July 31st, 2024

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If you were standing in the street in front of our house,  if you noticed our house at all (and most people actually don't) this is probably what you would see.  Yes the lawn needs to be mowed, I agree.  But other than that it is, quite obviously, a little green cottage of our house with courtyard in front.

Outside the courtyard is a half circle gravel/shell driveway, our cars, a LOT of trees and shrubs (some of which appear to need a bit of a trim). Usually those shrubs are in full bloom, brilliant pinks, reds, whites, purples and, well the yellow is indeed blooming but you'll have to take my word for the rest. It's your basic, nothing fancy, nothing exciting, just an almost invisible house. (green house set amidst a lot of green everything else is great camouflage).   But once you step through the entrance of the courtyard, things change.

Directly in front is the door, which is just your basic door, with an awesome planter - Minock made and gifted to us.

And if you look to the left there is the potted garden, comfy adirondack double chairs and even a table which is covered with plants but still, a table! The old fashioned shuttered window, the sail shade, the party lights and wall decorations make it a cozy, comfy, cute little space that nobody would ever guess existed from the outside of the walls.

If you look the other way, however, it's an entirely different thing.  There is something that passes for a garden filled with decorative grasses, non blooming plants and quite honestly some weeds beside a gravel path to nowhere.  That's the way it looked when we moved in and has looked that way for eight years.  It's a sad looking roughly ten feet of........................this mess.  

It's always been on the list to do something about it but we've been distracted with other projects and real life.

When we bought the house we knew that the property as a whole needed work and we made the decision that every year, we would do one big project.  Sometimes the project ended up being things you cannot actually see, like replacing plumbing systems, updating the electrical,  relocating and buying a new HVAC system; all things that clearly needed to be done and we absolutely benefitted from the project's completion.

Other years, other projects were very visible  such as creating a whole new kitchen,  bathroom and family room!  Even just repainting walls created big changes. Everyone could see those things happen, you could not miss it.  And the differences are positive, amazing and worth the time, money and effort.  

This year however, we were still kind of reeling from the family room project which took far more time, money, effort and patience than we ever anticipated and it kind of burned us out a little bit.  Other than very small things (like Tim replacing old electrical outlets throughout the house for example) we originally opted to start nothing else new.

But then I got an itch to work on this courtyard garden situation. I talked to Tim about it and he was on board so I'm tickled to bits to say that our new project this year is, at long last, the courtyard garden. I am so excited!

So much so in fact, that as soon as Tim and I discussed it, I immediately went outside and started tearing out the old ......ok let's call it a garden.  The crappola that filled that space at any rate.  Some of it came out easily, other bits had roots that I swear went all the way to Middle Earth! ARGH!  I struggled through nearly half of it before calling it quits for the day.  Perhaps this was a bigger bite than I could really chew?  The next weekend, Tim jumped in to help and we knocked it out in no time at all.

we Once we cleaned up we headed out to a local nursery to read plant labels and see what's possible and what's not.  It is a Full Sun situation so only certain plants need apply.  I was happy to see that there are a lot of options that fill the bill.  I am hoping for lots of colour and fragrance, perennial plants that attract butterflies and bees!

Tim and I talked possibilities for awhile and eventually got carried away and have decided to expand the garden.  So my next step will be to take out the gravel/shell path (which can all be added to the driveway) and fill that entire area with  beautiful things!  There will be a stepping stone pathway through, but mostly it'll be colourful, green, growing, lovely stuff!

I worked for a few more hours on it this morning and came in looking like the Pigpen character from the Peanuts comic strip.  Another day or two like that and I think we will be ready for watering system which means I turn it over to Tim.

After he is finished I will be adding more good dirt, which we politely refer to as Amending the Soil.  What passes for "soil" here is really more sand than anything. And while sand is great for  drainage so we surely do need some, really good dirt is necessary too.

After the dirt situation is corrected to my satisfaction it'll be stepping stones and then, the best part, the plants!  I still do not know for absolute certain what plants will be going in, but I know that it will be colourful, a veritable rainbow of vegetation.

This is not a project that will be completed over night. It's gonna be awhile. But I am hopeful that it will be finished, completely done and gorgeous by fall.  And I cannot WAIT to show you pictures of the finished project.

For now consider this......Future Garden!​