Our Starter Lawn and Entryway and then a Garden Party

It is hard to believe that we are already on the fag end of 2016 summer. With all I know, August will pass in a flash and schools would re-open and we would be celebrating yet another Halloween. While all these seem routine, for us everything is new. It has just been two weeks in this new home of ours, and here I am celebrating a Garden Party already :-)

Please join me on this fabulous party hosted by Ursula of Home Made By Carmona and be inspired with some outstanding outdoor spaces.

Now, a very hearty welcome to all those who are new over here. I am Anima, formerly a software engineer with no clue on what was going on around me - turned mother, home maker and a design enthusiast and student. I live in Aldie, Virginia with my small family in a sub-urban builder spec home. We moved just a couple of weeks ago and this is a story of our newly laid out starter garden.

Well, I am not really sure if we can call our lawn, a garden yet, because it is still in its initial days, with a number of patches yet to turn green. Have you ever imagined the amount of work it takes to build those lush green lawns in the neighborhood homes? I never really thought about it until we were thrown an almost golden lawn at our faces and asked to water it, nurture it and turn it into green. It is scary for a black thumbed one like me. .

As of now, we are advised to water it, given the temperature twice a day. Early mornings are the best time to water, so we start around 6 and it goes on until 8 and evening we do it around the time of sunset. Ours is a fairly large backyard that is open to neighbors and while we are not allowed to dig or build on it for initial months when it is under warranty period, all I could do to feel at home was to set up a few plants in the front entry. And that is what I did. A little curb appeal doesn't hurt anyone right? How do you add a little pretty when there is no much budget or time? Let us find out.

The front Door - As I said earlier - there are limitations on me as how far I can play with the things around here - so anything I add must be cosmetic. What better way to decorate your front door than a cutie wreath?

I made this pretty and functional planter with the help of a tutorial from Home Depot. If you are not aware, they conduct weekly workshops for small DIYs which I have found to be very useful. This was supposed to be house number display plate, but since I do have house numbers displayed prominently on a number of spots, I just turned it to be a welcome message board. More on that in another post - that is when I figure out how to put that up on our vinyl siding ( Couldn't find a suitable hook - and drilling is a non-starter with my husband.) Any help there from you would be highly appreciated.

Here are some of different angles of the yard and some close-up shots for your entertainment. :-)

Here is a glimpse of the street.

And some pinwheels - must have for summer right? Even though they magically disappear when ever my little one is out and about :-)

With that we conclude this impromptu garden tour. Please do come back to enjoy some of my easy, frugal tweaks to get this builder spec home into one with charm, personality and character and lots of love and happiness.

And before you go, do check out all these wonderful spaces.