Gardening, Giveaways & Contests, Porch & Yard

2011 Redneck Yard of the Year Contest

Are you ready to party?

Do you want to win a prize?

I wish you all were nearby so we could clink our glasses in a toast to the messes in our redneck yards, but since we can’t, this blog party will have to do.  I think that sharing the worst of it helps motivate you to fix it up, while seeing that you are not alone – there’s other bloggers out there with less-than-perfect spaces!

Without further ado, allow me to give you a tour of the mess that is the Borrowed Abode’s yard.

As I said last week, I became totally lazy once winter hit, and thus my gardens are not looking good.  Take the front garden, for example – it’s covered in some seriously healthy dandelions, as well as the old pots that held summer succulents.

Look closer and you’ll see that the remains of our Halloween decor didn’t all get removed – the pot of stones that held branches and one sad little ghost:

The grass in our front yard isn’t helping, either.  For some reason the grass seed planted by the builders post-construction last spring turned brown quickly.  We’ve re-seeded (both in the fall and early spring) but it doesn’t seem to be taking over as we’d hoped.  So the brown yard may be out of our control.

Walk around to the back yard, and you’ll find a much more redneck situation:  our back porch.  I told you, I got lazy – and things just piled up back there.  There’s truly no excuse for this sort of mess.  Of course, the vintage stereo cabinet needs to come inside.  You may also notice that there is no bottom step for the porch, so we have pieces of broken tile in its place.  I’ll have to ask my landlord if they’re going to do that this year.

The area right below the porch isn’t looking so hot, either.  We seeded it last fall (and this spring) and some of the grass is growing like crazy.  But it’s not entirely filled in yet.  If you remember, this is where we initially planned to build a patio.

Looking out over the back yard, it’s not too bad, but for the millions of branches everywhere.  Between some seriously rough thunderstorms last fall, and the heavy snow in January, our beautiful tall trees lost a ton of branches.  So we’ve got a lot to burn in our fire pit.

In fact, while I was driving overnight to Nashville, Ryan was at home looking at a fallen limb so big it actually covered 1/3 of the yard.  The branch was the size of a medium tree – and it landed straight on end, so the tips of the branches speared the yard and the thickest, heaviest part of the branch (at least a foot in diameter) stuck straight up in the air – about 1 1/2 stories high.  Imagine a teepee.  That’s what it was like.  A huge teepee of branches. (Why didn’t I get a photo!)  Anyway, the remains of that branch/tree are piled here in the back, along with some metal shelving that I pulled from a neighbor’s trash pile.

I guess that’s a wrap.   My hopes for the summer:  clean up the yard, re-mulch and plant flowers in the front, turn the back porch into more of a decorated “room”, freecycle the swingset, and add a hammock and some lounge-y seating in the back of the yard.

Now, are you ready to party?  It’s your turn to share your space.

2011 Redneck Yard of the Year Contest

Here’s how to enter:

  1. Blog about your yard – leave no mess un-shared!  What if you don’t have a yard?  Then share your patio or porch!
  2. Once you’ve blogged, come back here and share the link to that specific blog post in the linky tool below.
  3. Hop back to your blog (please) and let everyone know that you’re participating in the contest here.  I’d really appreciate if you link back to this blog post. 🙂
  4. If you link up something totally unrelated, I reserve the right to remove that link.

Other details:

  • You can share your link anytime between now and next Wednesday.
  • Ryan, my parents, and I will all vote on who has the most “redneck yard.”
  • The winner will be announced next Friday.

What’s the prize?  The one lucky winner will be awarded a $25 gift card to Home Depot, to assist in the de-redneckifying of their outdoor space.

Note:  I have not been compensated for this prize; in fact I’m providing it by redeeming some credit card rewards points.  However, I’m in discussion with Home Depot and they may actually provide a gift card, in which case I’ll update this post to give a big thanks to them.

PSS:  Christina at the Scrappy Housewife is also having a party:  The “Reality Check” party. I’m totally sharing my mess over there!

 

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19 Comments

  • Reply Samantha at 4:02 pm

    I can’t wait to take pictures when I get home tonight so I can link up!

  • Reply Christina Leaman at 4:24 pm

    Love. It. I will be taking pictures of my balcony (and the icky mold) later today. Haha. I could probably add *that* to my reality party. Too funny. Killing two birds with one stone. I dig your garden of dandelions. 😉 (Honestly, I’m a little intimidated of gardening, but I’m going to try this year, even if we don’t have a yard!)

  • Reply Jennifer McCormick at 5:51 pm

    I’m so excited to see everyone else’s yard! 🙂

  • Reply LifeinRehab at 8:50 pm

    I’ll be here tomorrow, and you will all bow to the horror outside my quadruple wide trailer!

    • Reply Melanie L at 10:20 pm

      ok, tried a different option for the thumbnail! 😀

  • Reply Melanie L at 10:18 pm

    i cant get my URL to link up! ARGH!
    http://melanieandbeau.blogspot.com/2011/04/borrowed-adobe.html

  • Reply cait @ hernando house at 1:30 pm

    My link won’t work, but here is our redneck yard in all it’s glory: http://hernandohouse.com/2011/03/26/keepin-it-real-baby/

  • Reply Samantha at 2:10 pm

    Ok, mine won’t upload either, but here is the link to our dead front yard. http://www.samanthamuse.com/2011/curb-appeal-befores/

  • Reply Hyphen at 9:02 pm

    This is my all time favorite link party!! I wish I cam across this a year ago just after buying our house, before we cleaned a good portion of our yard up!

  • Reply Hyphen at 9:20 pm

    I’m posting about this tomorrow!

  • Reply {Re}Fashion: The First of Three Skirts | The Borrowed Abode at 11:22 am

    […] You can still enter the 2011 Redneck Yard of the Year contest for a chance to win a $25 Home Depot gift […]

  • Reply Renee Gremillion at 7:00 pm

    There it is… in all it’s toothless, pigtailed, and barefooted glory. Probably should have put something else as my name to remain a bit more incognito…

  • Reply nikki@ccg at 9:11 am

    Oh man, I totally missed the deadline. I was looking forward to sharing the splendor of our scrap metal pile and my trash-built sheds. Too bad we already sold off the two extra cars that had been sitting around. Ah well. 😉

  • Reply Winner: 2011 Redneck Yard of the Year | The Borrowed Abode at 2:41 pm

    […] here today to announce to you the winner of the 2011 Redneck Yard of the Year contest.  But before I do, I definitely want to thank you all so much for participating in the party!  […]

  • Reply Christina Leaman at 2:37 am

    Thank -you- for linking up to my party. It was awesome to party with you. I have loved every submission (though I gotta say…shanghai sign and poor redneck dog were my faves!)

  • Reply Best Link Parties Ever! Hyphen Interiors at 7:29 pm

    […] I ran across this rad party recently and had to share!  While most link parties host photos of beautiful, perfectly staged projects and homes, this link party at The Borrowed Abode was titled “2011 Redneck Yard of the Year Contest.” […]

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    […] Jane over at The Borrowed Abode announced her Redneck Yard of the Year contest, I’ve been dare I say excited to get […]

  • Reply It's Reality Check Party Time! | Christina, Plain and Simple at 2:45 pm

    […] a Redneck Yard? Pop over to The Borrowed Abode and link up your post about your Redneck Yard and you could win a $25 Home Depot Gift Card! […]

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