How Much is Too Much
Now that I have done my “Year in Provence” year on this hilltop, I am faced with the ongoing issue of where to stop and enjoy versus keep improving. It is a very personal decision. Have you seen those quirky houses that someone invariable does a segment on. The sea shell house that has sea shells imbedded in concrete, stone walls and stucco walls is one I recall. The Who built it and is still building it gets interviewed and comes off like a kook because enough is never enough for him when it comes to adorning his home with sea shells. You come away from seeing those segments thinking that it takes all kinds and what could have been a cute affectation has turned into an obsession that causes his home to go from cute and quaint to weird and disturbed. You imagine that guy sitting amongst his sea shells like Gollum in the Hobbit, saying things to his shells like “my precious…..”
The good news is that on this hilltop we do not adhere to a specific theme like sea shells, so we are less prone to that sort of criticism and fall into a diagnosis of compulsion. But as the projects wind down (the deck is now fully functional and is just having a few details touched up). I will admit to upgrading my garden fountain with my soon-to-be-installed basalt column pondless fountain in replacement of the black resin three-tiered fountain that I bought under duress (when the original purchase got smashed on delivery). I will defend that decision on the notion that I am specifically not happy with the existing fountain, which I find I cannot operate with regularity and it thereby misses a key preference for it to always be operating when we choose to go out to the garden. The new fountain will be designed to operate all day from dawn to dusk on a scheduled timer and will replenish its own water reservoir from a ball valve apparatus that will feed off the irrigation system. It is not so water conscious, but I am not yet terribly water-conscious. I figure that I became electricity conscious when by SDG&E bills got too high and I fixed that with renewable and storable alternatives. I am currently propane sensitive (cost-driven) and have rescheduled my hot tub usage accordingly and am seeking an online tracking app. But water cost has not hit my radar yet so I don’t worry about it. My sister-in-law Lisa tells me that we may see water rationing this summer. We’ll see if that changes my thoughts or behavior.
I also don’t think of general garden maintenance to be likely to get labeled as obsessive since plant and garden maintenance is something everyone tries to keep up with. On our hilltop the diversity of vegetation makes it less likely that anyone would suggest that I’m that guy who gets on his hands and knees with scissors and trims his lawn to a fine point. I fo like to see browning or dead plant matter removed through regular pruning, and I let Joventino do some of that, but I also have a collection of garden clippers and saws to keep thing pruned. I feel it is one of the things I am capable of doing and I read and You-Tube myself into some decent degree of awareness of what to do and not do to consider myself competent in that regard. The property is large enough to keep me busy and not so large as to require a huge commitment to maintenance.
But then there are the other adornment activities. Last year it was about turning a side garbage bin area into a lovely Cecil Garden, cleaning up the back and far side of the garage to make it more functional and more pleasant with walkways, walls and planted berm (complete with Owl House), putting in a games area on the northeast corner of the property (complete with wooden bridge over the dry rocky stream bed), replanting and edging the patio and fixing up the steps and rock garden down from the spa into the garden. That was a lot, but with the possible exception of the games area, could not be called excessive, and even the games area gets far more kudos than sideways glances. This year so far has been about the Bison Boulder, all of the front and back landscape lighting and the boulder drawings of the agave and moon, all of which get high marks from everyone. But the year is young and I am itchy to keep improving things. That is what brings me to the issue of how much is too much.
I have had three wildflower meadows cleared, tilled and planted and have been watering them diligently and those, by their nature as “wild” should evolve into low maintenance aesthetic improvements (I hope). I have also placed two faded (and therefore low-key in appearance) benches on the back hillside and that has caused me to notice that there are several natural rock gardens that could use some plantings. therefore I bought some hopefully hearty flowering plants (more natural than frilly) that I will have Joventino plant in the nooks and crannies this Friday. Today as I wandered the back hillside with my watering hose I began to notice that there are regularly spaced flowering bushes which my plant identifying app tells me are orange bush monkey-flower (yes, that is their real name). They may have spawned naturally, but I suspect they were planted. They look very natural, which is presumably why I never noticed them in their proliferation. I am now thinking of getting more of those and planting them in a few more places on the back hillside. This is where I particularly wonder about overdoing it.
In addition to that, I have many other boulders on that back hillside, the front cactus gardens and around the garage. I have been looking at my large boulder with the agave and moon mural and have decided it really needs a third element (isn’t that the Feng Shui thing to do?). I have landed on something that is as common as the agave and moon on that hillside and that is a soaring hawk. I have gone online now and found and ordered two large (one 48”x48” and the other 12”x22”) stencils of hawks. I will put the one soaring hawk as the third element on the big boulder and then I will reconsider. I have already seen from that rose garden below the agave mural a smaller boulder downhill from it that has a flat surface perfectly sized for the other landing hawk stencil. Will that be overdoing it? Will more be more or more be less?
The one thing I can almost be sure of while I sit here at the counter writing this and note my giggling legs (some nervous affectation I have always had) and that is that I will find other spots on that back hillside that I will sit at and look at as needing more adornment either with flowers or boulder transformations and murals. I wonder if there is a twelve-step program for this?