We built and moved into this house over fourteen years ago now. When we moved in, it was like a small house in a big sand pit. We did add some native plants early on and many of those are still around, including several bottlebrush bushes that aren’t really much bigger than when they were planted  and several of another variety that have grown exceptionally well. Some grass was planted and various other plants have been added over the years with varying success.

I became the default family gardener, which is quite amazing since I am not a gardener. I’m getting better after many years though. I’ve been making attempts at growing vegetables almost every year for a while and this year I may have hit a small jackpot. Tonight I felt like we might be on to a good thing for the first time ever and even the Scientist joined in with adding fresh sugar cane mulch as the light disappeared tonight. Perhaps it was a matter of getting started earlier in the season or perhaps it’s the fact I’ve put a lot more effort into it. Today I harvested enough lettuce to make a small salad for dinner. It was extremely cool to eat food grown in our garden. I have several varieties of tomato growing well and showing promise of decent crops. Nothing like years past when we basically snacked on the food that grew because it wasn’t enough to do more. I think the real test will come when the bigger tomatoes grow. If we succeed there, I will be extremely happy. It’s not even just a matter of the success of growing my own food. I want tomatoes that actually taste good for a change. It will be worth the toil and the massive amounts of money invested in compost and mulch. It’s going so well right now that we are planning on adding more. I have a tray of basil seedlings to plant along with oregano and mint. I was going to plant the basil tonight but I started too late and it got dark so it will have to wait.

Anyway, I have gone off on a tangent. Over all these years, we’ve hardly spent any time outside, aside from the occasional splurge on plants where we do really well for about two weeks and then we lose interest. We spend too much time inside, to be honest. This year, I think we may have shifted priorities enough that we will make a decent attempt at creating an outdoor space to enjoy. Some of the changes planned or already done are:

1. The Scientist moved our clothes hoist (rotating clothes line) from one corner to another. One of the trees/shrubs had pretty much grown into it over the winter which rendered it nearly useless. I had cut back the tree considerably and free up most of the contraption but it was still blocked by an overgrown branch. Now it’s in open space (over mostly sand) but it moves freely.
2. I bought a garden arch to attempt to train the passionfruit vine over. This is essentially in the same location as an earlier one but since the vines never took off, it was removed. The passonfruit has already taken to the new structure and looks much happier in the open. We recently added a grape vine to climb the other side. I don’t know how successful that will be but there is a major grape/wine center just down the road so I think our climate and soil must be reasonably suitable.
3. Today I bought a table and chairs so we can eat outside once in a while. We already have a couple cheap lawn chairs out there but until recently we hadn’t made much use of them. Since the clothes hoist was moved away, it feels right to sit in that area and we do. My mother-in-law is bringing her station wagon around tomorrow morning so I can get it home without paying expensive delivery fees.
4. At the request of the Scientist, I bought a string of solar Christmas lights to hang outside. It’s a fairly small string that eventually found its way onto the mostly bare arch. It charges during the day and lights up at night. No electricity needed and it looks great. The Scientist also went out and got a set of ten solar garden lights. These used to be quite expensive but this year the price has really dropped. Lego Lover helped his dad put the lights out and they also look really great. We’ve been sitting outside enjoying the warmer weather and the lights the last several nights.
5. We are finally going to get a fence with a gate installed between the house and the fence dividing our property from our neighbors. There has been a small picket fence going across from many years but it doesn’t go completely across and the gate has been broken for several years and has to be lifted to get it open.  There is no privacy and no real barrier to intruders at the moment.
6. We’re planning to have a patio running from the new fence to the back of the house (or a little bit beyond that). This is going to be a pretty major expense and will include a roof and some sort paving (probably bricks).
7. These all pretty much center around one section of the yard. There’s a whole big area on the western side of the house that needs a lot of work. At the moment, cleaning it up and clearing it out will be our main priority. I’ve done some major pruning jobs on some of the shrubs and it already looks far more spacious than it has for years. There’s a giant pile of branches and foliage we need to either put through the shredder to make mulch or have it removed.

And the list goes on and on…but I feel like there is hope for us now that we are creating a nice space to enjoy outside. I’ll hopefully update as we progress through our plans this summer.