Can't Make It Worse, Right?

When Cory and I moved into our current house, nearly a year ago, the yard was a wreck. This may deter some other crazy kids from agreeing to rent the property (or not, seeing as most kids our age couldn't give a rats hiney about landscaping). Cory and I aren't intimidated by unruly vines,weeds and patches of poison ivy. Even the mighty powers of ugly interior paint colors, dirty floors, and disgusting bathrooms can't touch our vision of what the apartment or house could be (with a lot of elbow grease). 

The trick is making the best of your living situation, indoors and out, on a budget. Cory and I wanted to focus our efforts (physically and financially) on the parts of our yard that counted, a.k.a. where we spent the most time. The front of our house was last on our list. No one enters our home through the actual front door, and Lucy plays in the back and side yard. Basically our neighbors spend more time staring at it than we do. I also didn't want to spend too much time in the front because this isn't our dream house. Our landlord obviously didn't go to a lot of trouble to make the space nicer for us, why am I going to improve their property value for them if it won't really benefit me (because I never look at or spend time in this part of the yard).


So, I invested $8 in a big bag of wildflower seeds. Guaranteed to attract butterflies and humming birds. Once I cleared the army of weeds, I scattered handfuls of seeds over the flowerbeds on either side of our front door.  I thought at best there would be beautiful, tall, wildflowers, that I would be able to see through our living room and bedroom windows. Butterflies and humming birds would be constant visitors, it would always be sunny, and I would have a closet full of sundresses. Or, nothing would happen with the seeds, and it would just look the same/better for having the removed the weeds. 


A couple of weeks after I planted the seeds, Cory and I noticed some green coming in. We wondered if it was just the weeds returning, but decided to leave it alone. I would water the new growth in the mornings and think, "I'm going to be so pissed if I find out I have been standing here, watering clovers and dandelions!" 


Later, when the flowers really started growing (but not blooming) and we knew they weren't just weeds (YAY!) Lucy dug a huge hole clearing out at least half of the wildflowers. I threw together a string of words my mother taught me ($^%%@#*(I&#^$$#@@**!!) and then scattered some more seeds from the big bag I purchased on the cheap. 

This weekend we noticed some of the cuties were blooming, HUSPAZ!!! 

It still looks a little messy, admittedly, kind of like weeds. We know its flowers ;-)

As usual I'll post again when there's more blooms.

~L