Tell the Truth Tuesday-The Crumbling Infrastructure

 Joining along today with our friend Alison over at Bonney Lassie  who, suffering from Garden Perfection Fatigue, decided to air her dirty laundry so to speak, and encourage other garden bloggers  to share their unkempt spaces . It's satisfying to know that you aren't the only one with pockets of crappiness in the garden.

  Thus I will expose the world to the impending demise of Lady Banks (Rosa banksiae 'Lutea') which I foolishly installed many years ago to grow along a patio cover. As you can see here, the patio cover is in the process of succumbing to dry rot and I have slowly been removing it. The beam on the left was once a horizontal support for 2x4's which were attached to the west wall of my house, and here Lady Banks thrived (too well) for many years. Around the time the patio structure started falling apart , Lady Banks added bird habitat to her other qualities.  I love the birds that hang out in my garden , but I highly recommend discouraging a bird habitat  directly over ones potting bench and collection of container succulents. Bird crap just does not look great on Echeverias and Agaves, not to mention in ones hair.

 

 This is what held up the 4x6 beam. As you can see, it is listing . This attractive display of rust and rot is just outside the slider to my back garden, so averting my eyes is futile. I get to look at it every day.

 

 Meanwhile I have been working on cutting down lady Banks who has grown to the top of the 2nd story of the house.For years I got a great deal of enjoyment out of this plant, with her dramatic fulsome early spring bloom, and the welcome shade in summer. Nevertheless, she has gotten too big and unwieldy, shes's been enveloping and furthur degrading a bunch of dry rot lumber and the birds as much as I love them, are wreaking havoc on this patio.   Most of it is dead now, and I have been chopping and sawing on it for weeks. Pulling it off of the house is proving to be challenging.

 The potting bench is directly beneath what is shown in the photo above, and most of the year , when not converted into an ad hoc frost protection hut, is  awash in the droppings from my feathered residents.

 There is a plan for this whole sad area. I will remove everything I can myself and cut Lady Banks down to a 3 foot high stump. I fear it will take 'equipment' to get rid of her entirely, but whatever the method she has to go. This ultimately leaves a large portion of the west side of my house unsheltered from summer sun, although the Crape Myrtle which you can see on the left in the second photo has grown enough to help a bit. I plan to have freestanding pergola built which will be planted with a non-aggressive vine and it's position should provide afternoon shade for the patio.


  Lady Banks in her glory days, circa 2012.