Ready, set, grow!

I bought all the materials needed for the pavers and I'll be starting tomorrow. (Yippeee!!) I picked out these Key West coral pavers that I fell in love with. I'm going to use pea gravel for the bottom aggregate. It will work fine since I'm just working with a small space.

I also found the most fragrant flowering shrub in my life. It's a small evergreen shrub called Tea Olive. It produces small, white deliciously smelling blooms. They smell like apricots or peaches. Mmmm, so good! My local super Walmart garden center were selling them for $10 for a 3 gallon plant. Great price in my book. I just had to get two of them. I think they eventually grow into an 8-10' tree. But I'm definitely keeping them small (3-4'). I can't have them competing with my other tall plants.

And I decided finally not to pave my patio with tiles. The reason being is that it's going to take up time that I rather spend getting the rest of the garden ready. So, instead, I bought some cement stain in a terra cotta color and I'll just paint that on. I still have time and I can decide at a later date to do that project. I just want to get the garden ready and I'm trying to beat the summer heat.

Projects and plantings

I haven't been able to do much in a couple of weeks. It's either been raining or cold. I want to start renovating my backyard so much. I plan on tiling my patio with ceramic tiles. I found some great decorative ones at Lowe's. The color I've picked is a deep terra cotta color. And the decorative tiles have a flower embossing on them. One tile looks like a medieval castle. They're really cool! This is a pretty easy project to do. And I figure I can handle it myself without hiring someone. I gotta save money somehow :)

The other project involves installing stone pavers to make a nice path in my backyard. I already have some 16" white pavers. I'm thinking about either staining them with a concrete stain in terra cotta or applying a thin layer of mortar and stamping a design. Then, I want to make a bordered planter edge with these 12" hexagonal blocks. These will go bordered around the back of the house and I can add more soil in and plant more plants.

After I do all that, I'll put some new sod in. I think I'll go back to my fav nursery for the sod. It's so cheap there! I get it for $1 a 2' piece. Then, new plants will come in. Lots of tropicals and flowering plants.

I think in the end this will all turn out great. I just wish I could started!