Yard makeover on a budget
I love winter, I really do. It has two of my favorite holidays- Christmas and my birthday- the weather doesn’t really bug me (we don’t get a lot of snow in Louisiana), and there’s nothing better on a cold winter night than a bowl of potato soup and a cheesy biscuit (and I’ll be posting those recipes shortly!). But for the last few years, winter just doesn’t do it for me. I’ve started to miss leaving the windows open all day and seeing flowers in the yard. I blame the Burpee and Park Seed catalogs.
Last year, I went a little crazy in a couple of garden centers. I bought several packs of flower seed, some bulbs (I hope peonies last a while in unopened bags!), and a couple of pink ranunculus, tulips, and purple hyacinth (that my cat peed on while in the window…) This year, I’ve decided to challenge myself. Our yard doesn’t suck at all; we have various flowering shrubs and trees, all blooming at different times. What’s missing are smaller bursts of color. Basically, I really love all sorts of flowers, and I’d fill the entire yard with them if I could. But I have decided this year, instead of spending way more on flowers than I do on a lot of other things, I am going to challenge myself to work with the rest of what I have from last year, and try to spend no more than twenty dollars on new stuff. Part one of the challenge is deciding which areas need the most work. There are four areas I want to improve: the two flowerbeds, the front walk, and the mailbox.
The flowerbeds each have specific challenges. The front one has a spot that is flooded each time it rains. I need to find plants that will stand up to run off from the roof, and I’d like to find some way to combat that problem, without giving the local mosquitoes a place to breed. The side bed is where my rose is. It’s problem is it gets a little more sun that it should, and it looks kinda lonely there all by itself. It’s a yellow hybrid tea, and last year it bloomed at the same time a wild purple iris bloomed. I loved that combo, so I think some lavender will work with it. And I’d like to add both some wood mulch and a lower growing flower, to combat the weeds and give the lower part of the rose a little break from the high sun.
I planned to put petunias on each side of the front walk, but I wound up planting most of them in hanging baskets. They died after a month or so, but they looked good while they lasted. I saw in one of the many seed catalogs I get a grouping of red, white and blue petunias, and I liked it. Not only is it cute and patriotic, it goes well with the house’s exterior and the stargazer lilies I have planted at the end of the walk.
Lastly, there’s the mailbox. I still have a good amount of gladiolus’ left, and I like the idea of them mirroring the verticalness of the mailbox. I was also thinking of some medium height sunflowers and maybe some coleus for below. I loooove coleus 
It comes in so many colors. And even though I won’t be getting any anytime soon, I really like the black velvet elephant ears. So dramatic and striking. They just wouldn’t look right in my yard, I hate to say. But Diana, if you’re reading this, you should look into them!
So, I have a list to make, and I’ll post it once I’ve finalized. We’ll see if I stick to it!