MY LITTLE PROBLEM

Not too many years ago, my entire neighborhood consisted of one story bungalows.

Lately, we've been CHOSEN by builders to be the neighborhood to transform.

I've stared at the new megalith(and a nice one at that) for 4 months now.

I've tried every psychological tactic to pretend that it will not affect my backyard gardening.

I have failed.

I don't like it.

I wan't to have my privacy back.

Of course, I could be exaggerating. Maybe the house ISN'T that big.

Here's my neighbor's house on the left and the new one on the right. Our little bungalows could almost fit inside their garage!

And here's the roofline seen from two houses away. So I could be having to deal with a wall of shade instead of a few windows and a back wall!

So...how does one hide a BIG HOUSE?

I've started a plan to build a green wall of plants to shade out the DEATH STAR.

My first line of defense will be a set of very fast growing Orinoco banana trees.

These will wipe out THE WALL OF STUCCO for the first summer while the little fan palms get established.

I've also got two or three Carolina Laurel cherry trees to add to the mix. These are native evergreens so that THE BEAST doesn't reappear each winter.

The native Elderberry bushes will also help thicken the defense lines.

They grow VERY fast and have nice foliage and berries for the birds.

Finally, I might actually FERTILIZE my eight to ten foot high cannas this year with manure and compost. Imagine the results! These are Canna musaefolia by the way and they are chompin' at the bits to help hide

THE McMANSION.

If none of this works, I'm prepared to unleash my secret weapon.

These are rubber trees and if I plant them in the GROUND instead of pots, who knows what might happen. I'm envisioning Jack-and-the-Beanstalk scenarios.

(Seriously, I'm not going to plant banyan type trees in my back yard)

Already part of my back fence is a GREEN WALL thick enough to make me feel a lot better about the future.

Green is good for my nerves AND my privacy.

I guess privacy is much more important than I realized. My garden is a chance to get away from it all

and I like that.

All for now,

David/:0)