I’ve been collecting photos / ideas for yard screens

 for a little while now 

 [see my pinterest folder of garden ideas here.] 

I was thinking of putting up a cute one along the front side yard 

to hide some of our ‘stuff’ from the road… 

and then the need for one along our back side yard became a little more important…

 

 You see, we have new neighbors. 

And they’re good neighbors – 

But they enjoy spending time outside in their own back yard as much as we do – 

and our patios are somehow situated so that if we’re both outside enjoying our own yards 

we can’t keep from looking at each other… 

Not a bad thing, but annoying to me just the same. 

I’m not used to people looking at me

 (even if it is ever so slightly) 

while I’m enjoying a relaxing glass of sugar free decaffeinated tea at the end of the day. 

AND – I don’t enjoy being distracted by their shenanigans

 [whatever it might be] either; 

to be honest – they are NOT annoying -- > they are just THERE. 

And we’ve lived ten + years with an older lady next door 

who was only outside when doing her lawn work…

 All that to say that a screen barrier is awfully important to me right now… 

My first thought was to move the fall sunflowers that grow ten feet high to the outside of the our little fence that keeps EmmaLou safe from the critters – 

these flowers multiply like cRaZy and come back every year 

[and I was SO tired of dealing with them in their previous home – 

We can mow down the excess now instead of having to thin them out year-after-year.] 

So we did that earlier in the spring – I was afraid I’d killed them, 

but they are a hardy lot and are growing beautifully 

[it’ll be interesting to see if they bloom this year – I’ll keep you posted on that one.]

 And then we took down the old patio cover… 

and y’all know I’m always looking for a way to upcycle stuff. 

[We can’t stand to throw anything away around here!] 

So my sweetheart took the old supports and used black cable ties to hook them all together,

[It's hard to tell, but they are turned in opposite directions] securely from top to bottom. 

Then he used some old fence posts to securely hold it in the ground.

I love it.

 But it still wasn’t ENOUGH. Since those sun flowers weren’t growing quick enough 

I needed something to fill the screen… 

I thought a clematis might work – but I bought one and planted it – 

and NOTHING.

[It’s like the fourth one I’ve bought since we’ve been married that just won’t grow.]

 So, we were down at Lowe’s one day and saw these passion flower vines……………

These are the flowers that grew WILD all over the fields we played in as kids behind our house.

I wanted them, but thought they were a little price-y… 

Then a sweet teacher from the boys’ high school 

[HOW has it been ten years since the oldest graduated?!?!] 

tried to talk us out of buying it saying they’d TAKE OVER our yard… 

Craig bought two. 

Maybe he *is* a little oppositional… ha.

And I’m loving it – 

They’re growing well and we should have a full screen pretty soon – 

And, hello? 

Purple flowers! 

Update: I"ll post  a photo of the sun flowers when they bloom...

And - LOL - 

The neighbors have now planted a THREE evergreens beside their patio area -