Spring Cleaning of the Balcony
I let the balcony get pretty overgrown last summer. I had 7 long planters, 3 of which I put on hangers over the edge of the railing. The other 4 long planters were along the ground. Additionally, I wasn't real smart about where I planted things. Oh yes, I was thoughtful... I thought things planted below would climb up the rails... or that the cucumbers and zucchinis would want to rest their fruits on the ground. I thought wrong. The cucumbers and zucchinis wanted to climb down to visit the lady down stairs who hates water. If the peas had not died, I bet they would have done the same. If the tomato had gotten big enough, I bet it would also have done the same. And of course there was the disaster of the corn.
Anyway, at the end of last summer, the balcony was overgrown with mostly with cucumber vines and corn stalks. There was dirt here and there... leaves... chunks of clay tile from a project Josh did... sticks I tried to get the peas to climb... and so forth. It was a mess. I didn't want to even go out there. At all. Ever.
Today, I cleaned it up.
I moved the existing hangers on the railing and added two new ones. I moved 6 of the long planters up onto the rail. I gathered all the organic materials to compost. I threw away the trash. I swept and then vacuumed then scrubbed the cement floor. I washed the rail. And at the end of the day, Josh and I ate dinner out there. I hope to keep it nice and clean this summer, mostly by having the plants on the railing. I will still have 2 long planters and a circular planter down below (and a strawberry pot if I buy one... they aren't too expensive at the nursery), but that's a far cry less than I had last year, particularly since none of the planters will have corn in them this year, and one of the planters I will put below is smaller than the ones I had down their last year. I hope that we will be able to eat dinner outside throughout the summer, and maybe get a small gas grill so we can do some cooking outside and avoid heating up the apartment so much (mmm... summer kitchen).
Also today, I went to Home Depot (one of the new hangers I bought was defective and needed to be exchanged), and Josh and I walked to the nursery across Rand Road for some window shopping. Josh was pretty silly about it. When I asked him to come to the nursery with me, he asked me if I wanted to buy a baby. I told him that I just wanted to window shop for one.
The rest of our apartment is still quite a wreck, but maybe we'll get it cleaned up sometime soon too.
Edit: Oh, and I should say why I cleaned the balcony... because the reasons implied above are actually inaccurite... those are the reasons for which I've been telling myself for the last 6 months to clean the balcony... and they didn't convince me to do it. I cleaned the balcony because I thought I was going to work on the bookcase (remember at Christmas time we were building a bookcase) out there to avoid getting saw dust in the apartment. I've been waiting for it to be warm enough outside on a day I had off to finish up all the drilling and whatnot. Yesterday was the day. But the balcony was a mess, so I had to clean it up first. By the time I got done cleaning it up, the day was almost over and I was tired. Yeah, it will get sawdusty out there when I do the drilling on the bookcase, but that should clean up pretty easy since I'll be starting with a clean area where I can just run the vacuum about without running into things. I might even try to work on it one evening this week. It's Monday now and I got to work early, so I'll be home by 5-ish... so I'll get a decently long evening... sunset isn't until 7:34 tonight and it's supposed to be 50-ish out this evening.
Anyway, at the end of last summer, the balcony was overgrown with mostly with cucumber vines and corn stalks. There was dirt here and there... leaves... chunks of clay tile from a project Josh did... sticks I tried to get the peas to climb... and so forth. It was a mess. I didn't want to even go out there. At all. Ever.
Today, I cleaned it up.
I moved the existing hangers on the railing and added two new ones. I moved 6 of the long planters up onto the rail. I gathered all the organic materials to compost. I threw away the trash. I swept and then vacuumed then scrubbed the cement floor. I washed the rail. And at the end of the day, Josh and I ate dinner out there. I hope to keep it nice and clean this summer, mostly by having the plants on the railing. I will still have 2 long planters and a circular planter down below (and a strawberry pot if I buy one... they aren't too expensive at the nursery), but that's a far cry less than I had last year, particularly since none of the planters will have corn in them this year, and one of the planters I will put below is smaller than the ones I had down their last year. I hope that we will be able to eat dinner outside throughout the summer, and maybe get a small gas grill so we can do some cooking outside and avoid heating up the apartment so much (mmm... summer kitchen).
Also today, I went to Home Depot (one of the new hangers I bought was defective and needed to be exchanged), and Josh and I walked to the nursery across Rand Road for some window shopping. Josh was pretty silly about it. When I asked him to come to the nursery with me, he asked me if I wanted to buy a baby. I told him that I just wanted to window shop for one.
The rest of our apartment is still quite a wreck, but maybe we'll get it cleaned up sometime soon too.
Edit: Oh, and I should say why I cleaned the balcony... because the reasons implied above are actually inaccurite... those are the reasons for which I've been telling myself for the last 6 months to clean the balcony... and they didn't convince me to do it. I cleaned the balcony because I thought I was going to work on the bookcase (remember at Christmas time we were building a bookcase) out there to avoid getting saw dust in the apartment. I've been waiting for it to be warm enough outside on a day I had off to finish up all the drilling and whatnot. Yesterday was the day. But the balcony was a mess, so I had to clean it up first. By the time I got done cleaning it up, the day was almost over and I was tired. Yeah, it will get sawdusty out there when I do the drilling on the bookcase, but that should clean up pretty easy since I'll be starting with a clean area where I can just run the vacuum about without running into things. I might even try to work on it one evening this week. It's Monday now and I got to work early, so I'll be home by 5-ish... so I'll get a decently long evening... sunset isn't until 7:34 tonight and it's supposed to be 50-ish out this evening.