolved to.

No grass whatsoever in the back yard.

I’m not so sure what it is I like about this planter but I really like it.  There were two of them, one on either side of the back of the house.  Very simple but very pretty.

Again, a pretty garden but with little ones I need grass in the back yard.  This one had a bit more hardscape than what my preferences are.  The next house on the walk was just down the street.  Very convenient for our entourage.  Up next post - The Tuscan Villa garden.

The third garden of the Garden Walk was a lovely garden filled with plants and even a hidden garden behind the garage.  This garden was accompanied by the self proclaimed “Prettiest alley in Park Ridge”.  The back yard had no grass at all but was instead filled with plants.  

This striking white Hosta was beautiful next to all the greenery.

In the short car ride from house 2 to house 3 Ross had fallen asleep.  Awakened and now taken to another home, he promptly just curled up on the sidewalk in front of the house and stated he was tired.  Francesca, one to go with the flow, curled up right next to him.  He rested in the yard while we toured the garden and then we dropped him off ot be at home with dad.  Strangely enough, this is not the first photo of them I have like this.  I have one from Christmas when they had finished lying under the tree looking at the lights.

Entry into the secret garden.

Seating area in the secret garden.

Alley behind the home.  It was nice to see that all the neighbors down the block had planted along the fence line by their garages.  It really was pretty - for an alley!

The prettiest “flower” in the garden!

All in all a lovely garden.  Not my style, I prefer grass in the yard but I can appreciate the beauty of a yard like this.  After this garden it was off to home to drop Ross off, refuel the remaining baby and toddler and return to the second leg of our Garden Walk.  More to come.