The Outside Rooms

“My mom doesn’t have a green thumb. She kills everything,” Emma likes to say, often with more cheer than I feel is kind. But she’s right.

My first apartment was in a four-story building on a busy corner of Queens. Since the owner, who lived elsewhere, did all the building maintenance, I got to rent the super’s apartment. It had its own entrance on the side of the building, and had a small strip of concrete which made a nice little yard. During my first spring in the apartment, my mom showed up with flower boxes for two of the windows. I wasn’t really interested in gardening, but the boxes added a nice touch. I surprised myself by having fun with my little garden, and decided to get some more flowerpots. During the seven years I lived there, I looked forward to planting each spring and  loved having a little bit of green on a busy city street.

My only gardening success story, circa 2000

My only gardening success story, circa 2000

Unfortunately, I moved into my house with an inflated sense of my ability to garden. I also realized I prefer the small, contained space I used to have. While we don’t have a big lot, there’s still a lot of flower bed space. Bob and I have talked, only half-jokingly, about paving over the entire yard.

Corner section

The corner section

I’ve learned that flower beds are a lot more work than flower boxes. And my fear threshold for bugs is low. It takes very little to freak me out, and when I see something that freaks me out, which usually happens about five minutes in, I’m done. I know this makes me a loser because some of you are reading this from locations where the bugs are bigger than toddlers.

Every year I promise myself to do something with the yard. I want this to be the year.

chairs

The front yard.

I’m thinking about approaching the yard like I’m approaching the house, to think about routines, and getting rid of what I don’t want or need, and thinking about ways to maximize the spaces. Our front yard is nearly twice as large as the back yard, and we have big trees near the street that give us some privacy, so we spend more time there than in the back. The flower beds are ok, but not as nice as I’d like, and need weeding. I should have started when it was cooler, so I could wear jeans and a long top which would protect me from creepy bugs.

Because we spend more time in the front, we’ve neglected the back yard, but I’m trying to give it some attention now. On Monday I hinted at “sort of” bringing in four items. Here they are. They never came into the house and never will so I am not sure if they count. We use the chairs in the front so much that we didn’t want to constantly drag them to the back, so we got these.

New seating area

Our new backyard seating area

You can see a good part of the yard’s on an incline, which also poses a challenge. I’d like to plant some azaleas or something with thirsty roots because we get a lot of runoff when it rains, which makes the flat part of the yard swampy.

So I’m adding another part to my project, unofficially, because it’s seasonal. By the time I hand this blog off, my efforts will probably be hidden under two feet of snow and ice, so I’m going to do just enough to make me feel happy for the summer.

I will update my stuff in/stuff out numbers on Friday. And here’s a deep, meaningful question: Shoes- how many is too many? Tell me in the comments. Today I spent way too much time thinking about shoes.


11 Responses to The Outside Rooms

  1. I LOVE comfortable shoes and if they are well made, look good, and are reasonably priced, I have a hard time saying no. I also like having a spare pair of tennis shoes… just in case. Having said that, my goal is to have two winter pairs for work (brown and black) — 2, non-sandal dress flats and dress heels (black) — 2 (I currently have 4, oops), slip ons to wear to yoga/exercise class — 1, boots — 1, dress sandals — 1 (don’t have any currently), casual sandals — 1 (have two currently), flip flops — 1, and the aforementioned tennis shoes — 3, one for leaving at the gym, one for home, and a spare. Wow, that’s 11 pairs of shoes and I think of myself as rather minimalist. I’m also not counting rain/snow boots or nasty old gardening shoes. So really that’s 13.

  2. I too have 13 pairs like Elaine, including slippers and winter boots. Most of my shoes are black, they go with everything and honestly I don’t wear most of them. I have 3 tennis shoes, one pair for running, one pair for gardening and one casual knock around tennies. All of my shoes are different and serve a different purpose, I don’t have repeats. 13 is more than I really need or use but it also isn’t too many and I feel I have options.

  3. I have two pairs of sandals (white and brown), 3 pairs of short boots (brown, black and a second pair of black that I like better, but I’m not sure if I’ll wear, but when I decide I’m getting rid of one. Really), a pair of tall black boots, for skirts in winter, three pairs of Toms (grubby for home, brown and sparkly blue), a pair of mushroom(?) heels for summer, black heels, a pair of sneakers I hate for occasional exercise needs, a pair of navy heels I only wear with one outfit, a pair of dark brown heels for winter, and clogs near the front door so I can go barefoot in the house. That’s 15 pairs! Oh, I just read over Elaine’s comments, and I forgot my rainboots. So that’s 16. I think of myself as a minimalist as well, and maybe I need to prune those down some…

    Could you put fruit trees in the back yard? Here in sunny southern California, I’m always looking for more trees to provide shade to get us through the gruesome summer heat. Fruit trees give back double, and it’s fun to eat “our fruit.”

  4. I have
    1. Combat boots
    2. Hiking boots
    3. Rain boots
    4. Slippers
    5. Flip flops
    6. Keens
    7. Church shoes
    8. Sneakers
    9. My wedding shoes

  5. Shoes are one item I can’t be minimalist about. I think I currently have about 50 pairs [including a pair of heavy-duty winter boots, neoprene booties I use for canoeing trips, a pair of soccer cleats, and 2 pairs of runners – or sneakers, to you American folks 🙂 ]. I’m lucky in that our house has great storage and I can store all my shoes in one space in our bedroom. I do wear every pair of shoes that I own. If I find a pair is uncomfortable or not being worn regularly, I give them to a friend or donate them.

  6. I have six pairs, but I only wear two when the weather is warm: Sandals and a pair of black closed toed but open backed… things (not sandals, but not loafers or clogs). My other shoes: Ankle boots, knee boots, Converse All-Stars and a pair of loafers. I’m seriously thinking of getting rid of the loafers. I had five pairs for over a year, before I added the sandals last month, and that was plenty.

    But I don’t think anyone can give you an answer on how many shoes you should have. It’s all about how many shoes YOU think you should have… 🙂

  7. I think the answer is how many pairs of shoes do you actually wear? If you haven’t worn them in the last year, I’d vote to donate them. The only exception to this, for me, is keeping one pair of dress shoes in a neutral color on hand.

    But like so many questions, the answer to this question is personal. What do you feel comfortable with? What do you use? What do you think about when you think about shoes (you said you spend a lot of time thinking about them)? What does your gut tell you?

  8. I think I counted 21 pairs last night (including slippers(2), flip flops(1), boots(1), sandals(1), tennis shoes(3), hiking shoes(2), slip-ons(5), and work/office shoes(6)). I have a hard time getting rid of worn in shoes. I wear them until they have holes in them but then I hate to just throw them away. If they are in good condition I don’t have a problem donating them. I just hate to physically throw them away. This is probably true for more then shoes. Most things I can repurpose (without my place looking trashy) but shoes are easily repurpose-able.

  9. Shoes is different for each person/occupation. If you are a business person, you will need more shoes than a person who is a trainer at a gym. That said, I leave my shoes at work, and wear boots/sneakers/flipflops back and forth. I have two pair of running shoes, two pair of flip flops, one pair of black strappy sandals, one pair of gray dress shoes, one pair of black dress shoes, one pair of black dress boots and one pair of brown dress boots. I also have one pair of winter boots.

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