This past weekend was one of those amazing weekends in which you are productive from beginning to end. Almost to the end I guess. Ending at the Dram Shop after the 5th avenue street fair probably wasn’t super productive for a Sunday afternoon, but we did get to catch up with some friends and watch the Cavs and Celtics game seven. Sorry, Cavs! You were so close! 
But let’s back track to last week to find the culprit of this busy weekend. On our way to Prospect Park for off-leash hours last week, I noticed someone was selling trees at Grand Army Plaza. I’ve been wanting to put a tree in our yard so I took note and headed back after Sasha was done playing. I started to look around at the trees and wondered how we might get it home without going to get the car when someone said to me “Can you believe these trees are free?” WHAT? NO! How are these 8 feet tall Cherry and Gingko trees free?
But they were! Turns out the New York City is planting one million trees this year and part of the project is giving away trees to the residents to plant. The only deal is that you have to plant it and register it. Speaking of… So we secured ourselves a Yoshino Cherry Tree and carried that mother home. Luckily the bucket had some convenient handles.
So this week we finally planted our new tree, Jorge, and worked out a bunch of our issues with our backyard. We really like the yard, but it had some oddly placed, overgrown plants about a quarter down the way that kept anyone from wanting to use that space. Living in the city, you sort of need all the space you can get. So with the new tree needing a home and us wanting more space and less misplaced greenery, we got to work.
Initially I had plans to build a deck in the back of our yard. That’s right a deck. I even found DIY plans. But when I emailed by dad to ask “do we really need these cement piers?” and he emailed back in all caps “kb & alex, Remember this is NOT A WEEKEND PROJECT” i aborted the mission. I’m a weekend project kind of girl, not a weekend warrior.
So we regrouped and started by tearing out some of the slate we had in the back and setting it aside so we could make room for Jorge. Then we cleared out some of the plants and either transplanted them, re purposed them in the the front garden or in one case…. had to say goodbye. I’m sorry Mom! We did so much work Saturday, we had to part with something.
Once we finished with the plants we got back to laying down the slate again, which is both heavy and hard to work with when you have lots of scrap pieces. We both walked away from this weekend with black and blue fingers. Alex wasn’t totally on board for this project until I compared it to Tetris and then he was in full force. So now we have a little slate, albeit uneven, patio in the back that’s waiting for two adirondak chairs before I can show you the after photos. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find adirondak chairs in Brooklyn? Very.
After an unproductive trip to Loew’s we rewarded ourselves with beers and bratwurst at Gowanus Yacht Club. It seemed like a good way to end a sunny Saturday afternoon. Though I don’t know that we fit in with the hipster hoochies (has anyone else noticed this trend?) in our dirty gardening gear. Oh well! Stay tuned for before and after photos!
