My mother's day present- late but great

I'm so excited, we finally got my mother's day present all finished. I had known what it was since mother's day when we bought the bougainvillea, but we had to wait until kenny had enough time to work on it. It was worth the wait.
We went from this:

To this:

The gift included the hand-made cedar raised bed and trellis, soil (since the soil on our property is only 100 years or so from being a rock), bougainvillea, and herbs (parsley, rosemary, dill, oregano, basil, and my own favorite, lemon thyme).
The idea is to train the bougainvillea to climb the trellis and give our bathroom window some cover so I can take baths in our nice big garden tub without having the shades pulled all the way down. It will take a few years, but I'm so excited for the green light to filter through that big window!

Bougainvillea's a gorgeous flower, I've completely fallen in love with it:

Better yet, since Kenny built everything, we were able to build it on a very tight budget. (herbs themselves only cost a couple bucks). Up front I've also planted some lavender, and we're trying to figure out a place to place some mint that we can keep it easily controlled. I still need to buy (and find room for) some sage, some marjoram, and some chives and I'll pretty much have my old garden back!

I was VERY into herb gardening in high school and leaving that garden behind in Washington was the hardest thing about moving out. The smells bring back such memories!


Thanks for the fabulous, work-intensive gift, Kenny!