Look... I now have grass and some flowers and some trees!!!  We hauled in a little of the composted manure that was piled in the back and spread that on the "lawn" and scattered seed in the late summer of 09. Then 2 years ago the high school was cleaning up  an area along the creek where someone had dumped tons of wood chips.  They would haul it for free to anyone who wanted it.  I got 3 truck loads.  I used some of these chips in the flower beds both under the weed block to mound up the beds and on top of the weed block.  (I have some left)

 Catmint or Nepta is one of my favorite plants at this time.  It's the blue/purple flowers.  It blooms most of summer gets nice and big, survives my mountain zone 3 and best of all... the deer really don't seem to like it much.  Yes, they will nip it... but for the most part they leave it alone... and that makes me very happy! :)  The bees and butterflies and hummingbirds do seem to like quite a bit.

 

Stay tuned... I have a new project starting... I'm very excited about it!!! 
Kim