Our Backyard/ Garden

It was beautiful and warm here a few days ago but then the rain came, thankfully the forecast is for sunny skies and warm temperatures this weekend (22-25). Last week I even cleaned the garage as an excuse to be outside and have something to do. Since today is earth day I figured I would write a little bit about our little piece of earth in the back yard. The warmer weather has got me thinking more about getting our place ready for summer. Although it's tricky renting and not having any extra income for things like topsoil, planters, plants, etc. So I've started looking on Kijiji more in hopes of finding some very cheap or free deals to perk our place up. I'm always up for a challenge and love having goals, not to mention that I love to be outside in the summer, so this is right up my alley. I’ve given myself a budget of $50 for the entire yard (soil, plants, planters, furniture, etc).

I only made up my plan and started the hunt less than a week ago and I am already feeling hopeful and excited about our little backyard transformation. Several neighbours (one with a yard that is made up entirely of flower beds!) have offered me perennials while they’re dividing their plants. By the looks of how many flowers the one woman alone has, I know that I’ll have enough flowers. While my mom was out we went to the Stokes Seeds store/ warehouse since it’s just a 2 minute drive down the road. (Stokes is a major seed distributor and sells their seeds by catalogue) My mom gave me seeds from her packets, since we both don’t need that many, so all the veggie seeds are covered. A woman also e-mailed me today to tell me I could come dig up as many day lilies as I wanted from her garden.

I put an ad on Kijiji to see if anyone had anything they wanted to get rid of for cheap or free. I got a composter (could have had 10 if I wanted) that’s in perfect condition as well as an assortment of pots (plastic and terra cotta) in various sizes and lots of packs of flower seeds. The best score yet has been 2 half wine barrels… all for free! I’ve decided to plant herbs in one of them and flowers in the other. Recieving so many emails for free offers from so many different people sure warms my heart and reminds me of the goodness in people. It's amazing how generous some people can be, it's very inspiring. I feel so blessed.

So I’m feeling pretty set up so far. I think that the only place that I’ll have to spend money is on topsoil and compost. I think this is kind of funny since those are the two things that I find the silliest to spend money on. Now I just need the ground to dry up again and the sun to come out so that I can continue with turning over the soil and edging the new flower bed.

I thought I would post a couple pictures of our sad backyard at the moment. Hopefully it will look much better as time goes on. This should also be a measure of accountability for me. It would be pretty sad to post similar pictures at the end of the summer.

I'm digging up a flower bed to line the corner of the house and fence.