Little piece of jungle

Yes, there's a tight deadline for the completion of our Masterbathroom, the dressing room and the guest bedroom.
As in, we have 2.5 weeks left.
Super tight.
I just can't help it - I need to dig in the dirt every so often!!!

So last weekend, I grabbed my Little Man and after a mad and quick shopping spree at the blue box and coming home with a Jeep-load of plants we tackled the first spot in the back yard. I've mused about our grand plans for our ittibitty backyard haven before (read about it here) and it was about time to take the first steps in turning our patch o'weeds into our tropical retreat.

[Before: At least it's green]

With the exception of the beautiful shade provided by a humongous holly tree and a hint of color from a young and skinny crape myrtle, our backyard is more or less just weeds. Big yawn. The fence is still waiting for the trumpet vine I planted weeks ago to grow tall enough to cover it and we still need to bump out that angled side to follow our actual property line. Some day, some day ... gotta save a few projects for later, right?

[Lovely loot!]

Little Man and I picked up a few tropical staples and for less than $100 we came home with 2 beautiful canna lilies, 3 spider lilies, 2 palm trees, a tray of pentas, a red mandevilla vine, the coolest purple plants EVER, and two different kinds of potatoe vine for easy coverage.

[Placing plants]

We dug up weeds, tilled the soil, worked in some manure and then finally started experimenting with the placement of our plants.

[It's good to have a little helper who doesn't mind getting dirty]

We mulched with pine straw, watered and stood back to admire our work.

[After: Greener, more colorful and a lot more to look at]

There you have it, a first glimpse of things to come in the backyard. We're loving it and dishwashing has improved mightily thanks to a much improved vista from the kitchen window. We still got a long way to grow ... heh ... but at least we're on our way.