My Backyard Makeover

A few years ago, we tore down our old deck and our backyard quickly advanced up the list of the Most Inhospitable Places In The World. There were bald spots in the grass and patchy monkey grass that once bordered the deck leading out to the pool, not to mention the giant mud pie that appeared whenever we saw rain.

Below is a picture of the place I often referred to as 'The Place With No Joy':

(Ignore the blue painters tape on the windows. That's from another project I have going on at the same time which I'll tell you about soon.)

I decided our family's backyard living was going to be a better experience this year, so on Thursday, I pulled into Lowe's and headed for the garden center.

I used a very scientific method for choosing flowers: If I liked the bloom, I put it in my cart without thought or consideration to shade, lifespan or anything else. I'm just not at that level yet.

I also bought ten bags of sand to level out an area where I wanted a walk-way out to the pool. By the time I was done at the home improvement store, my two-door coupe was loaded down like a Ford F150.

Here's my selection:

I began planting my flowers on Thursday afternoon and, after a second trip for more soil, finished early on Friday afternoon. The flowers alone made a huge difference but I made a few other enhancements like adding solar lights (Walmart all day long and they WORK!):

I also bought some inexpensive cushions from the last season's discount bin at Kmart, a citronella globe to keep the bugs away and borrowed an idea from a friend and hung some old kitchen shutters I'd taken down.

The pictures are a little grainy but the end result looks MUCH better than the abomination before:

I'll post some pictures taken during the day soon. Now, it's on to the next project!