Gravel with gigantic ugly plastic planter filled with dead Dusty Miller. And Matt's grill, but that's staying.
After two years of looking at this every day, Matt decided he'd had enough, and went and bought some better plants. We knew we weren't going to be able to (easily/cheaply) remove all the gravel, but we figured we could do something to make the whole "backyard" look prettier.
He picked up some begonias and some pretty purple plants that I don't remember the name of, and I made sure they wouldn't be poisonous to the kitty-boo if she ingested them, since running out the back door and eating the plants is her favorite activity. Matt dug up enough of the gravel to plant the purple flowers, while I went to town ripping out the roots of the crabgrass.
We think some animals keep sneaking past the fence and eating these, since there are hardly any flowers left on them right now.
And that was when we found out that whoever had "planted" the crabgrass left the soil line all the way up to the top of the deck, so we had to dig it out so it wouldn't go above our neighbor's foundation line. (According to Matt, this prevents drainage issues and reduces the chances of bugs getting into their house.)
After we made a colossal mess of our back walk, we finally got our begonias planted and the walkway washed off, and it's much nicer back there now.
In fact, in the almost two years Matt has lived here, I don't think we had ever hung out outside on the back porch other than when he is grilling. But we've already put out some plastic chairs* and spent a few evenings sitting out back, reading and enjoying the nice weather.
Have you undertaken any gardening projects lately?