My number one complaint/issue
about city living over the past 8+ years has been about not having enough
nature in my life. When I first moved to
Brooklyn, it was into Jeff’s apartment in Bushwick/East Williamsburg, an up and
coming hipster ‘hood with more rats than blades of grass. The continuous
palette of grey cement, red brick, and blacktop sucked my soul. Jeff, being the smart man that he is, knew he
had to get me out of that place if he had any chance of keeping me from leaving
him and the city.
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| Who gardens after dark? Jeff, the Secret Gardener |
After living there together
for three years we headed several miles south to the tree-lined streets of
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. I was no
longer dodging rats on my way to the train, but instead, kids on scooters and
triple-wide strollers. Our apartment, was walking distance to Prospect Park,
Mount Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. It changed our lives. We
use those parks weekly, if not daily for morning runs (well, not at the moment,
but I’m looking forward to it once again), evening concerts, family play dates
and picnics, fireworks, farmers market, etc.
Over time the amount and type
of outside space I’ve wanted and needed has changed. Having grown up in
Connecticut suburbs and attended college in outdoorsy Vermont, I used to think that a
private large backyard with an in-ground pool was the minimum requirement I
would need to feel human. But now, that
seems a little over-the-top and the thought of spending a Saturday (or every
Saturday for that matter) pulling weeds or mowing a lawn is daunting. So I’ve
lowered my standards just a bit.
Ideally, I need a place to sit in private, drink a glass of wine, and
connect with nature. Um, oh yeah, and
place for the kids to play outside would be great too...so a fire-escape converted into a balcony is never going to suffice.
Well, Jeff’s still a smart
man, and he still doesn’t want me to leave him or the city. So earlier this
summer he got to thinking and then he got to working. Let me give you some background info first…we
live on the first floor of a 4-story apartment building and we are the only
tenants with access to a small, private weed/cement garden. However, even though we could access this
space though the sliding door in our dining room, it wasn’t safe (no stairs from
the door), attractive or included in our lease. So yes, it was there, but only
to look at, but it was hideous, so we barely did that. Earlier this summer, during a rare glance out
back, Jeff and I both agreed it was such an eyesore we should just clean it up,
even if we couldn’t use it.
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| Weed forest |
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| Death trap exit from our dining room |
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| Ugly |
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| Unsafe |
We asked our landlord, whom
we’ve become friendly with over the past year, if he would mind if we cleaned
it up. At the very least we would make
it safer and more attractive…and we would incur all costs. It took him over a month to give us the
go-ahead, but as summer passed us by, Jeff was anxious to get working on it,
and secretly started doing yard work when I wasn’t home to notice. It became
his garage, his man-cave, and his hobby.
He kept the curtains closed, so except for muddied boots drying in the
hallway, I was clueless to the amount of time he was spending out there and
progress he was making.
When our landlord came over
to give us his approval to do with it as we pleased, he was just as shocked as I was to see Jeff’s work.
Over the course of a month, Jeff had removed tree-sized weeds, snails, hundreds
of pounds of cement, metal debris, garbage, and filled holes. I was amazed and wanted in on his man-cave
and defiantly saw the potential of this becoming an awesome space for a growing family.
In a race against the end of
summer, my incredibly talented Dad built us the steps needed to prevent us from
falling to our death every time we opened the slider, we hired a landscaper to
install mulch, a few vines and high-quality, super soft turf (best thing ever!).
We also bought/borrowed some lawn furniture, added electricity, and accessed
the basement for water. The final touches include the playhouse we just ordered for Colette and a projector to watch movies outside.
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| My Dad building steps. Made it look way to easy. |
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| Stairs! |
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| Post sand, pre turf |
It’s a beautiful, petite,
private oasis in the city and I can’t believe it’s ours to use. Like magic,
every time I find something to complain about in regards to city living, Jeff
comes to my rescue, or perhaps, his own.
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| Voila! |
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| Mulch pathway |
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| Didn't take long for us to fill it up! |
