A Mommy Story

My plans to turn this house into a home have already started. Step one was putting into motion a way for me to feel comfortable opening the curtains in my living room that look out into my backyard. Why? Because with the apartments behind us, it now feels like the backyard and the back of our house are exposed to everyone in that community watching us all the time.

Village Communities/Ardent Communities (if I haven’t made this clear, avoid renting or buying from this company at all costs) FINALLY put up the fence for their apartments, but they didn’t even connect it to the other part of their fence. So anyone could walk 100 feet beyond our house and come around to the other side of the fence and into our neighborhood’s backyards. At the moment that six foot fence also has a packed-down dirt mound three feet high on the other side – you could practically hop over it from their side. Way to do the minimum and still be jerks, VC.

Several people had suggested getting some trees to help block the view, so I didn’t sit on my sofa and stare at a panoramic view of bland, depressing apartments every day. Thankfully, Fall is a great time to buy trees from the local nurseries at a nice discount.

My mom (the one with the green thumb) went with me to pick out the right trees, and we brought home five little emerald green arbor vitae evergreens at half off. At the moment they’re about three feet tall. They grow to be about ten feet tall and about four feet wide, and have the advantage of being trees that require very little maintenance. Plant them in a good spot, water them, and let them grow – perfect for someone who can’t even keep a garden growing.

All of our electric and gas lines are buried just outside of our fence, so we had to plant them inside the fence. Taking visual perspective into consideration, this isn’t a bad thing since they’ll block the view even sooner than if they were planted further away.

Of course, Mira took one look at them and exclaimed that they were “the most perfect little Christmas trees!” she had ever seen. They’re still getting used to their new home, but I have a feeling that next year these new trees will be decorated by a certain little girl who can’t stand to see a blank canvas.

Naturally, it’ll take years for them to reach their maximum height. That part isn’t so fun. Maybe I can find some plant steroids to get them growing faster?  I also need to plant a few more to give us full coverage – I didn’t realize just how long my backyard is.

Ah well, if they don’t block the view for me, at least they’ll block the view for the next people to own this house. And just knowing they’re out there makes me feel happy.

Screening trees? Check. (Well, in a few years. They’re just cute evergreens at the moment.) My curtain rod arrived for the living room this week, so that may be my next project. No more spring rod curtains!