The Side Yard

Charlotte@Living Well on the Cheap  —  May 28, 2014 — 3 Comments

I’ve mentioned before that we live in an historic neighborhood where the houses are packed pretty tightly together. Our house is nestled right up against the next on the right side, but over here on the left there’s a glorious eight feet of space between the wall and the property line. We use the portion towards the street as a driveway but the rest is just wasted space. There’s still quite a bit of gravel reaching all the way to the backyard from previous incarnations of the driveway that I guess stretched further.

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The gate to the backyard has been broken for over a year. It’s propped into place in these photos but the fact that it’s upside down gives it away. Fixing it is on our ongoing to-do list.

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Also on the to-do list: making this space somehow more attractive and functional. We’ve never had a good place to keep our outdoor trashcans and I’m thinking that if we planted a large shrub to shield them from view it would be okay to store them over here.

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If we’re feeling really ambitious we could even put down some concrete stepping stones.

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Maybe a butterfly bush would work well there? From what I understand they’re inexpensive, fast-growing, and not too fussy. As you can see we get a lot of sun over here in the afternoon. We’re never going to spend much time hanging out here since it feels like we’re loitering outside our neighbor’s windows, but seeing as it’s one of the first things I see when I pull into the driveway I’d love to make it a little prettier. I find myself dreaming of so many landscaping possibilities this time of year. I want to buy all the plants! But experience has taught me to wait and mull it over for a little while before spending any money.

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Charlotte@Living Well on the Cheap

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3 responses to The Side Yard

  1. we love butterfly bushes up here in Massachusetts!

  2. Bridget from Cali May 30, 2014 at 6:09 pm

    A butterfly bush sounds super. I always look for low maintenance and drought tolerant native plants out in the hot, dry SoWest, and would love to plant something that attracts butterflies too. Plus, it’s a great idea to block the vieew of those ugly bins.

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