I find a blank canvas to be very daunting. I was in grade school when California’s Proposition 13 passed; it froze property taxes at 1976 levels for houses that remained in the owner’s hands, or the hands of their heirs. That meant that school funding was suddenly stagnent and budgets tightened immediately.
I have a vivid memory of a substitute teacher handing out construction paper during “art” time. It was our time to fill the page with crayons or colored pencils. She was very clear, though, that each piece of paper cost the school 5-cents. She admonished us not to waste the paper with scribbles or whatever she deemed to be non-artistic. If we made a mistake, we could not get another piece of paper.
That admonishment completely undermined my already low artistic confidence. I was terrified to draw, and when I did, I was never satisfied with the results.
So when we bought a house with a blank, dirt, backyard canvas, it was overwhelming. Neither of us wanted a rectangle of grass edged with plants. We have a general idea about foliage and pathways and gardens and trees.
First we leveled the space, then put down tan bark. Okay, the hubby and another friend leveled the yard as best as they could. The hubby then fetched multiple truckloads of tan bark and spread them out. He them scraped and repainted the swing we have now moved twice, once from Petaluma to Ukiah, and now from Ukiah to Santa Rosa.
and long stored, gazebo.
Despite all our purging before during and after the move, we did manage to bring some cool stuff with us. One is the gazebo we bought two years before the move. The intention had been to erect it in the backyard in Ukiah, but the timing of the purchase meant that we needed to wait until the weather improved, and by then we had decided to move. So it remained in storage until we moved into our new home.
We picked a spot to try a vegetable garden outside the kitchen window. I found a second hand tumbling composter, and pulled out several pots and two smaller raised beds that we brought with us from Ukiah.
I created shelving from odds and ends and found a used computer desk (already covered with outdoor paint) and viola, I have a potting area. I happily accepted free succulents and a cherry tree (not pictured), found some hanging plant holders at a yard sale, and my roses are happier than they have ever been.
The backyard is still a work in progress, but then again, isn’t homeownership? Two mosaic stepping stones are in the works.
We managed to move beyond our Blank Page Syndrome and are pretty happy with the results!
Visceral Musings 