Sunday, March 30, 2008

Spring Forward

It was a beautiful day in Pittsburgh today. I took the opportunity to work in our "yard". Our only outdoor space is a small patch of concrete enclosed by chain link fence and plywood. It's hideous. I'm actually too embarassed to post "before" pictures - so please, just know that as humble as the after pictures are - it is a huge improvement. This poor little patio has been through so much lately. In addition to the usual job of housing our garbage cans and the puppies' outside time - the contractors working on our house used my flower pots as ashtrays, left garbage everywhere, tore up the plants (dormant trees that just look like sticks - but still!), and generally wreaked havoc. Last summer I had this bright idea - basically I wanted to put a line of cinder blocks all around the house and fill the holes in them with dirt and plant flowers in them - like window boxes, except on the ground...and made of concrete. Well, I got as far as purchasing the cinder blocks and piling them up in our "yard" so that they took up most of the little space we have. So today I moved them - block by block - to make a wall of sorts around part of the perimeter of the yard. It freed up a lot of room and looks so much better. Of course, now that I'm in bed I can feel back starting to hurt and I'm sure I'll really be feeling it tomorrow. Last summer was the summer of ideas I never saw through. In addition to the cinder blocks, I also purchased and old, rusty claw foot tub that I hoped to turn into a planter - but it sat empty over the winter. Well today I sanded it (the best i could), spray painted it (with car paint that Keystone was selling at 3 cans for 99 cents!), and planted the berry plants in it. Bathtub planters kind of walk the line between trashy and shabby chic - but I wanted more than just potted plants. I think it's cute, and it will let me plant things that demand more soil than a 14" pot can offer. Maybe I'll even get some berries out of it!

4 comments:

  1. ooooooooooooo how nice!!!

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  2. do you think you'll use the bathtub as an herb garden too?

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  3. Anonymous4/02/2008

    the bathtub looks great--can't wait to see pictures of it with flowers in it.

    One idea for our patio we've been looking into is staining the concrete (would work on the cinder blocks too, I think).We saw some great work in a magazine where it looked like old world mud flooring.

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  4. Anonymous5/18/2008

    now, if we can only keep the groundhog from beating us to our berries ...

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