Don't be afraid to change; change is a constant in the garden

The hammock stand is dead.  Long live the hammock.

A garden is not permanent.  Plants grow, they die, and your interests and needs change.  Fortunately change can come easily in the garden- your landscaping does not have to be forever. The notion of permanence often paralyzes people into never beginning. But in a garden, if you make a mistake or things don’t work out like you expected them, you can change it!  I know this from experience.  You can move plants, compost them, give them away, etc… It is much easier to remove your landscaping than remove a room inside your house!

This new change in the garden is an example of a few things my wife and I often tell our garden coaching clients:

Write down what you need in your garden, and you will incorporate it appropriately. Whether it is canoe storage, bike storage, a raft, chickens, no matter what use, acknowledge that it has a place (and it deserves a place) and you can integrate it into the garden to aesthetically fit in and functionally become part of the garden. We see this all too often that there are hobbies or items that people want to have in their garden, but for whatever reason they don’t want to think about so they don’t get incorporated, and just get pushed into a corner. There, they don’t get used and it doesn't look intentional. It is like a well organized house, but with a pile of clutter in the corner (Like, between a dresser and a wall. Marilyn.).

Furthermore, it is all these components that will help personalize your garden and make it a reflection of what you like and the things you do- it will be a reflection of your lifestyle. I wrote a post a while back describing our garden as a “lifestyle” garden- a name given to our garden by a local nurseryman, and a name I have come to really like.

Plan for how you will use your garden, and you will use it more. When we began landscaping our yard we didn’t have a camper, now we do, and this will add a lot on interest to the garden while providing, if nothing else, functional storage for the camper in the off season. Again, uses and interests change over time; change is the only constant in a garden.

Have fun, try new things, and if they don’t work, re-do it!
The hammock stand was a fun project to build and beautiful to look at, but frankly, it did not get much use. I built it for my wife-  I don’t really like to lounge in the garden (this may come as a shock you many of you). Our first hammock was made of cotton so I got it for her for our 2nd anniversary (cotton is the traditional 2nd anniversary gift). The hammock pergola took up a lot of room in the garden, and room we could use for other things and other things that would get more use. 

We have a small yard, so using space efficiently is important (and a fun challenge). I have always maintained we could live in a smaller house and a have a smaller garden and we’d be fine. There are still many places in our small garden that I view as just filler- plants acting as place holders until I figure out a need or use for the space. These are what I call opportunities.

A new new gardening opportunity

This past weekend I dismantled the hammock pergola, stacked the wood, sorted and organized all the hardware (screws, lag bolts, and washers), and began planning to new pergola, which will reuse most of the wood. This Wednesday evening, friends will come over to dig up native plants for their own gardens and hopefully take away some of the hills, too. And come to think of it, I should have them dig post holes for the new pergola!

I am excited to re- landscape this and incorporate our 1966 Security Traveler into the garden.

No blog posts recently, but change is coming in the garden

Goodbye hammock room!

So, I haven’t written a blog post for some time. I have heard from some of you to get back on the ball (Amber- you should talk, you haven't updated your blog in almost a year). For whatever reason I haven’t been that inspired to write, but I think that will change soon; change is coming to the garden.

There are a few reasons I guess I haven’t written any blog posts in a while and here are a couple and one is the reason I will start writing again…

Some background:

1. This spring I trained for my first marathon in over three years- injury and illness have kept me from running, but this year I was able to train and complete a marathon again, and I hope to resume running regularly.
2. My wife and I bought a vintage travel trailer (a 1966 Security Traveler) to restore- my wife has wanted one for a long time. It has been a big and time consuming project.  It has kept me really busy, and I have loved it.
3. The garden takes care of itself. I have really learned that now that we have no lawn, don’t water anything, and the garden is really dense, there is very little maintenance; mainly cutting things back. So I haven’t written much.

It may seem like restoring a camper has nothing to do with the garden, but in our case it will. In the off season, we will store the camper in the backyard. Actually a better descriptor is that we will incorporate the camper into the landscape. A guest house or a little studio is what we are envisioning complete with a pergola covering it. To accommodate this, I have a lot of work to do.

Although my wife started her own blog to chronicle her camper (check it out at http://toastercamper.blogspot.com/), here are a few before and after pictures:

Curbside before

Curbside after

Although I don't show it here, I re-framed nearly the entire camper, re-re-plumbed and re-just about everything.  My wife re-upholstered the cushions, sewed the curtains and made the awning (among other things in the camper).
Here are some inside pictures...

Dinette before

Dinette after

 We kept the original stove, sink, oven, icebox (though I super-insulted it) and furnace.

Kitchen before

Kitchen after

Bedroom before

Bedroom after

 And a couple of more exterior pictures for good measure.

Streetside before

Streetside after

In order to get it in to the back yard, we had to remove the raised beds in the alley,, including all the soil (thank you Craigslist!), which is done(!), remove fence panels and build a big gate, then I have to clear the area for the camper. This will involve relocating a lot of plants, and it will require me to remove the hammock room (see photo at the top of the post)! 

This is a favorite spot in the garden for many, but I don’t mind the change. I like change in the garden.

I built the hammock for my wife a long time ago, and it has served us well, but I think the camper will serve us even better!

So, if you are interested in the hammock pergola, I am going to be getting rid of it, but I haven’t figured out exactly how.

There are still a lot of projects I need to finish, too. For example last fall I started building a fence for our front yard. Started, that is, not finished! To follow my garden and blogging friend Susan's (of the Bicycle Garden) lead, I am posting my garden projects on a frame on the right, rather than burying them in a post. I am hoping this will hold me more accountable (to myself, I guess).