March 7, 2020 - 176 - "It's Not That Easy Finding Greenery"

A Vision in Green

     We had a vision for this one wall on our rooftop.  

     We seem to be afflicted with more visions than two people should probably attempt to bring to life.  The problem is we have a hard time letting an idea go.  

      We talk it over and mock it up and envision it at every stage of a project.

     This particular vision involved a big, stark white, wall...and a picture I saw of clumps of bamboo (corralled in pots to avoid spreading, of course) behind a couch.

    So this photo to the left is our vision.  

     Simple, clean, easy.  How hard could it be?

How We Got the Huge Wall To Begin With

     On thing the crazy dining room rooftop did was create a distraction from all the crap on the neighbors rooftop.  The guy likes to start seedlings in cans...lots and lots of cans...and he has green mesh strung over metal frames, presumably to create the right kind of light for the plants he's starting over there. It's. basically, a rooftop nursery...but an unusually messy one.

     Between that and the tinaco  (huge water tanks that live on everyone's rooftop and provide back-up water for, and water pressure to the house) there's a lot of visual clutter next door.

Lots of Clutter Distracting From the View

    ...so we had a wall built.

     All that visual clutter made you mainly think:  "What a dump!" 

Building a Wall 

    We were surprised that building a huge wall between us and the churches actually made the view more noticeable.  (Though I don't have any pictures that clearly illustrate this fact.  You'll have to trust me on this.  In person before you saw:  Mess!  Now you see:  Stunning churches!!)

    Still, the solution had some issues.  Mainly that it was a really big wall.

    

Now We Need to Distract From the Wall

     Now I think:  a) "Whoa...those churches are beautiful!", but b) "Crap!  That's a lot of wall to look at!." 

     So the search began for bamboo in Mexico.  We were told it grows great here.  (It spreads like a salacious rumor at home...I can't imagine it would be any different here.)

     But finding the right stuff proved to be a real challenge.

Bummer About The Bamboo

     Friends said it tended to be leggy and hard to keep green here.  The guy who cares for our plants brought us an example...and it was leggy and brown.  

     We asked around about places to find better types...with no luck.

     Eventually we gave up and found a new vision.  

 A New Vision

    I found another image to begin our new wall decorating/softening with...

     Trees!  We'd just plant three small trees that could be shaped a little.

     We even saw some around town, so we knew they were available and could grow here:

Trees!  It's Trees We Need

     So, there ya go, we were able to let go of our first vision...and find one that worked better with local climate and availability.

    Beautiful, simple, easy.  How hard could three little trees be?


     Wait, not so fast:  The search began for the right trees and we hit more road blocks.

...to be continued.

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"Gardening is not a rational act."

-Margaret Atwood

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