Tuesday, May 30, 2006

How many Plants Does it Take to Cover a Plastic House?

After spending the weekend in the meadows with my hippie friends, I knew that coming home to white vinyl siding would be particularily painful.

Sometimes pain (and the blinding light of sun reflecting off bright white vinyl) is a great motivater. Accomplishment number one involved the two of us climbing ladders and covering the west wall of the house in chicken wire in order to guide the virginia creeper up and create a little texture and colour to break up the monotony. (Yes, the hippies have actual chickens, but one must start somewhere.)

That felt so darn good, that today I thought, "Hey! that drilling holes into the house looked pretty darn easy! I bet I could do that all my big self!" So, I put up some old picket where (wait for it....) white vinyl lattice had once enclosed the deck. I nearly sang the Halleluia chorus (all seven parts ). I then resolutely marched to the back of the house and mounted the willow window box and stuffed it full of purple and green vines. I then planted some scarlet runner, and attached some branches to the siding for it to climb up on. This adds purple, green, and branch colour to the south side. (I'm sure that's one of Martha Steward's colour names...)

I have a picture of it, but really it still looks pretty darn ugly and plasticy and I prefer to present my home as being amazingly transformed-- I mean, I USED A POWER TOOL ALL BY MYSELF!

Anyway, the cat seemed overwhelmingly impressed.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Joycie I was at my friend Lorraines yesterday and I saw she had both vinyle siding and lots of green vines. She used this large large wire that resembled concrete mess only squares aprox 6"x6" It didn't look bad on the house by itself giving the house a bit of rustic texture while waiting for the vine to reach it and it was strong enough to hold the plant. Apparently after a year or two the plant takes over and bears a bit of weight. Oh and I think she qualifies as hippie or at least ex hippie lots of chickens on her yard and a stray bisson or two.

Cherrypie said...

Bow down to the lady with the drill! I've got some hanging basket brackets and trellising to put up but I just don't trust myself with power tools. I've been asking my Dad to come and do it for weeks but he always finds something more important to do. I'll look forward to seeing the results in a few months when your plants are more established x

Anonymous said...

way to go. Merle would so be out in seconds if I took out a power tool. The vines are looking great.

CeCe said...

Oh my goodness, that is one cute cat!

Anonymous said...

Good blog! Thanks for putting Flo(-y) MY CAT... on your blog she looks real cute there, anyway nice blog and I love you lots... (like you already know that) well see ya bye
XOXO arianna...