Ok. So . . . I can raise kids. Keep them fed. Tend to their injuries. Teach them things. But plants? Yeah, I just kill them. But – I finally have a bit of a yard, including a small patch that is just perfect for a small garden.
My 2 older kids and I walked to a nearby Menard’s (it’s a Chicagoland Home Depot sort of place) just to see what they had – I expected super high prices which would discourage me from jumping into gardening. I was so excited to find that everything was . . . DIRT cheap. *snort*
Now – I realize that I should have done some research, figured out what the best plants and planting techniques were. But I was just in the mood to DO, so we DID.
Everything in this cart – around 10 plants, a bag of soil, a bag of rocks and a little hand shovel – all came to about $13!
Now I’ll show you my next-door neighbor’s setup, which has me GREEN with envy. *snort*
They also have a pretty hanging plant in a basket from their porch roof, and a nice little add-on patio which extends their small porch over to behind their little garden. You can see a bit of those patio blocks at the top left corner of the 1st pic above.
And now for our “before” pics:
Yucky dirt patch with old plastic lining which is no longer covered, and the straggling rocks which hung around. No idea what this looked like when it was first landscaped, this was the condition when we moved in a month ago. UGLY!
Dirt patch to the side of our small porch. This is the area where our neighbors put down pavers to extend their porch. We may or may not do the same – we really like hanging out in front on breezy evenings, but our porch is tiny.
First attempt to fill in the rockbed. I thought I might want to use this area to plant, but after pulling out the plastic, I could tell that this area wasn’t going to be great for planting. I think I’d rather make it look pretty and low, low maintenance. So I went with rocks – Western Sunset, to be exact. This is one bag’s worth – thankfully they’re only $3 a bag.
After 2 more bags worth of rocks. I want to get one more bag to fill in all the thin spots, like around the edges. I’ll likely put down a potted plant or two, copying the neighbors. And I even have an idea of what I’d like – some striking grass, like this:
Or this:
There’s a low potted plant just like this at Menards that I could go buy a couple of. I think they’d stand out really nicely against the red rocks.
Moving on! Here’s what has been planted so far, following the line where our grass meets the dirt section next to our porch. Don’t ask me what plants these are – some are Salvia, some are Zinnia, the others . . . I forget. I know, bad plant mommy!
There's some empty spaces on the left - flowers were planted but they have no blooms right now, hopefully they'll turn into something pretty soon.
So! Hopefully I won't kill them. I was smart enough to tell the kids they need to water the plants every day . . . they're eager and don't forget. I have to remind them not to drown the poor things.
I'll post updates once things begin growing . . . or not.
Here’s Bennett, the middle child. 
