Yard make-over...on a budget

Our back yard has been struggling for a while now. I'm not sure that you can really consider it a yard since we live in a townhouse, but we have a tiny area in the back that is fenced in. This past weekend was absolutely gorgeous and for whatever reason Gray took extra long naps so Paul and I decided it would be the perfect time to work outside.

We started by digging up this hideous bush that's actually in the front right next to the door.

Want to know something funny? I forgot to take a "before" picture of the bush (we were so excited to dig that thing up) so this is a picture of the same ugly bush at our neighbor's house. I just knew he was going to walk outside right about the time I was snapping the picture. I imagine I would have said something along the lines of, "Oh, hey! I was just taking a picture of your ugly bush. We used to have an ugly bush but it's gone now."

We replaced the ugly bush with this Camellia. I can't wait for it to bloom but even it's green leaves are so much more pleasant that that pitiful thing that used to be there.

Over a year ago we got a huge concrete slab poured (it was sure to sell our house, said the realtor) so there isn't much grass but what is there has been dead for a long time. It was time we did a few things to perk up what little outside space we do have. If it doesn't help out house sell at least we will enjoy more while we wait.

It didn't look quite this bad before but it was close. We killed all the weeds and then raked them up.

We were planning on buying fertilizer and grass seed but saw Lowe's had just gotten fresh sod in and for as little as our backyard is, we were able to buy sod cheaper than what the grass seed and fertilizer would have cost. And we have immediate grass-score!

When we moved almost two and a half years ago from my townhouse, we threw away the cushions to the patio furniture because they were disgusting and could not be cleaned up enough to use. We never replaced them and therefore have never used the furniture since we've been here.

Pitiful chairs with no cushions. Also notice where the grill is here.

We got some rust-away spray and fixed up the chairs.




These cushions came from Aldi and were only 10 bucks a piece! We haven't been able to find any for less than $40 a chair and we just weren't willing to spend that much. These aren't exactly what I would have picked out, but they aren't too awful and for a total of $40, I think they look pretty good!

We Paul scrubbed all the nastiness off of the siding too. He says he now knows why people rent pressure washers.

It was beyond time to pull old, dead flowers from last year.

I planted some wild flower seeds that my mom gave me in this pot. I hope they sprout soon. We realized after all of the yard work was done that this poor pot could stand some spray paint. Maybe we'll get around to that this weekend.

The area in between the concrete and the fence was a combination of weeds and old mulch.

This is after we pulled the weeds and laid new cedar mulch. It looks so much better and smells wonderful.

This is our yard now. Doesn't it look so much happier? The sod is struggling in a few spots even though we've soaked it twice a day every day since we put it down. Not sure what's up with that but it still looks better than it did.

We also moved the grill so it's not taking up so much of the beautiful concrete space.

I'm so excited to spend some time out back this spring. We had some friends over last night and enjoyed a lovely dinner on our "new" patio. I imagine lots of days spent blowing bubbles and using sidewalk chalk this spring and summer when Gray starts walking.

Perhaps when we have a real yard one day we won't neglect it for two years ;)

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