Flower Power

You know how painting a room a different color can drastically change the feel of the space? I learned this past weekend that adding greenery to an area can do the same thing. (I know many of you are probably thinking "Duh!")

My husband and I have lived in our condo for the past five years, and at no point in time did we ever do anything with our small deck, besides set a $20 lounge chair out in which to read every once in a while. Since we don't have a car, we hardly ever go out the back entrance, which leads to where our parking spot is in the alley behind our place. A few times a day, for less than a minute each time, we'll let our dog out via that rear door, but that's about the extent of our exposure to our "backyard."

Now that I'm writing from home all day, however, I thought it might be a nice change of pace and scenery if I could go out onto the deck and work during the warmer months. I could get some fresh air, and I figured my dog would enjoy it, too. So when my husband's parents visited over Memorial Day weekend, we put them to work helping us pick out some flowers for the back (and then planting and potting them). Let's just say my husband and I aren't too handy or good with that kind of thing on our own.

So we got a rental car, and since it was a pretty small one, we made a few trips to Home Depot (we would've gone to Bed Bath & Beyond, but we didn't have enough time...) to pick out the goods. Below is the end result... just remember... NOTHING was out here before. And for those of you not living in a city, perhaps this will make you appreciate your big yards a bit more!




The funniest thing is that after dropping my in-laws off at the airport Monday morning, my husband and I decided that we should get some nicer lounge chairs with cushions to add to the newly decorated deck. We bought two that we really liked... and then couldn't fit them in the small car! D'oh! We literally tried every way possible, but they had big curved iron armrests that wouldn't bend. So I had to wait at the store with one of them while my husband took the other home and unloaded it and then came back for me. Below is the deck with the added chairs... as you can see, that's about all that can fit out there!


Then, wouldn't you know it... the weather took a turn for the worse. My aunt called to warn me about the flowers getting frost damage, and since we didn't have any lightweight sheets to cover everything with, we hauled the entire stock inside. What we didn't realize is that about ten bazillion bugs also followed us. You should've seen our ceiling with all of the little bugs buzzing around--I was freaking out! Here is the "indoor garden"...


Needless to say, we slept under the covers last night and covered our dog with blankets in order to avoid the bugs... and I'm happy to report that we survived until morning. Lesson learned!

Now if the weather would just warm up again so I could go out and enjoy the fruits of our labor...

- e