Fake It, Till You Make It!

Get your head out of the gutter, I am talking about gardening....or I guess more appropriately faux backyard renovation.

The Beach House (as we affectionately call our D.C. home, and only home) was completely re-modeled in 2001, so when we bought it there was/isn't much we could do to spruce up the place, except the backyard.  For some strange reason, the interior re-model did not incorporate a backyard re-model.  Anyways, we are at year-three living in the Beach House and we have yet to tackle the backyard (lack of money and time).

However, this weekend the Guy decided to do some sprucing (motivation? we are currently re-financing and have to get "re-appraised") so here we go:

Supplies #1!!

Supplies #2

Some pre-trimming, mowing, and general weed containment!

Spruced up bush (heheh!)!  Added some fresh red wood chips!

Decided to pot some flowers and mix in between our rosemary and out of control basil plants!
Plus, a little bit of fertilizer to keep things going :)

This was the area of greatest improvement.  (See above supplies photo #1 for comparison)
Added some planted and potted flowers and laid down some fresh red wood chips!

 No joke, it took the Guy about 8 hrs to accomplish this task.  He not only did most of the gardening by hand (he really likes to get dirty) but he as been known to bust out the hand broom and sweep up every piece of dirt he can find.  To be honest, he does impeccable work...even if it takes 8 hrs.  My sole responsibility was to arrange the flowers in the picture above and supply water to the Guy throughout the day.  He also tackled the front year and added some dark wood chips to the front of our house, since Hurricane Irene kind of swept most of the remaining pieces away, sadly no photos!

All and all, a great, somewhat time effective way to spruce up the Beach House.  Haven't examined the Home Depot bill, but I definitely think the entire "spruce" job came under $100 and well worth the $$.  Now we just have to save our pennies for a true backyard re-model, but the pesky wedding is getting in the way.