Week 3 of the One Room Challenge is upon us. Catch up on Week 1 and Week 2 if you missed those posts.

If you're new to Rambling Renovators, welcome! My name is Jennifer. I help people create functional and beautiful homes, I help brands create digital content strategies, and I've been writing this blog since 2007. I live with my husband and daughter in Toronto, Canada in a centre-plan, mid century colonial style house that we've infused with the fresh traditional style we love. We DIY all our renovations and have a fondness for architectural details, built-ins, and classic decor.  

Last week, I shared with you the garden plan and if you caught my Instagram stories, you saw some of the work we've done in the front yard. 

I'll be honest - I didn't want to be too ambitious with this ORC project because my city (Toronto) is STILL under it's third lockdown. That means that places like The Home Depot are open for curbside pickup only, places like the Dollar Store aren't allowed to sell non-essential goods (including all the garden items like garden gloves or wood plant stakes) and places like the garden centre are open but there are looooooong lines to get in there.

Mentally, it's a bit draining to try and accomplish anything home-related with those constraints. We'd love to get working on a lighting plan and a watering system, but shopping for parts on a website and not seeing them in person feels impossible.

But enough of my pandemic whining! Let me get back to what we have done.

With the prep work on the front garden pretty much done (we're just waiting for plants to arrive!), we decided to to use our extra time to tackle part of our backyard as well. 

Our backyard is large but needs some work. We haven't done much with it as we tend to be at our cottage most of the summer. This particular area though, beside our garage, desperately needed attention.

As you can see, this tragic area is home to a fig buttercup infestation, one lonely hosta, and an abundance of rocks. 

We originally had hostas running along this wall, but we moved those to the front yard last summer when we relaid the walkway. That left big gaping holes in the dirt and a complete lack of definition. 

And so we spent one morning pulling out those weeds and redefining the area. We used a string line and spraypaint to outline the new border and cut into that with a shovel. With a bit of effort, we were able to turn this...

...into this. It's already so much better!!

The shrub on the right was transplanted from the front yard. It's not looking great, but I thought we should try it out here and see if it does any better before we decide to dispose of it. The plant in the middle is a Magnolia tree. It was in a shadier spot in the backyard and has never done well. Again, we've transplanted it and see how it will do.

At this end of the garden, we have a few treasures! The large Chinese dragon pot was inherited from my mother-in-law. I don't anything about its provenance or age. What I do know is that I finally have a use for it! I'm debating whether to create a water feature inside it, or use it to hold a display of flowers and trailing plants like creeping jenny.

The garden ceramic ball was also from my MIL. It has a 70's vibe that I'm totally loving and it seemed only appropriate that we surround it with a 70's feeling rock garden. I'll have to play with this area a bit, add in some plants, perhaps some succulents, but for now I've just got the rocks in place.

For the right sided of this area, and I'm going to push myself and try and create a cutting garden.

I've long loved the idea of having a cutting garden. I've watched friends like Cynthia and Londen share their garden expertise and thought I would love to have their green thumbs. First step was to buy this book written by the Queen of cutting gardens, Erin at Floret Farm. Of course you've seen her Instagram with dreamy photo after dreamy photo of the most gorgeous flowers. Who wouldn't want that in their backyard?

Given that it's near the end of May, I do realize I'm late to be creating a cutting garden. So this will be a summer of experimentation! I'm not great at gardening but the only way I'll get better is through trial and error. Since this spot is in the backyard and will be seen by no one, it presents an opportunity to try my hand at growing different plants.

I sourced a variety of plants for this season. This includes: