It's almost patio season!

I'm embarrassed to show the following photos of my patio in it's current state:




On the left is the garage, that I just use for storage and the steps lead to the back door. The dogs love to hang out on the patio, or more so, on the steps. Bacon, the puppy, also loves to do his business on the patio. Thanks Bacon! It is impossible to keep this place clean and tidy in the winter. A lot of falling leaves, mud, and snow. Fortunately, I have a plan.

I started raking up the leaves and mud yesterday. There's a lot more to go. I'm going to try to put a garden in that area of dirt just on the other side of the patio. I've started planting some things that Bacon has started digging up. Thus I want to put up a fence that will encase the garden and the patio. It'll keep the dogs from getting everything dirty, ruining my plants and chewing up patio furniture. I want to put up globe string lights. 4 strands, so that it looks like this. K-mart has the lights for $7.99, but the strand is just 6 feet .
I also need to figure out where to put the trashcans. I do like being able to just open the door and drop the bag of trash into the can. It's very conveinent. I want to put up a flower box on the garage window.

Oh and I have all this to put back there, along with a host of potted plants that are currently seeking refuge from the cold, in one of our bathroom's.