When You Are Home Every Day Things Get Done

   The home and garden improvement wave unleashed by the pandemic did not pass me by. With more time at home than I've had in at least 30 years I was reminded daily of the deterioration I had allowed to accumulate here. It became pretty clear in late spring that travel was probably not going to happen til at least fall, and that has turned out to be overly optimistic. So the travel budget was up for grabs. It was easy to pivot funds to home repair. 

 Exhibit A...The dry rotting white post and beam on the upper right is what remains of a structure that covered this entire patio. It had been deteriorating for quite some time and I gradually disassembled most of it myself and had the rotting lumber hauled away This last part of the structure was not something I would be able to do on my own.

 

 It involved a post attached to concrete and what remained of Rosa banksia lutea. If you look at the green blob of foliage far left center in this photo, it will orient you to the location of  the following photo.

Exhibit B.... Not only had I voluntarily planted Lady Banks, I also installed a climbing Cecile Bruner on the opposite end of the patio. I advise against planting either of these behemoths  unless you have 'property'.  The white beam on the left was attached to the house and hung in mid-air, it's connection to the upright post long gone. 

 And so the project begins. I don't know how I lucked out with the dude I hired for this . We designed the new pergola based on copying an arbor I have over a gate . I told him how big I wanted it -10 feet between posts and 4 foot cross slats.. Day one was removing the remaining structure and the rose trunk and setting the posts.

 

 

 Day two, it was complete. Not a single surrounding plant was damaged. Done by two guys in two days.

 

 

 I was going to wait to do the other end (wait for what ??) but I was so thrilled with the outcome I had the rest done a couple weeks later. Here the new posts go up. I had to dig up most of this succulent bed -all I left in was Agaves 'Blue Glow ','Cream Spike', and geminiflora. I took cuttings of a Cotyledon and discarded Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' which had mealybug. I hate those damn things (mealybugs not Fred.) This presented me with the opportunity redo this whole bed,which included some modest enlargement.

 Voila !

 

 

The long view. The orangey cast and the grey sky was courtesy of the Glass Fire.  

 

 

 

I took this image this morning, as you can see I have replanted what I now have dubbed 'the Agave Meadow'. There are 5 Agaves here as of today-'Blue Glow, 'Cream Spike', parryi truncata, victoria-reginae, geminiflora and 'Cornelius.'. 

 

 

The pergola installations have upgraded my back garden significantly. Since this was completed I have removed several more mature plants and hope to spend winter and early spring reworking more areas of my small garden. This project was the lemonade of the Covid summer, and I am hopeful that summer of 2021 will provide a return to normalcy.