~ Small Space Gardening ~ Kitchen Courtyard Before & After

It's done!

When you saw this picture last, the work on the new garden area was just getting under way. This was before, which doesn't seem so bad right here.

There were a few reasons for a complete makeover, but the one thing that started it all, one of the most important reasons, was the need to fence it in completely because Cody Pup was (is) such an escape artist and we live on a corner with traffic on one side. Since Cody thinks running as fast as he can without looking first is great fun, it was scary to think he might get out the door by accident, or by his planning.

Also the ground had become lower towards the house which is not a good thing. So all the planted area closest to the house had to be dug out, and the dirt moved and leveled better and draining towards the the gravel pathway.


The second big reason was just the simple fact of wanting it to be looking really good again. We took apart the landscape stone wall on the berm and rebuilt it. Roots and settling over the years had made it no longer level, and it just bugged me enough to fix it. Not a big change, lots of work, but I'm happy we did it.

We added a second archway to mimic the one that was towards the front of the house. Then added gates to each archway.

There also was a French drain under the gravel path and it needed to be redone after the several years it had been there. This was a big job, taking out the old one, moving most of the stones, and re-digging the trench and gravel pathway. So before we knew it, we were in the middle of really taking almost everything out and starting from scratch. Picking up all those pebble rocks used previously was as much work as digging up any plants. But Sweet Hubby just got to it, and never complained that I was undoing and redoing something .... again.

It's fenced in on all sides now with new gates at each end. Just perfect for when Cody wants to come out and help me garden. He's great at digging, fetching the plastic pots the plants come in, but not too good at planting anything yet.

See Y'all Soon~

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Click on any of the pictures below to shop  art from The Decorated House 

~ Those Cute Shabby Potting . Cabinets . Hutches

Kirk's wonderful potting bench sent me searching for the pictures I took while at a large antique fair that used mostly "junk" to make these fun potting benches. So here's a little repeat from a couple of years ago that is worth seeing again for anyone who missed them, or someone looking for more inspiration of flea market and little junk finds to make into a new treasure.

These made me regret that we did so much de-cluttering and didn't save more scraps of molding that we had left over. It always seems to happen like that doesn't it?

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There were a few emails and questions about those wonderful junk to treasure potting, hutch, cabinet, bench or thingies. The previous photos did not enlarge, this time if you click on them, you can see more details.

Wouldn't this be a great project if you were tearing down and old fence? You could use some it for the backs or sides. We have some lattice pieces that we saved, and I think that would look so nice as well. You could use an old dresser or kitchen cabinet for the bottom or some of the top, too.

Love the use of the posts on this one. I don't have any of those just hanging around, but you can buy newer ones at Home Depot or Lowe's, and make them look old.

And that scalloped molding is fabulous! Expensive to buy anything like that new, so it's worth the hunt to find a few pieces.

See ya' soon!

~ Happy Mother's Day!

~ Garden Potting Bench

Is this just the best use of old junk you've seen in a long time? Kirk (kirkus in WA) posted this on Garden Web last year and it popped up when I searching for ways to incorporated architectural finds/junk in the new little potting bench - arbor Sweet Husband is building right now. I have to say this was absolutely my favorite potting bench I found. If you click on the picture it will take you to his post where he shows the bench before, and he talks about how he created it.

Kirk on GardenWeb shows how he built this fabulous Potting Bench!

Restoration Hardware had the one above for about $900. I think you could make something like this one fairly easily. I'm surprised I didn't find any pictures of people making their own knock-offs. One thing that was not easily noticeable on it was that it had no back. This is the gray wall behind it showing through the shelves.

My taste fluctuates greatly between a love for such clean lines of the RH and then the fun scroll delights of Kirk's.

This one is very functional. I love the pull out bin for potting soil. I looks like it has a container inside of it. Good idea.

A simple vinyl one. Of course this would look great with the pvc fencing, and would last a very long time as well.

The one "we" are building is much smaller than the previous garden potting shed. But it will still be functional and I hope half as cute as Kirk's. I'm off to see what old junk I have put away in the sheds, even though I don't remember having anything as pretty as those old scroll brackets.