A Backyard Map

Wow, I just wasted so much time but had so much fun creating a clip art map of our backyard!   Jill, this is for you!  :)  I realized I had no good way to show my back yard in it's entirety, but figured I could probably draw a rough approximation.  I just scanned it in, saved it as a JPEG file, and filled the rest in with clip art and photoshop!  And, just so you know, I'm sure the proportions are all wrong but it looks right to me, so this is what you're getting.  ;)

I'm sure it's all pretty much self explanatory, but, starting at the back porch and moving clockwise around the yard, this is what we've got:

• First of all, I feel the need to clarify that we actually have a covered porch with a patio table and chairs, but this was the closest clip art I could find.
• Our Mary garden is on the west side of the porch, and is bordered by...
• A large area that will become our pumpkin (and watermelon, and squash) patch, which is lined with desert plants, and includes a winding pinkish gravel trail that will hopefully (someday) be adorned by outdoor stations of the cross, ending with...
• Our cactus "island" and picnic nook!
• Continuing along the back wall, we have three new raised garden beds (our first attempt at these, which have yet to be filled...)  I want to name them according to their contents and help the children make hand painted signs for them.  I know for sure that one of them will be the "Salsa Garden", for example, and will contain tomatoes, green chiles, jalapeños, and a few onions.  And I totally want to try a "Pickle Patch"!  Dylan and I are so excited about trying our hand at pickling this year.  I have never even considered pickling anything on my own but think it would be so fun to learn.  I have no idea if it will even work, but we're hoping to grow cucumbers, beets, and okra, all of which we really enjoy as "pickles"!
• Our Sunflower House is in the corner nearest our house, and I still just can't stress enough how happy this makes me!  I seriously think a little gate like this would be a super cute detail at it's entrance, but that might just be my overly enthusiastic nature...I get that way about projects that really excite me.  :)  Oh, and as a note to myself for future reference, I'd still really like to find (or order) copies of Sunflower House,  Sunflower House: A Book for Children and Their Grown-Ups, and Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children.
•  Against our east wall is a small butterfly garden, with two butterfly bushes and a few other plants we've added specifically to attract butterflies.  It might also include some herbs later in the summer...
• Continuing along (we're almost done!) is our original vegetable garden, which we started two (Oops!   Make that three!) years ago.  (Awww, my kids were so little back then!)  Darren has been doing a lot of trimming, pulling, and planting out there lately and honestly, I'm not even sure anymore what's growing.  Guess I'll be surprised.  ;)
• Moving back up onto the porch, we've got the flower bed which represents our first attempt at growing anything when we first moved into this house.  (You can see some of it in this post...and many others, I'm sure, if you really want to take the time to search.  I tell myself all the time that I should go back and label all my posts, but that seems like such an overwhelming task!  Oh, wait, I just remembered that I have another super cute picture that shows our wild flower garden...let's see...ah, here it is!  Way at the bottom of a post about my Grandpa's birthday, which is actually coming up again this weekend!  How funny!)

I think that's everything! Whew, I feel like a need a drink now! What a tour!  Hope you enjoyed it.  :)