If you’ve been following along on the blog, you know that the inside of our house is mostly done (at least until we decide to do something major like finish the attic).  So I’ve been focusing on the outside – planting, dressing up our porch and deck etc.  Gardening is so therapeutic for me, all these projects have been so gratifying and fun. The first and largest project that happened in the spring was our gravel project.  I still owe the friends who helped us out big time!  Well, a couple weekends ago we embarked on another project, planting River Birch trees along our back fence and spreading out 9 cubic yards of mulch.  I have to give my brother and sister in law a big shout-out for helping and my parents for babysitting while we worked.  If you recall, here is what the back yard and gravel area looked like pre-mulch, and there are the birch trees in the driveway, ready to be planted.  That’s our neighbor’s yellow corvette which gives you an idea of how little privacy and screening we have.

And here is the pile ‘o mulch in our driveway.  This time we learned our lesson and put a tarp down before the dump happened… much easier clean-up (and that’s a sneak peek at my watermelon vines next to the walkway)

I wish I could say I got my perrenial shade garden planted around the gravel area but that will definitely be a multi-phase project over the course of a few years.  In the meantime at least the mulch makes it look neater and keeps the weeds at bay (although these photos make me realize that the back side of our garage and composters – and our neighbor’s trash cans – look pretty dismal). 

I love how the River Birch add a lacy privacy screen to the back yard.  And look how our sunflowers from last year reseeded (Even though the seed packet said they were sterile)! 

I feel like the back yard is FINALLY turning into a space that feels planned and pretty.  Can’t wait to show you more outdoor updates.  What projects are you taking on this summer?