My inspiration from the Vallejo Garden Tour this year has come to fruition. We got metal arbors that create a tunnel (that was my own idea), which we partially covered with fake plants for privacy for the moment. I further designed a system where they would be held in place in part by the legs of the arbors being seated within planters. That was done within the last few days using my homegrown compost. With Shea’s help, we researched and asked around what kind of climbing plant would flower AND which would not require a very deep plant bed. We decided jasmine was the best option, and it’s aromatic to boot. It actually reminded me of my childhood when I smelled it in the car on the way back from the nursery. With zip ties, we adhered the four plants to the arbors. I’m impressed that some of the branches already reach up more than halfway. I’m excited to see the entire arbor system grow and to facilitate that so that we will have year-round truly natural-filled arbor tunnels in this part of the yard. It serves multiple purposes and helps to make my yard an even more enchanting escape from this crazy world.

Consolidating plants and decluttering the yard continues, creating spaces for socializing and soaking in some sun. It’s very inspiring but a lot of work. Fortunately, I have help, but I’m proud of myself for the various visions of where to stage things. I truly never thought I was that kind of gay, but I must be doing something right. Most importantly, I enjoy the fresh changes and improvements of paths and flow for humans and dogs. Today I realized that there was a table and chairs that should have been a natural fit, but they were on opposite ends of a picnic table. Moving things into a different order made a world of difference. Meanwhile, the divider between two vignettes in the backyard was usually a monolith, but I decided that I wanted to minimize the footprint of the coverage of an old drip system. Now it is only covered with a little bit of decor, and the ability to walk from vignette to vignette has dramatically opened up. There is still no shortage of plants to admire everywhere, but they are in their appropriate spaces and not impeding meandering traffic.

It looks like we’re going to have to give my plum tree palliative care. It did yield maybe a dozen plums this year; some years there are hundreds. Well, that was before the fire. Today we finally got around to chainsawing the obviously dead branches (thanks to our friend Hugh), but upon sawing off some of the big branches, Shea discovered that the disease and death of this tree are already in the works. AI agreed that this tree is on borrowed time when Shea showed it the condition of the trunk’s cross-section. For now, the few productive branches are being left, but to avoid a sudden failure, even if it would not likely cause much damage, I will have to hire an arborist to do a full removal of the root system. The good news is that this will create a path that will be navigable next to the back deck column that the tree was somewhat obstructing. Another silver lining is that there will be more sun reaching the plants underneath the tree during the summer. My realization in these past few weeks is that the tree was actually very much damaged by the fire, much more than I originally thought. The fire did, after all, start only a few feet away from this tree trunk. That means that the insurance should reimburse me for the expenses of its removal. Shea did a lot of labor helping to cut up the branches into manageable pieces. Some of them we will “chop and drop” since I’m a strong believer in putting carbon back into the ground.

Keep in mind all the green leaves you see near this tree are from another plant. Only the purple leaves are from the plum tree.

Once you exit the covered back patio, walk up the metal black steps. Mind the gap. Walk past the solar-powered water wheel and bird-of-paradise plant. Go past the second and third tiers on the right and the windmill on your left. Sneak behind the bamboo forest to the two hidden eggshell swings. Pass through the arbor with the beaded screen. Walk down the wooden stairs past the lime and lemon trees and multiple wind spinners on the far side of the garden. You’ll hear the sound of the powerful main fountain, which also acts as a favorite local bird bath on a Roman stool. Walk through the extended arbor tunnel and escape through the portal back toward the first vignette with a fire table, metal picnic table, and other seating fit for a nap in the morning sun. Proceed back over the back deck and to the corner of the house to go under another wood arbor, past the plumb tree. Turn the corner to find another bannister on the kitchen deck, followed by another seating area in front of the hot tub, beyond which is more seating and a swing to capture the afternoon sun. More to come!

I’ve already made a bunch more changes since I took this video, but in the heat, we moved a bunch of things around, including HEAVY items that the workers on the retaining wall moved. It was an opportunity to organize from scratch, which I needed since I moved back in March anyway, so I didn’t go too crazy with the furniture moves in the last few months. The back deck cover project required things to be moved away from the house again (just like during the renovation), and the cement base and other construction for the retaining wall meant things had to be moved closer TO the house, which was expected but hazardous. I still have a bunch of really cute ideas that I want to implement to beautify and make the garden a place of enchantment (hopefully). I know it’s my sanctuary, pandemic or not. Hopefully in a few years I’ll feel confident enough to submit it for the Vallejo Garden Tour!

I did learn enough about retaining walls before hiring a contractor to know it needed drainage, but I wasn’t clear on how that would work. Now I can see it!

Progress on how to repurpose dilapidated benches of yesteryear.

So the good news is that the retaining wall is pretty much done, at least the hard part. The bad news is that the contractor(s), including the one that I didn’t hire, BOTH omitted the coping, which is highly recommended for our climate. We had to research the hell out of it, but basically, flat, square-backed rocks should go on top of the retaining wall for the best longevity and strength. The good news is no cement is involved, but some of them will have to be cut to size, which means renting a special saw. I can’t stand when I get upsold by contractors who know this is probably the only time in my life I’ll ever have to pay for a retaining wall, and of course this is out of my own pocket. The retaining wall was just starting to buckle in key places during the house renovation after the fire. So Shea is going to help me purchase the pieces, and we will methodically proceed iteratively at our leisure. Doing the labor ourselves will save me thousands of dollars. The wall’s completeness will not appear deficient in the meantime.

This is the progress on my ANTIFA Big Beautiful Wall that I paid for myself. This isn’t even something the insurance company is paying for due to the fire, even though I could argue that some of the collateral damage was due to the heavy reconstruction of the house.

Much more of the wall was built on Tuesday.

Retaining wall update with bricks that are more attractive than I expected, and a drainage system started with PBC pipe:

I started this retaining wall project while our crafty friend Hugh worked on the front gate fence that I cherish so much, because it’s a way to protect the dogs. Hugh also built a gate in our side yard that has been so helpful to keep the dogs safe in a portion of the backyard when we have to open the outside gate to bring the garbage cans in and out. So this video is demonstrative of the projects going on. My neighbor thought I was building a pool, but I neither have the room for one (on the flat part of my backyard) nor the interest in maintaining one.

In the 1970’s, my family lived on the Coast Guard base on Governors Island in New York City as a kid for a few years; I remember my family took a vacation to Maine. Unfortunately, it rained the entire time we were on vacation, but this really big house had a pool table indoors, which I found fascinating. Just the fact that some homes had space for a “rec(reaction) room” boggled my mind while we were living in an albeit very large apartment. I don’t have a huge house, but I do have a three-car garage. The last house I was in was a rental with a detached 2-car garage that I used every day to put my car into because the driveway was covered by an avocado tree and I knew my car would get pummeled when those grenades dropped. Well, here at the house I purchased, I love having my car in the driveway, and with the improvements made to the garage to let in natural light, I have the makings of a rec room of my own all these years later. I previously had a ping-pong table, but some genius figured out how to combine ping-pong and pool and make that convertible into a “regular” table. I bought one and then had the dilemma of what I was going to do with Shea’s gym equipment and my growing Lego train project? Well, today he unboxed the combo table. After some frustration wherein I strongly considered making Shea get rid of his rarely used treadmill, I sketched out a plan for everything to work and still have the couch face the rarely used TV in there. I’m very proud of this configuration, which makes it highly adaptable — with some of these furniture pieces being on wheels — for focusing on the many things we need the garage to do, including charging my e-bike, bringing the kayaks to the car, getting out the xmas tree, getting to major storage, indulging in more Lego train building, and yes, plenty of room for Shea to work out on all of his equipment. It was like a 3-D jigsaw puzzle, or even a Lego project, if you don’t mind that analogy.

I changed the boring smoked white glass covers in the guest bathroom to these much more colorful faux stained glass ones. These types of upgrades make my home feel so much more custom, rather than like a generic hospital or hotel room.

Family room updates. Shea keeps getting up on the ladder as the decor climbs higher and higher, but why have cathedral ceilings if one’s not using the height?