The thing about blogging about landscaping is that you might spend tons of time ripping out old plants and putting in new plants, then when you post pictures of your nice, new landscaping, it’s more of a “hey look at all that mulch and teeny tiny plants!”

It can be a bit underwhelming at first. You can see potential, but it takes a few years for things to fill in and actually look really nice.

We did a lot of landscaping a few years ago, and with lots of watering and TLC, it is really filling out. Some of the plants still have a long way to go, others we are already needing to trim back.

2010 – Just planted!

 

2011 – Loriepe died. Replaced with something else (the name is escaping me). We are the only people in the history of planting stuff that can kill loriepe and keep everything else alive. Also got a new front door.

 

2012 – no pictures, but one of the junipers in the front of the walkway got sick and died. Replaced it with a new juniper.

2013 – that new juniper is having issues. We think something in that spot is making it sick, so if it dies we’re not replacing it. But WOW see how big everything has gotten! My, they grow up so fast, don’t they?

Can you believe this is where we started?

While I do enjoy a good jungle themed landscape, I think we made the right choice to tear it all out, don’t you think?

 

This year we decided to make a little potted herb garden.

But not totally DIY. We decided against doing it from seed since these little guys weren’t much more expensive than the packs of seeds.

We used this moisture lock soil recommended by the garden center.

Dump some in and add the plants.

Easy peasy.

We have basil, oregano, and parsley. I’m looking forward to some yummy Italian dishes. Maybe a little tomato basil pizza and some herbed up pasta with marinara. Yum yum.

We have lots of critters that run around the yard that eat things, namely a couple of ground hogs that stop in for regular visits as well as deer passing through. We put them up on the table to keep them away from the ground hogs. I really don’t know how much they like herbs, but they went to town on my mums last fall and ate almost all of the blooms. Not cool, ground hog. Not cool. So we’re being preventative and putting these out of their reach.

Not much we can do about deer but hope they won’t be adventurous enough to come on the patio.

On the (ever growing) to do list is to build or buy some kind of shelving and put it up against the house. Until then they will live on the table. They do make a nice decoration, don’t you think?

Linking up to: Funky Junk Interiors, Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, The DIY Show Off, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Home Stories A2Z