
Patricia Youngquist is the author of a book series, "Words In Our Beak," in which the stories are told by Cam, the bird pictured above. Click on the 1st image of sidebar (R) for info. Moreover, some of her photo-based art work is available via Fine Art America. Click on the 2nd image sidebar (R) to visit. On another note, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, she has created face-masks. Click on the 3rd image in sidebar (R). Visit her website via the 2nd image in left sidebar.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
"Love thy neighbor — but don't pull down your hedge. " (Benjamin Franklin)
The folks who live in an apartment two buildings west of me have an outdoor terrace that faces north just as mine does.
Admittedly, their west view of the aluminum siding that has been placed over their brick wall is not appealing, and their northern view would be the entrance to and from their apartment to their terrace, but must they pull up a chair and sit there facing me in my terrace garden which is their eastern view?
At times I have felt very vulnerable when tinkering around in my garden tending to my herbs, vines, plants, shrubs and trees, as well as when I am entertaining guests or spending time alone writing on Mac Book Pro. It is hard for me to let the muse kick in when those neighbors are sitting there — most often in a chair facing me as they indulge in smoking cigarettes. I've gone to great lengths over the years creating natural hedges with shelves of window boxes, planters filled with very tall basil, and a lush passion vine.
All of those aforementioned hedges, however, were created by using perennials; therefore, I had to "rebuild" a hedge each season. This is why I am so excited that Juan V reminded me of a wonderful vine, the honeysuckle. Easy to grow. Beautiful. Tolerant of the climate in my terrace garden. Moreover, Juan V reminded me that I had plenty of bamboo stakes from my prior gardening endeavors, and he was able to create a trellis from them, and secure it to my railing as seen in the photograph below:
Soon and very soon this trellis will be filled with the beautiful flower of the honeysuckle vine, such as the variety in the photograph posted below:
This trellis, along with the removal of the "SODAS" sign discussed in this past Saturday's post, are both part of the quasi-Feng-shui which I referred to a few days ago when I promised to give the details, as I've done today, and as evidenced in the latest aerial view photograph posted below taken by Juan V, after I removed the "SODAS" sign from the north end of my terrace garden and after he constructed my new — and hopefully permanent hedge, in keeping with the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin when he stated, "Love thy neighbor . . . but don't pull down your hedge."
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Very nice garden! I wish I could get privacy from those neighbors also.. They just stare at me and smoke when I try to tend my garden.
ReplyDeleteI like your garden too, D-man. As for the smokers, I'm not sure what kind of hedge you can build for privacy, but I will give it some thought and let you know if I think of something. Meanwhile keep tending your lovely garden.
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