Green thumb after all?

I've been very proud of my latest gardening projects over the past couple of weekends. I've always known some plants would make a huge different in our yard. This is the proof. You may recall the back of our house looking like this from the frost damage...

Well, now it looks like this!New croatins and mulch to make up for the dead ones I removed, along with some touch-up paint on the house and cutting back (way back) the ugly "banana tree" that grows along side it.

I also wanted to improve our curb appeal, so the front porch now looks like this...

The planters stem from a lack of finding exactly what I wanted in any store (at least without spending a fortune). I specifically wanted black containers, since our plan is to replace the front door and paint the new one black. I couldn't find any I liked, but I did find some fairly inexpensive plastic terra cotta pots.
After a little bit of spray paint (okay, more than just a bit) and some elbow grease, what started as this... is now this...

And what started as these... Are now these...
I am pretty excited, since the flowers in the pot on the back patio have sprouted new buds that are already blooming. Of course, I threw away the tags so I have no idea the names of most of them. The red ones above are Zinnias. That's about all I know. I'll take closer photos to see if you can tell.