Where the Green(ish) Grass Grows- Week 2

This week was a productive one! I have been having a lot of fun trying to find online resources for the projects I want to accomplish in the yard, while also trying to not spend a lot of money. Sometimes this meant getting a little creative!

There was finally some warm weather this week, so advantage of it and started off by planting some flowers in outdoor pots. I had four pots in total to fill, two for the front of the house and two for the back deck. The front of my house is south facing, so we get full sun all day long, where as the back is shadowed by the house, so I needed to find plants that could survive in both of these conditions. I checked out Kwan’s Greenhouse located in Swift Current (check out their Facebook page here), where I actually worked for a summer a few years ago. I know the owners well and they are extremely knowledgable! They helped me pick out six full sun plants and six shade plants. Both of my grandmas are also amazing gardeners so I asked for their advice. When it came time to plant, I felt I should have asked more questions! My first two pots were very slow. I had only filled the pots about a third of the way full with soil because I figured it would be easier to put dirt around the plants once they were in place. This was a big mistake. It was not at all easier to put dirt around the plants, and I mostly just ended up with dirt everywhere. I filled my last two pots with soil to the brim and instead just dug a small hole and plopped the plants right in. It was a much easier process and took way less time!

I also took some time this week to try and figure out what the trees and shrubs that already existed in my backyard were. I stumbled upon an app called VTree which was available for free on the IOS App-store (and possibly on Android as well? I haven’t checked!). It was created by Virginia Tech and has information for trees and shrubs all across North America. It used my location to create a quiz I could put some quick details into and it was able to figure out what some of the trees in my backyard were. It was an amazing find! Two identical shrubs in my backyard still remain a mystery though, but they will hopefully be easier to identify once they grow some leaves.

This week I also built some garden boxes that I want to go along the back fence of the backyard. I found this blog which had exactly what I was looking for along with some amazing tips and easy to follow instructions with pictures, and I followed it very closely! This process went much easier than I thought it would and didn’t take very long at all, although I definitely needed help from my boyfriend for this project. We still have another box to make and they still need to be stained and sealed before they can be put in place.

The nice weather this week gave me a short window to prep and stain the area of fence I’d like the planter boxes to go along. I started by power washing (or pressure washing? Both terms seem to be used commonly) the fence. This video had a ton of great information. I had a minor malfunction with the pressure washer I used (which I borrowed from my dad) so it took a bit of time to sort out. Overall the difference in the fence was huge! I let the fence dry for a few days and then it was time to finally stain it. When we moved into our house, we painted the entire interior, but I had a feeling this might be a bit different. I initially had a tough time finding any resources that used a paint brush to apply the stain instead of using an air-sprayer. Eventually I found this article which offered me a few helpful tips. This was a big project, so I’m a little worried to tackle the rest of the fence and deck, but I know it will be worth it! I am still thinking I will apply a sealer on the fence to help my hard work last a bit longer, but I ran out of time this week.

Check out my video below to see what I all accomplished this week!

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