Declutter the Patio

Today I did my 15 minutes out on my patio. If you are just joining me and want to see where the patio started out, I posted pictures on July 13, 2011

Today I took several bags of trash to the trash can and spent some time pulling weeds.

The stone walls of my patio were built in the 1950's-1960's by my grand parents. They would take their vacations and travel around the western United States. They brought back rocks from all of the states they went to. I just wish I knew which ones came from where.


There is still a lot of work to do but it is getting there a little at a time. I just wish my sun shade had not gotten broken.  A couple of years ago I hadn't taken the cover off of it and it snowed. I guess I never realized that snow is very heavy. The weight of it sitting on the canopy broke several of the frame pieces. Of course I've saved them, intending to go to the plumbing store to see if they could cut some pipes the same size. And of course that hasn't happened yet.

Of course the smartest thing to do would be to build a permanent trellis over the patio and cover it with deciduous vines. That way there will be shade in summer and sun in winter. So that is also on my mind, thinking about style, type, what sort of materials to use, how much would it cost..... So I'm looking over my garden book collection for ideas.



Style. So hard to decide. I love white picket fence cottage looks but I also like Rustic stuff like bentwood. And with all the junk I have laying around I could probably just devise one and call it All American Junk Yard. ;-)