• Give our patio furniture a facelift
• Cover, mask, or otherwise hide the ugly air conditioner
• Establish a dedicated “grilling area” on the patio
• DIY doormats for front and back doors
• Pressure-wash the exterior of the entire house
• Create an “entry area” in the carport
• Build a ramp for detached shed
• Paint the stair rails in carport
• Repair the cracks in the carport floor
• Treat or paint carport floor (maybe?)
• Construct or repurpose a large(ish) planter for the patio
• Plant something and actually keep it alive
• Organize and “beautify” the attached shed
• Repair the door to the crawl-space
• Do some minor landscaping
• Scrape and paint the carport ceiling
• Replace the light fixtures in the carport

Whew! With our very busy schedules, that’s one hefty list. It’s also very likely we’ll end up adding even more projects over the next few weeks. Nevertheless, we’re determined to tackle it with a vengeance and get it done, item by item. To light a fire under us, we’re going to give ourselves a deadline for the grand ‘ole Spring/Summer To-Do List of September 4th. Yes, 2012. And hey, since we’re posting it, there’s even more pressure, right? Right ; )

How about you, what projects do you have on your Spring/Summer To-Do List?

Over a year and a half ago we bought two of these planters from CB2…

We actually got them for the patio of our first place (a cozy two bedroom apartment on the other side of town). Back then, silver was our go-to metallic accent color. It matched everything we had, and it went really well with the exterior of our apartment complex. Around the time they came in, we were in the middle of the maybe-we-should-buy-a-house stage. In light of that, we decided to put the patio beautification on hold and store the planters in my parents’ garage. Fast forward a year and a half… The house had been bought, renovations were underway, and we were moving into our new (to us) house. While we were going through the “stuff” we had stored in my parents garage, we stumbled upon our unused planters – STILL in the box! We had totally forgotten about them. To make things even sweeter, we’d been looking to buy planters for the carport! Score!

Btw, it was SUPER hot outside. So the grass looked dead.

Since moving into the house, we’ve turned a page in the accent color book. While silver is a great color that we still use it from time to time, we especially like the way oil-rubbed bronze interacts with our dark floors and bright white trim. All of our door hardware (more about that here) are now oil-rubbed bronze, so it’s only natural that our planters be that color too – especially since they will be going beside the two back doors which were painted a black/brown. For our hue of choice, we went with Rustoleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze Metallic Spray Paint. That stuff… is awesome. Great color, coverage and the whole nine yards. I wish we could find about a billion other things to use it on!

Obviously, painting plain planters (try saying that 10 times fast!) isn’t rocket science, so I’m not going to get into much detail there. You know the drill… keep the can about 10 inches from the surface, spray in steady back-in-forth motion, slightly overlap each stroke, yada, yada, yada. Just remember, you’re better off doing lots of light coats than a few heavy ones. It gives you better coverage and a streak-free final product. Oh, and we ended up using almost exactly two cans to do both planters.

Now that we had these spiffy “new” planters, we needed to fill them. When picking out flowers, we kept in mind they would be under the carport, so the plants we chose needed to be extremely shade-tolerant. We also wanted to get something self-contained that wouldn’t have to be transferred to a new container. Why? We wanted less fuss. Plain and simple. We’re definitely going to be getting our gardening on in the near future, but buying something that was already in a permanent home just made us feel more comfortable. Taking all of that into consideration, we settled on these beauties…

These are Impatiens. We picked them up at Lowe’s for $8.99 a pop. They haven’t fully bloomed yet, but if they end up looking anything like the tag, we’re stoked. The tag says they will bloom from spring through fall, they are fast growing (funny since they are Impatiens), and they are good to go in the shade. If you have brown thumbs (okay, enough with the puns… we are the Browns… brown thumbs. I know that’s got to be annoying but I couldn’t resist.) like ourselves, be sure to read the tag. The back of the tag is full of info about transplanting, water usage, pruning, fertilizing and such.

The flower pots are pretty shallow so we put some bricks we havd left over from a previous project in the bottom and set them on top. This puts the flowers just above the lip of the planters and keeps the planters from moving around as well!

After a little snip of the hangers and a drink of water, the flowers were all set in their new home…

The plants ended up being the perfect size for these planters. They aren’t too crowded so they have enough room to grow…

Yay for the long lost planters! Now we’re one step closer to completing Operation Carport Prettification. It’s a small step, but it’s a step nonetheless. We’re going to keep our fingers crossed that we have a bright and sunny weekend so we can move on to our other outdoor projects!

Gardening has always been a bit of a foreign concept to me. When the idea of a garden came into my mind, it looked like a small farm with rows upon rows of vegetables. It was something that people with a lot of land did, and I thought I wouldn’t have that kind of land until much later in life. On top of that, I thought you probably had to have some machinery or expensive tools to make it all happen.

That all changed when I read Apartment Gardening by Amy Pennington (you may remember it from one of our giveaways a while back). After I read this book, I had a total “ah ha moment”… I can have a garden too! Not only did this book completely shatter all of my preconceived notions about gardening, but it also gave hope to a “brown thumb” such as myself.

Armed with my new knowledge that gardening isn’t just for a select few, I set out to find some items that might help me along my way. As with everything, choosing the right tools for the job is essential (or just a little more enjoyable). It’s obviously important that you find enjoyment in what you’re doing, so I selected several items that are both functional, fun, and, well, pretty! I hope this can serve as some inspiration to anyone else hoping to begin their adventure in cultivation!

1. Seed Bombs - These. are. so. cool. Purchase the Seed Bombs for your US region, toss these babies in your garden (apparently, you don’t even have to dig a hole!), and just add water (and a little patience). You can’t get easier than that! If that isn’t cool enough, they even have Dog & Cat Friendly Seed Bombs that include catnip, wheat, oats, and rye. I cannot wait to try these out!

2. Hable Sweet Pea Gloves – I’m a fan of these garden gloves because they are stylish and functional. A lot of times you’ll find stylish gloves but they are just that and nothing more. The Hable Sweet Pea Gloves’ thumbs, and pointer fingers are lined with tiny rubber polka dots – which helps you to easily handle plants and whatnot. And who doesn’t love polka dots?

3. Sunken Pool Gardening Hose - Yes, there is such a thing as a stylish garden hose! Who knew? Pool is one of my all-time favorite colors so this easily made it to the list.

4. Apple Bird Feeder – I’m pretty sure the squirrels (which we have a lot of!) in our yard would give the birds a run… er… fly for their money if we hung this in our backyard. We may just have to get one of these for the entertainment factor!

5. Crocband Flats – These cute slip-ons would be perfect garden shoes. You can easily slip them on and off, and hose them down when they get dirty. Not to mention, they are super comfortable! I have a pair of these which have been dubbed the “Bentley needs a bathroom break” shoes but I imagine these will be perfect “garden shoes” too!

6. Celia Birtwell Garden Tools – Yet another stylish yet functional gardening tool. The set comes with two one-piece aluminum tools and are lightweight, strong and have an ergonomic grip.

7. Gardeners Scrub Cleanser – This deep cleansing hand wash from Crabtree & Evelyn is a blend of plant-based cleansers and all natural exfoliants that cleanses while polishing away roughness and impurities. Crabtree & Evelyn has a ton of products for gardeners that are worth checking out (which would be a perfect gift for a gardner in your life!).

8. Apartment Gardening by Amy Pennington – Last but not least, once again, the book that changed my mind about gardening. It’s a must read for anyone who has the slightest interest in gardening. Pinky promise!

Do you have any garden must haves or favorite gadgets? Share them with us in the comment section…