Little Extras

     Sometimes little things can make all the difference. Making sure that all the paint matches or adding a little decoration makes as space feel finished and inviting.  Now that the majority of the work in the side yard is done and the plants are in and growing we can focus on this little details. For example, the area next to the front steps.

      Above is the front view of the area. To the left are the steps that you walk up from the street and then you can see the gray picket fence in the background. Side note: I did scrub all the moss of those steps so they look much better now. All it cost me was a $3 wire bristle brush and some skin off my knuckles. The bush is a blueberry bush. We got it two years ago and did not put it in the greatest spot as it does not get as much sunlight as it would like. But it does give us a few berries every year.

      This view is looking down on the area from the steps. It shows a better view of the overall layout of the area. I don't remember what the plants we used are called but they are come in packets of 8 or so for $1.99 at Lowe's. Usually I am all about functionality and hate giving up good gardening space to frivolously pretty plants but for some reason it seemed ok in this area. Adding curb appeal I suppose.

      And this is the area after about three weeks. By mid summer the whole area should be covered and the plants at the front will start to trail over the edge. I do love it when color spills out over the drab cement. All the plants are the same kind they just come in different colors, even in the same pack.

 UPDATE: It has been about three weeks since I first wrote this post and I just wanted to add some more recent photos to show how much things have grown. I am particularly happy with this little section.

      The next little addition is a mini fence that matches the larger on on the other side of the walkway. In the above picture you can see that the area looks alright. There is a level brick retaining wall (that doesn't actually retain anything but again, looks nice and finished).

    In the above photo you can see the stakes I've put in. This little fence is my no means necessary but the stakes do keep the hose and electrical cords from getting pulled over the plants. I simply could have put a stake or metal pole at each end of the section and that would have helped save the plants too.

      And here is the finish product. I weaved the same twine through the stakes just as will the larger fence and staple gunned them in place. I think it makes the area look like it's own little garden bed and rather than the afterthought growing area that it is. And it deters the dog. What do you think?

UPDATE: The beans against the wall had gotten so big by last weekend that I desperately needed to put up a trellis for them.  But we are trying to save money so we can actually go on some kind of vacation this year so I didn't want to go out and by something at Lowe's. But as luck would have it, there was a tree growing into another tree in the front yard that I cut down. There were two fairly straight trunks so I made this...

     It was really easy. I dug holes for the vertical posts and set them in. Then I tied the stop bar to the vertical posts with twine. After that I strung twine back and fourth and held it in place with staples. It took maybe 30 minutes and now the beans can grow all they want.

      This is our apple tree. While wandering through Lowe's the other day I saw a sign that said "All bare root fruit trees 50% off". The first tree I looked out happened to be an apple tree. Great! I had been talking about doing an espalier apple tree on the back of the garage for a year or more now. So how much was this whole tree doing to cost me? $10! I know, I wish I had lots of money to go buy an heirloom apple tree from a local grower but I am poor. And the best part, this tree has four kinds of apple! Each branch is a different kind. We will have red delicious, golden delicious, fuji and I think macintosh.

      Here is a shot of the tree after Matt espalied it. (not sure that is an actual word.) It is pretty small but you can tell from the two photos that the tree is already flourishing and even has pink little blossoms on one branch. It is possible to have each branch be a different type of fruit because all apple trees are grafted: meaning that a branch of one tree is tied onto another tree. Google it for a more technical description of how this is done. But they do this, particularly with apple trees, so they know what kind of apples they are going to get. If you just plant an apple seed you could get any type of apple because each seed holds the genetic material for every type of apple. So a fuji seed could produce a Granny smith tree (in theory). Weird, right? This may be because apples have 57,000 genes where as we humans only have 30,000. Ok, sorry about that tangent. I find apple trees fascinating.

     My one last little extra was our outdoor furniture. This is not the greatest photo it but it consists of a table and two chairs. The frames are black metal while the seats and table top were brown wood. But the brown wood color has worn away and looked pretty bad. So for a simple spruce up I used the same paint as I used on the fence and make the wood white. Now everything matches and the table and chairs don't look like they came with the house.

UPDATE: Just wanted to add in a photo of what the garden looks like now. We have been having amazingly warm and sunny weather and that has made me and all the plants very happy.