Almost done with our courtyard

The courtyard has been slowly coming together over the last few weeks. We started with the section closest to the door and worked our way to the gate. First working on the side next to the house and finishing with the fence side. We have been very lucky with getting plants. We bought a lot of them while they were on sale like getting 20 bulbs for $3 and our family has also given us a fair amount of flowers. 

I am so happy with how the house side has turned out! I debated for a while about what to put here and I am so happy that I went with the vine. It really has added a nice focal point for when you walk in.

We added a few moss rocks that we got from my grandparents ranch. I love them! They really add some character to the courtyard.  There are 2 on the each side, but there will be more tweaking.

We plan on adding one more to the fence side to give a little more balance since its such a long section. Also going to add a large one to the back section for a focal point. We have already picked up a few more rocks from the ranch we just have to figure out where each will go. Hopefully we can get that done this weekend.

Planting our new tree

We planted our new tree in the back yard, but first we had to do some hard labor to get it in the spot that we wanted. Breaking out concrete first because of course we make everything harder than we should.

Garrett came by to give us a hand in digging the giant hole.

Thankfully with his help we were able to get it done fairly quickly and had the tree in its new home.

We cant wait for this tree to get bigger and yes that is still concrete debris from the pool removal. It is really hard to get motivated to move concrete blocks.

But doesn't our tree look lovely even with all that crap behind it?

Our New Tree

On Friday Geoff and I went to Home Depot to kill time before a movie. We decided to check out the garden center to see if they had any good deals and before we even could walk into the building we saw a big sign that read, "Half Off Shade Trees". We walked over to check them out thinking that they would still be $100 which would be a great deal considering they were 10 to 13 feet tall. To our surprise the original price was $63 which meant they were only $31.50.

We have been looking at other shade trees around town at local nurseries and they were $130 and up for the same size. This was just too good a deal to pass up so we bought one.

Progress on the courtyard

We have been working little by little on the outside of our house. The courtyard has been Something we have been wanting to tackle ever since we removed the ivy. It has been a bit of an eyesore for a while now. Leaves accumulating in the back corner and we still have some dead ivy vines poking through the fence. It was pretty ugly.

On a cooler saturday morning I decided it was time to tackle this area. I started by removing all the rock and as many dead ivy vines and roots that I could. Geoff did help me with the heavy lifting.

We bought 2 rose bushes that we got on sale, by one get one free from home depot awhile back and planted them there.

Home depot was having another sale on plants, so we bought 3 foxgloves for $10 and 3 vincas for $10. Also grabbed some mulch to give it that finished feeling.

Later during the week I bought some bulbs for half off and Geoffs parents gave us a bunch of vincas that they didn't have room for. I cleaned out the small section next to the house, with a friends help, and got to planting.Thanks Elliot! I wasn't sure what I wanted to put in the middle of that section so I left it blank until I had some idea.

That Idea turned out to be a 4 foot trellis and a flowering vine, which is a Rosemoor Clematis. I also picked up 2 day lilies for $1 each.

I have to say that I am really happy with my decision to put in the trellis and the clematis it was a nice to add some instant height.   

We still have the fence side of the courtyard to finish but we have run out of steam right now. We are waiting for some good deals on more part shade plants, as well as an idea of what we really want that side to look like. We really love how its turning out and we still have a bunch of tweaks to make. Hopefully we can get to it soon.