All Front and No Knickers

Cully looks either like he's having an attack of ennui or is utterly exhausted.  Either way, he can affect this hipsterically idiotic pose because he didn't have to sweat for any of this.  Or work to receive the tax refund that fueled the pot binge that precipitated the deck transformation. 

I'm surrounded by pot

It's a very nice place to hang out day and night with good breeze, a sense of privacy, and a good micro-climate for the plants.

Too bad the floor boards and supporting joists are rotting.  Nice top side, weak supports.  But hey - one I have to look at daily.  The other is really other people's problems. 

That moment the A-HA! idea withers and dies

with an image of a dog pooing and peeing on it.

Thought that I had located the ideal site for a vegetable garden - well-draining soil and ample sunlight.

Unfortunately, it is within arcing distance of the Brat.

Vyvyan 

I suppose it's within arcing distance of the other two as well, but he's most likely to start the trend.  The next idea, the 4x7 area surrounding my mailbox - lots of sun, not so good, but easily amended soil - also went away while I watched my neighbor's dog pooing there.  So back to scheming.  And back to the market.

Maybe it's time to thin out the garden

Before it succeeds in eating the dogs.

Here, doggie doggie

I have PUPPY TREATS over here

That's it, come a little closer

Oh, well.  If Audrey hadn't eaten him, somebody else was thinking about it:

. . . with fava beans and chianti . . .

Inner life of hapu'u

It was time to trim the hapu'u in more than a "cut the fronds" kind of a way.  But according to the internet, source of all that is holy and true, it can be done by just cutting the growing stump. 

Who knew that this was what was hiding in the interior:

The interior core has a tapa-like design

And the top half that was cut off can be moved and planted as usual:

Allegedly heavy

Cully making the hapu'u look good

Planting can be done with or without help and/or commentary.

Annual Weekly move everything from the left to the right day (and vice versa)

Death to the lychee tree.

DIE, tree, DIE

Hate it.  It drops a ton of rubbish which doesn't decompose and make itself useful.  Plus the leaves are heavy.  It took 4 industrial sized garbage bags just to hold the bulk of what was in my garden bed.  OK, it was a year's worth of leaves, but hey.  How much space would a year's worth of grass clippings take?  And lychees are just eyeballs.

Irresistible Vyvyan.  IRRESISTIBLE

But I digress and wax bitter. 

Moved two hapu'u from the left side garden to the lower garden along with the new ti plants from Yamashita Nursery.  They look very natural there - although I think that the LACK OF LYCHEE CRAP RUBBISH on the ground is subtly influencing me.

Clean for the next few seconds

Was feeling down about the upper side garden.  The new hapu'u plan is so awesome (it's better than . . . than . . . than a MALL!  OK, not a mall with a Sephora in it, but better than a strip mall with only a Starbucks.) that the scheme to stuff in a load of plants in the sun garden seemed . . . loser.  But after putting in a rock border around the sun garden, it looks much better.  Plus I shed MY OWN PRECIOUS BLOOD for that border.  OK, I didn't, but I bashed my thumb trying to drive a rock into the ground (let me just say, that this was NOT my idea - not to name names, but I live with him, and he only has 2 legs), and I have no aim.  Or maybe I do, but have target fixation.  And wouldn't everybody start a border from both ends?  Oh, yah, did I mention that I was slamming the rock BETWEEN two rocks that I had already planted.  It was a tight fit.  Extreme gardening.  X-TREME.

Imagine it before the magic was applied

But that border is mighty fine.  Someone give me a high five (to my right hand only, please).

The necessary sadness of commitment

All gardens need structure, forethought (or at least thought at some point in the process), a plan of some kind, and patience.  That's what ALL the gardening magazines, books, and proper advice columns say.  Alas for those of us who are smitten by tropical gardens! in the morning and agaves! at noon.  And then moon gardens! in the evening.  Oh, and not to mention my intense longing for a poison garden - datura, brugmansia, foxgloves!  (Why do these flowers smell so delicious?  It's like: Hey baby, how you doing?  You looking mighty foxy, and I think I'm in loooove with you, and wham!  Dead!)  And it's only Monday . . . 

Of course, there are those minor little inconveniences of limited budgets, space, and, well, in my case, forethought and commitment to a theme.

But if I can't have every type of garden that I covet for my own little Arcadia, then I can go visit them around my part of the world.

Even if I have to sneak about to do it.  (Odd how most people are creeped out by utter strangers staring into their yards.  I am NOT casing the joint.  Well, I am kind of coveting some of your plants.  And your garden designs.  And maybe some of your garden accessories - why doesn't anyone give me a giant clam shell?) 

Happy transplanted bromeliads and anthuriums living under the shade of ti and hapu'u in the front garden.

 The view off of the front porch.  Lots of hot pink ti, although I'm not sure of the variety.  "From-Eric's-Housamus Olomanii" is probably the botanical name.

Red ginger with two kinds of red ti and lako in the background.

Cully and the pond in its earliest stage.