Our sunny little balcony has looked like hell ever since all the new plants Jack bought to replace the dead plants died, too. Two generations of dead plants, the dead-er ones at the back, all burnt up from the deadly combination of a cheerful southwestern exposure and benign neglect.
I suppose if the balcony were used as more than a bulldog tanning station the job would hold more urgency. We put a second-hand teak loveseat out there but nobody ever sat in it. I bought a $100 custom cushion from Smith & Hawken and still nobody sat in it. My next move will be to install cable TV and a kegerator and that still won’t be enough, until the stripper pole goes in.
But this afternoon something seized me — what if we have company over the holidays? It’s been known to happen. People visit occasionally, though only the smokers ever show any interest in what lies beyond the sliding glass door. Does it suffer from bad feng shui? Is our balcony haunted? Is the ghost of a former agricultural engineer out there smoking Pall Malls and glaring at our empty watering can?
Whatever the problem is, today I finally got to sweeping and some half-assed re-potting. My technique was as follows. (1) Grasp dead plant by the base of its stalk, (2) shake the usable dirt back into the pot, (3) put the dead plant in a trash bag, (4) put a currently-living plant into the old dirt of the dead plant’s pot. Or coffin, really. So, struggling, half-alive plants are in their new plant coffins, watered. Tile swept, detritus tossed in the Dumpster out back. A job I’d been avoiding for six weeks took no more than fifteen minutes from start to finish.
As I was doing all this I was trying to figure out why I let the big jobs wait until someone’s around to notice me doing them. I have acres of time to avoid my personal responsibilities and do chores like this during the week, but no, apparently I need an audience. I need witnesses, bystanders, passive collaborators, even if they’re just a husband napping next to a kid who’s been eyeball-deep in his DS since sunrise.
Why don’t YOU start using it? Enjoy your morning coffee (or tea) out there in warm weather. Invite that awesome son of yours out to the bench for an ice cream cone. Make it your Official Magazine Reading Area.
My husband and I found ourselves ignoring our backyard (all the love it got came from our landscapers) until we decided to have all of our fun wine-soaked chats out there. I also bought one of those metal bowl fire pits, and we have fires in the colder months.
I would sit in that loveseat, on the balcony, catching the rays with the pups. I dearly miss the warm sun. NJ is not like SoCal between November and June.
I do the same thing, Eden. I know of others who do as well. Makes me think maybe it’s, you know… normal.
I only have one plant. It’s in my only partially sunny kitchen window. I have to look at it closely several times everyday. It’s extremely close to a water source. It’s doing well.
Ummm – are you talking about me again?
Start smoking! It’s what all the cool kids do.
maybe something IS wrong with it… burn some incense out there and mumble a mantra first, then start using it… (like a balinese hindu would do)
I don’t sit on the balcony either, but only ’cause I’m afraid of bugs and wouldn’t be able to relax for constantly wondering if a bug was underneath my chair or hanging above my head.
Flylady.net says this all the time… those things you think will take forever usually only take 15 minutes. She says to set your timer for 15 minutes and then start a “big” and then you can quit after 15 minutes. See how much you get done. Do this every day and voila–perfect house. Or close.
My house always gets much cleaner when I know people are coming.
Pearl
Witnesses? Hey, that’s us!
When I spend a day alone, I detailed every chore I do to my husband when he gets home. As if it matters that he knows that I did the laundry, he’s bound to figure it out when he wears his clean clothes.
I’ll be your huckleberry…. I mean witness…to our infernal hot fire-generating weather.
Have discovered that the only thing that grows on my balcony is trees. Try a kumquat or other green small ornamental trees instead or gardenias. They hold their water better.
Re: dirt; never recycle. Has critters most often or something. Or possibly wrong pH.