It's spring!

SPRING! We are finally having some spring weather and it's glorious. It felt so good to be outside and the world is coming alive again. Flowers are budding and blooming, the grass is turning green and it feels so good to be outside.  Over the weekend we cleaned up the winter leaves, worked on the lawn, cut up all the broken branches in the yard from the storm and cleaned up all of the damaged plants the best we could. (The red bud tree will survive, the hollyhock will be fine, but my rose bush was decimated.)

I'm so excited for all the flowers to come up with the new beds and see how the new garden plan starts bringing in more texture and color. The early spring bulbs like tulips and daffodils are up, but everything else is just starting to emerge. In a few weeks I think I'll get a good picture for what survived and where the gaps are. I have butterfly weed and blanket flower seedlings started (from seeds I purchased a couple months ago) and dahlia bulbs to plant.

I also started planting flowers in the flower pots. I went to the nursery for pansies on Saturday but quickly realized it's almost MAY (wait what? Wasn't there snow flurries a week ago?) and decided to take advantage of the early summer flowers they had out instead. I still need more, but I didn't want to overdo it in case there's a frost warning and I have to bring everything inside. I also have some new pots this year that I can't wait to fill.

Backyard

The backyard's focus this spring (and this year) is really all about enjoying the backyard. Polishing up all the hard work we did last fall with the garden beds (we need mulch! edging! an obelisk!), planting the flower pots for more color and getting the patio and deck to a place where we can really relax and enjoy it (shade! cushions!). 

Our backyard to-do list:

• Order mulch for delivery (with all the new beds we need like 4 cubic yards)
• Edge the garden beds and spread all that mulch
• Build 2 obelisks - one for the yard on the left side and one for raised bed garden
• Buy and plant flowers in pots on porch, patio, deck (half done)
• Cover pergola in trellis
• Do side of deck with trellis piece to enclose it
• Plant the raised bed garden (mid May)

I also really want to tackle:

• Fix up outside of garage (it's getting really bad)
• Reorganize the inside of the garage (AGAIN. Sigh)

New things we have for the backyard:

• New aqua umbrella for the deck 
• Seat cushions for the 2 deck chairs in aqua
• New rail planters for the deck for more color (a gift)
• Hanging baskets (I forgot I bought these and just found them)
• Chair cushions ordered for the wood patio chairs in aqua

Front Yard 

Out front we just need to do a little sprucing. Mulch and shrub trimming. The front porch needs some maintenance (trim paint, floor oil) and we've decided to add a small simple bench this summer that I think I can make it out of scrap wood to fit the custom size we would need. The little kid chair is great for kids, but it would be nice if there was a spot for anyone to use.

Porch and front yard to-do list:

• Paint porch railing 
• Oil porch floor
• Mulch the front beds
• Add a flower pot to bottom of stairs for more color
• Build a simple custom bench for porch with scrap wood
• Plant flowers in the porch flower pot and rail boxes (done!)

So that's where we are. Lots of little things to do to keep the front yard nice and then bring the backyard to a new level.