14 bags of mulch later…

Spring always gets me in an excited mood to pretty things up around the house. The bright colors, fresh air, sunny skies…I wish all four seasons were Spring! 🙂 Our garden is one of the larger projects that we work on when Spring starts, and man, this year was our biggest year to date!

In the past, we didn’t really make a budget. I just bought some 6 pack annuals, a few bags of mulch, some veggies and called it a day! However, when June would hit, those annuals would fizzle, our garden was just a nightmare to take on with the weeds, and the veggies…oh, don’t get me started on the veggies.

This year, we made a budget and a plan, which included plants that would come back year after year and could easily take on our crazy summer heat! Our house has three main gardens: the front yard, the side of the house and the back yard (if you even consider what we have a back yard lol).

Our front garden is the typical “pretty” garden. Flowers, pretty bushes, a fountain…gotta have curb appeal. 🙂 I blogged about our struggle with one area of the front garden. Sago palms + doggie? No…

Our side garden became a huge project that me, Joey and my Mom took on right after Hurricane Gustav hit a few years ago. We ended up losing power for over a week, so the house was very uncomfortable to stay in, but ironically, outdoors was much more pleasant for the first few days, so we took on this project. Before, the old homeowners filled it with dirt and landscape rocks (the large ones). When we started digging things up, we actually discovered they tried to put a pond in there, left a few random knick-knacks and all sorts of weird stuff….ugh. We decided this garden was just a huge undertaking, so we ended up filling in the dirt, completely mulching it and place plants in large pots on top of the mulch. Luckily for us, the old homeowners left a few rustic looking freebie pots, so, we used those for this garden!

I think it looks spectacular, and it’s a fun place to put a few random garden signs. 😛

Our back garden is primarily a veggie garden. I’ve learned a good bit the past two years with having a veggie garden. The biggest change this year is that there will be no ‘maters in our veggie garden. I’m willing to pay regular price for those precious creole ‘maters or steal a few from my Dad, who is a ‘mater growing pro! Those bugs were disgusting, and I never want to deal with them again! Instead, I’m planting pickle cucumbers, along with bell, poblano and jalapeno peppers. This is my first time growing cucumbers, and peppers have done really well in our gardens, especially in the summer, so I’m very optimistic about what this harvest will bring!

We also have our baby meyer lemon tree. I got the tree last year for my birthday, and man, that thing is flowering like crazy! I’m super excited to see what this winter’s harvest will bring!

Also, just for kicks…here’s the dog who thinks fresh mulch is the coolest thing since Beggin’ Strips. I literally have to take mulch out of her mouth every time we go outside. She seriously wants to eat it. Agh..oh well, she’s cute. 😛

What do you love about Spring?