Getting Ready for a Garden Grad Party ..part 1

I can hardly believe it, but Colleen is graduating from college this spring! It seems like yesterday she was going off to kindergarten! We're getting ready to have a family party for her graduation here at the house. Luckily, I have plenty of help...the whole family has been lending a hand.

This is the back of my little rental house. As you can imagine, when it rains, that dirt patch turns into a nice big mud pit for the dog to run though on his way inside. Yuck. He's pretty smart though, and now he knows the drill...he stops to get his feet wiped before he goes past the porch.

 If I owned this house, I'd probably build a big deck or porch right across the back of the house, but since I don't own, I came up with another solution that you will see soon.

This is what you see if you stand just in the back door. It's a long narrow lot that stretches back tot he railroad tracks. Never mind that old door, it will soon be part of a display at the shop ;)  If you look to the left of the big tree, you see:

 the cement floor of the old garage. I would like to put a garden shed here. It would give me a place to store my tools and bikes, and it would also hide my trash cans and the neighbor's trailers.

If you divide the back yard into thirds, this would be in the middle third. The neighbors to the right have a nice fire pit way back on the last third by the tracks. I decided to put mine in the middle third, because that way our pits would not be side by side. I was just going to use an old truck wheel for the pit, which Joe was going to bring over, but when he showed up he had this! Much fancier than the truck wheel! I got some plastic Adirondack chairs at Walmart, and it's a nice comfy place to sit. We tried it out that night for Mike and Jill's birthdays and it got the thumbs up from the kids. It comes apart easily too, so if I move, I can take it with me.

 Looking back towards the house. See the bushes leaning against the tree? Those are from our old house. Jill and Mike decided they didn't want them, so I took them.

I planted them in a little curve outside the back door. They form the edge of what will be a nice little patio area.