My Birthday Work Party in Pictures

For my birthday, the one thing I really want from my family is help on an outdoor project. Last year, we spruced up our front porch. This year, I asked my husband and daughters to help me transform a space where you might come and look at plants or the pond in the background into a space where you might linger.

At the back of our lawn was this small patio inside a semi-circular garden. On a stack of blocks and pavers sat a large urn, which I filled with flowering plants each spring. The patio was too small to place more than a couple of small chairs. And the neighboring plant life was overgrown and weedy.

In one day, we would make significant progress. As I remembered, I took photos of our work as it went.

the urn removed and the pavers scraped of moss in the early AM

after returning from Home Depot,
additional pavers and plants unloaded from the car

a side view off the little patio, everything's overgrown and weedy

a peek-a-boo view of the pond behind this garden spot

a lot of work and the pavers added to enlarge the patio
(we need to fix the brick mow strip still)
two hydrangeas planted
one daughter sweeping, the other watering

the patio is now large enough for a new settee and 2 new chairs

we brought out the new table, too

a closer view -- it's beginning to look nice

with a pop of color from 2 lime green cushions 
(I sewed the cushions from a thrifted shower curtain 2 years ago)

We filled 2 hanging baskets with begonias
 and Creeping Jenny that volunteered in the soil last summer.
The baskets are hung from 2 canopy trees in the garden,
one on each side of the settee.

the done-for-now conversation spot

We'll continue cleaning up the vegetation in this garden. Today we pruned the azaleas, pulled weeds, cut down pop-up trees, and transplanted some daisies. There's a pretty little Daphne off to the left behind one chair from which I'll try to root a branch. I'll split the plant and move part to the opposite side of the garden. We also plan on moving some sword ferns to this area and adding bark or wood chips as a ground cover in spots to tame it visually.

The patio furniture was my physical birthday gift. I ordered it from Home Depot, delivered a week ago. It's been in the garage waiting for this spruced up space.

I'm envisioning us enjoying afternoons on hot summer days out here. This would be the perfect spot to curl up with a good novel or have a peaceful lunch.