We have commented in prior posts that life in the city comes with wonderful activities to engage on a daily basis but limited space at home. The spot we call our backyard is about 75 square feet in size, decked to form a level surface with our kitchen patio door. The task of mounting the garden involves these steps: cleaning out the clay pots from last year (we have about 25 of those), weeding the flower boxes (there are four of them), adding nutrients to the soil, purchasing new annuals to be potted, bringing the plants into the house, and planting them. Sadie and Lily assist with the very last step. We are on our own for all the rest.
It is worth noting that there are not many great plant supply stores near Fairmount. We recently discovered Greensgrow Farms. It has a nursery, small market, and c.s.a. (community supported agriculture). We found the plants to be high in quality and the prices reasonable and comparable to those of big box home improvement stores in our area.
Once we identified and purchased our plants, our garden mounting effort became logistical. We are fortunate to have a car in the city. However, our home was built 100 years ago. Like most homes of that era, ours does not have a garage or dedicated parking space. Therefore, we park on the street. Street parking means that on occasion there might be a parking spot in front of your home. Based on our experience living in Fairmount, finding a spot within one or two blocks walking distance is a reasonable goal within a ten minute search-n-park window of time.
We did manage to park within a block of the house after a brief search. But, just as we began transporting plants to the house, it rained - literally cats and dogs. (OK, mostly dogs!) The comedy continued as we tried in vain to time our next trip to the car with the breaks in the downpour. Unfortunately, all five trips to and from the car resulted in the same exact outcome - walking through pouring rain while transporting arms full of plants.
Sadie and Lily thought this was great! Smelly, wet, muddy plants coming in the front door and walked through the entire house to the back yard was about as much fun as dogs can have on rainy days in the city. The challenge of holding the front door open with a flat of begonias in your arms was surpassed only by maintaining perfect balance while being rushed by Sadie and Lily at full force. Fortunately, nothing was dropped, and only a few specs of dirt actually hit the floor inside. The entire transferal of our small plant collection from the car to the back yard took about an hour. By that time we were completely soaked.
The rest of the gardening waited for the next sunny day. The photos below tell that part of the story in full.
MM & RY 2008
Nice collective of plants. The dogs seem happy to be near the foliage.
Allez