Tuesday, May 14, 2013

reconstruction


After three months of tearing apart the garden at the Alviso house, we’ve finally begun to build it back up again.   Springtime renewal is the name of the game around here.  It is pretty darned exciting.

First item on the reconstruction list was the deck.
We designed a deck that floats off the house and is accessible through the laundry and studio doors.
The redwood is termite resistant and it has a beautiful grain when sealed.
Here's the after photo.  Drew added a step into the laundry door for Ruby.


One of the things we were most committed to was re-purposing the concrete (there is SO MUCH of it) from the old garden into the new one.  So after the deck had a couple of coats of sealant, Drew started placing the recycled concrete pads to create the path around the garden.  We'll fill the gaps in with more soil and grow some mosses and small grasses there so that its green.

Who knew that chunks of old concrete could be so beautiful!
And did I mention that we have kick-ass friends who were willing to spend the day in the dirt, removing a giant patch of the grass in the backyard and helping to construct the redwood boxes for the vegetable garden?  I hope to be able to reward them handsomely when the garden starts to produce.

I've got 3 types of tomatoes, 2 eggplants, strawberries, hot and sweet peppers, squash, green beans, zucchini and cucumbers, carrots and radishes in these 2 5'X5' boxes. 
 
Old wooden flower boxes re-imagined as the salad garden.  I love coming outside to pick leaves just before we eat them.   Faves are the red romaine and the "freckles" spotted lettuce.

 So.

There is still a stack of concrete pads, brick, rocks and rubble to contend with, and a corner of the backyard is made uninhabitable by bamboo, but I am determined to worry about those things later.  I am ready for cocktails and dinner and parties and picnics on the patio all summer long.