In the Garden

Amanda does a weekly series about what's happening in her gardens and (though I am hardly what you would call a green thumbed individual) I decided to join her today.
This has been the summer of the backyard. We started in June with our hosta patch. This was a two-fold problem area. Since this part of the yard is under our beautiful maple tree no grass would grow here and every time it rained it would turn into a giant mud hole. Then there was the problem of water running from there, directly into the basement.
The erosion problem is much improved, and the hostas are so hardy that they have thrived, even that one on the lower left looks nice now.

That was the warm-up for a couple of other projects, a new patio area and the big, looming project - painting the garage.
At the beginning of June I started the patio project

and it wasn't long before we had a lovely spot for outside enjoyment.
This garage was charming in its way, but was also covered in lead paint and sat listing at a 10% angle. I didn't feel confident that I could bring the walls back to plumb, but painting was doable.
We also realized that if we tore down the attached lean-to shed, that was falling down anyway, it would infinitely improve matters.

The tear-down took about 3 hours, including clean-up, and then I was wracked with guilt because we had procrastinated about this for 10 years. The painting took about a week, though there are still a few finishing touches to come.
The best part of tearing down the overhang is that we have a new space for gardening, and my delightful neighbor across the street (who has a wild and wonderful front yard full of flowers) donated a couple of wheelbarrows full of phlox. Now, I couldn't be happier with the fruits of our labors.
Also, the best part was that the Hubby and I did these projects together and never got snippy with each other.