Backyard Beauty

Recently, Cody completely redid our side yard. It was a huge job. It's hard to believe, but there used to be a gravel path, a fence cutting across the yard, and a huge ivy covered arch and gate. He tore all of those things out, including a sorry scraggly flower bed area. He covered the area with grass, made a nice new flower bed, and built a garden plot in the back corner. He built three beautiful trellises and planted rose bushes. I filled in the space around the rose bushes with flowers and vegetables. I love the way it looks with flowers mixed in with basil, eggplant, squash, tomato, and pepper plants. This is about the only area in our yard that gets good sun, so I wanted to put it to use. The garden plot in the far back corner has okra, sunflowers, and cantaloupe.

About 2 months ago I planted a tiny mint plant that was about 6 inches tall by 2 inches wide in this planter. It never ceases to amaze me how it has grown crazy huge! I guess we better start making more mojitos.

When we moved into this house almost 3 years ago, I dreamed of hosting dinners on the patio. There is something so perfect about eating outside on a lovely cool evening. It took a while, but I finally had my first outdoor dinner party last night as the wonderful women from our PTA board and elementary school celebrated the end of the year. The weather was beautiful- great temperature and hardly any wind. Cody had sprayed for mosquitoes this week, so we didn't get much bug activity either which was nice. Turns out 28 can fit comfortably on the patio. I can't wait to host another outdoor dinner...though I might have to wait until fall now that the weather is heating up.