Week 9 : Terrace Gardening

Week 9 : Terrace Gardening

Many of you will be familiar, through Instagram and Facebook, perhaps Twitter, with my on-going battle with the possums on my Terrace Garden. Here I am with a updated report Week 9 : Terrace Gardening

At the moment they (the possums) appear to be winning. I have withdrawn for a serious regrouping. Yet another re-think and a consideration of the question as to wether I in fact want to continue.
I have found that I do. Want to continue that is.
I want to be able to grow fresh herbs and assorted vegetables. I want to stop these nightly raids before I add mini citrus tress, before I purchase pretty short yellow-green Cyprus trees.
I am inspired by the garden in that now old movie ‘Greencard‘.

I have an amazingly large terrace. And a wide open view. A lengthy discussion as to what to call the outside space occurred a couple of years back. When the term terrace was offered it clicked with a rightness.

Kevin McCloud in the TV series ‘Grand Designs‘ said that what people want in houses, or what they tell him, is light, space and an inside-outside connection with nature. I’d agree with that.

The top 4 on my list when looking for this home were:   light, bright, with sounds of life and an outside area, that could be, in essence, another room.
I have all those here. Actually my 14 point want-list had every item check off.  The site and building are, it must be said, problematic. First time visitors never fail to comment when enter through the front door; they look up and see the terrace and view, they always acknowledge it was worth the struggle. It is. I think that nearly every day.

During the challenging years of my teenage-hood I had a struggle with depression. There were days that were too hard. Days when I would slip away and curl up on my bed and sleep. My mothers voice would wake me. ‘Why are you sleeping during the day?’ she would ask as she stirred me.
Now, all these years after her death, if I find I have been sleeping during daylight hours, I hear her voice. I hear the question. This always makes me take stock. I take a little time-out, drop into minimal engagement, basic housekeeping, basic cooking and turn my mind to review how my life is. What is going on and what is looking like a challenge? The challenge.
My long experience of sifting through my life, my ability to look inward objectively has enabled me to identify the triggers.
Then I review what I have been doing what I need to be doing. I check my list of projects I want to do. I roll all these things around my mind. I find the vulnerabilities and plug up those weak points. I correct my perceptions. I make a new plan. I remind myself that I can work this plan. I stay awake during daylight hours. I re-launch.

It’s time to get on with Terrace Gardening.

Comments

  1. Jane! You are succeeding in your quest for life in the sun. Why not consider screening in your terrace? That way, you could have the best of two worlds: no bugs, no possums, but fresh hair and sunshine. We are building a screened-in porch for our addition in Maine. Last summer we died from mosquitos!!!

    • I don’t want to screen in the terrace, quite apart from probably not being permitted to…Body Corporate rules apply. I have screens on the windows and doors. PS I fixed your typo.

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