I can keep approximately 1-2
plants alive at a time. If the plant requires me to do anything more than give
it water once a week with the occassional missed week, it will likely died.
Adding to this the cats have greatly limited the number of plants I can keep
alive inside the house. If a plant can not be safely consumed on a regular basis
by a cat, it cannot go in the house. If the plant has flowers, it will be
swiftly deflowered by said cats. If the plant is not strong enough to stand up
to daily chewing by cats, it will also die. This means we pretty much just have
bamboo in our house. Bamboo are extremly forgiving plants both in terms of
living without regular watering and standing up to daily cat attacks. We do have
one plant, affectionately called ceiling plant, because it is 10ft up in a
cutout that the cats haven't figured out how to get to...yet. Ceiling plant is
easy to ignore because its above the line of sight, and consistently expresses
it's displeasure at being forgotten by drooping a large leafy stem in direct
ratio to how many weeks its been since we've watered it. One leaf up is a bad
sign.
Understanding this, I can't imagine what posessed me to request a couple of gardening beds on the side of the house so that I might grow edible food for the kitchen. I'd like to think that if provided with the tools to grow food, I could actually do it. I've done it before as a small child, but honestly I can't remember much beyond planting it and checking it once every couple weeks. I imagine that my magnificently remembered green beans had more to do with my mother's consistent vigilance than any effort on my own part. Still, I remember enjoying it, and so gardening beds where a must when designing the backyard.
Originally the plan called for some seriously structure with poured cement caps and stucco walls. Then I realized, hey, this is a gardening bed, not a pool, and we switched to a couple of pieces of wood and some decomposed granite around the boxes. It seemed simple enough, so much so, we briefly considered doing it ourselves. However the cost of putting in the garden beds was so small by comparison to the rest of the items in phase one, that it seemed more likely that we'd spend the same amount of money doing it ourselves and probably mess a few things up.
Surprisingly it took them most of this week to put in the garden beds (thus re-enforcing my suspicion that it was more complicated than it looked). While they are not the most impressive things in the backyard, I'm excited about them, and felt they deserved a post of their own.
Understanding this, I can't imagine what posessed me to request a couple of gardening beds on the side of the house so that I might grow edible food for the kitchen. I'd like to think that if provided with the tools to grow food, I could actually do it. I've done it before as a small child, but honestly I can't remember much beyond planting it and checking it once every couple weeks. I imagine that my magnificently remembered green beans had more to do with my mother's consistent vigilance than any effort on my own part. Still, I remember enjoying it, and so gardening beds where a must when designing the backyard.
Originally the plan called for some seriously structure with poured cement caps and stucco walls. Then I realized, hey, this is a gardening bed, not a pool, and we switched to a couple of pieces of wood and some decomposed granite around the boxes. It seemed simple enough, so much so, we briefly considered doing it ourselves. However the cost of putting in the garden beds was so small by comparison to the rest of the items in phase one, that it seemed more likely that we'd spend the same amount of money doing it ourselves and probably mess a few things up.
Surprisingly it took them most of this week to put in the garden beds (thus re-enforcing my suspicion that it was more complicated than it looked). While they are not the most impressive things in the backyard, I'm excited about them, and felt they deserved a post of their own.
Day 70: Introducing the future
graveyard of many a vegetable plant:
Honorable Mention: Ooooh Fancy.
A new fence.
Long ago when the house was first built, it was completely fenced in from the side of the house all the way around. You've heard about the demolition of the back fence for home insurance purposes, but let me tell you of the front side fences...
While the right front side fence was still in existence when we moved in, the left side fence was gone without a trace. For a backyard that had the leavings of numerous mysterious partial projects, it seemed strange that the left front fence had been removed so professionally. In fact, we were unaware it even had ever existed until digging in the area yielded several cement holes where the posts must have been. It seemed natural then that we put the fence back in at that spot when the plans for the backyard were being drawn up. Yesterday the fence was completed...but now it feels odd to have a fence there. I am used to be able to see the front yard from the side yard and the reverse. Now when I look at the front of the house, all i see is this shiny new side fence looking considerably out of place with all the rest of the dated wood and landscaping. I'm slightly tempted to paint it a dark color to match the weather worn look of the rest of the fence, but this is clearly a "giving a cookie to mouse" scenario and eventually, I'd end up painting all 300 feet of fence around the house just for consistency. Then doing it again in a few years because its faded. No. I think I will just enjoy the haphazard coloring of our fence and hope in a few years everything looks equally as old. Except me.
Long ago when the house was first built, it was completely fenced in from the side of the house all the way around. You've heard about the demolition of the back fence for home insurance purposes, but let me tell you of the front side fences...
While the right front side fence was still in existence when we moved in, the left side fence was gone without a trace. For a backyard that had the leavings of numerous mysterious partial projects, it seemed strange that the left front fence had been removed so professionally. In fact, we were unaware it even had ever existed until digging in the area yielded several cement holes where the posts must have been. It seemed natural then that we put the fence back in at that spot when the plans for the backyard were being drawn up. Yesterday the fence was completed...but now it feels odd to have a fence there. I am used to be able to see the front yard from the side yard and the reverse. Now when I look at the front of the house, all i see is this shiny new side fence looking considerably out of place with all the rest of the dated wood and landscaping. I'm slightly tempted to paint it a dark color to match the weather worn look of the rest of the fence, but this is clearly a "giving a cookie to mouse" scenario and eventually, I'd end up painting all 300 feet of fence around the house just for consistency. Then doing it again in a few years because its faded. No. I think I will just enjoy the haphazard coloring of our fence and hope in a few years everything looks equally as old. Except me.
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