Project Urban Garden/ Tiki Oasis continues at the Le Noire residence. Slowly but surely we've been building up our collection of veggie and fruit plants, and decorating here and there.
Last week, craving more privacy, I decided to improvise a system for removable curtains at the entrance / staircase to our patio.
I used twine and zip ties to attach some 2-foot bamboo poles to the deck, drilled in some screw hoops at the top, where I could hang a curtain rod. I wanted a system where I could easily remove the curtains and take them inside- so I used extra thick gauged jewelry wire as a curtain rod to hang from the loops. Upon finding out the hooks I bought were too big for the loops...I improvised some more, and used clip-on earing parts. It's like Swiss Family Robinson over here- everything is improvised and re-purposed!
The curtains allow for a bit more privacy from our neighbors to the right- and my galpal Kaycie and I took full advantage last Sunday . We pulled out some pillows and blankets and made a big loungey bed to bask in the sun, read, drink mojitos and girl-talk. The hustle and bustle of downtown seemed miles away. It was lovely!
Today is rainy and grey, but I've been poking around outside regardless. I needed the cheering up, since our town is currently a-blaze with scandal. A local university who has in place blatantly discriminatory anti-homosexual rules is receiving public funding. Over $150,000 a year of PUBLIC money. My heart is broken that my city is supporting these bigots. You can read more about it HERE. I am a the media coordinator of our local LGBT non-profit, so I've been flamed with endless requests for interviews, comments, etc. Public response has been mostly to cut the funding, but a few people I once respected have turned out to be homophobic wankers, so my heart is a bit broken. To cheer myself up today, I picked up some trellaces, climbing ivy, and a few more seedlings .
The green beans and sweet snap peas are highly boobytrapped with bamboo skewers to keep out a pesky, fat , clever little squirrel. So far, no more furry bastard .
The Ivy will hopefully climb up this trelace for extra privacy.
The climbing spinach is growing wonderfully. It is edible and decorative. Very excited to see how it turns out.
More green beans, herbs, and tomato plants. Bush bean seedlings are staying warm n toasty under the mini pop-up greenhouse.
Our tacky pink plastic flamingos continue to be a great pigeon-repellent. You can see our one and only sky-scrapper in in the background, blurry, behind my neighbor's roof.
All in all, I'm very happy with the progress. The trees in our back yard are almost full-bloom with leaves now, the chickadees and finches are all having babies , and the caterpillars are at a minimum this year. We are wonderfully blessed to have such a cozy and lush little oasis right in the heart of downtown, and we plan on taking full advantage and enjoying it as much as possible!
How are your gardens growing?
xoxo
Lenora
