Really? Who needs more boxes...

Turns out, I'm always finding projects that have nothing at all to do with what I should be focusing on. I'm sure there's a fancy medical term for keeping busy doing all the minor stuff and none of the important stuff, but I'll leave that to you to figure out. 

You may recall at the beginning of the whole chicken-adopting-me series that I referred to an area of my front yard as "The Thicket." Triangle of doom would be more accurate. Cactus, aloe and agave abound. They are all pointy and nasty. That's actually not bad as it prevents people from tromping through my yard as a shortcut to the sidewalk. However, to soften the look, I planted rows of jade to line said sidewalk. For several years that was a great move. The jade grew tall and lush. Then this year came along. Much of the jade just flopped over, creating a hazard for anyone trying to push a stroller or walk a dog. One area was particularly problematic for us trying to get the waste bin out. While hacking away I noticed that a particular cactus I absolutely hate was growing out of control and closer to people than was polite. So it had to go. With jade, there are no tears at their demise as they never really go away. If you throw them willy nilly into the thicket, they magically take root and grow. If you wish to be more precise, just wait one day for them to heal over and then plunk them into the ground or a pot of your choice. This was the aftermath.

So not pretty. As I'm digging out roots and attracting more cactus spines than the law of physics should allow, my mind was going round and round to figure what to do next. And then the notion dawned: build a huge planter box. Sure, that's the most important thing that needs to be done around the house. Forget the entire notebook of important tasks that have been put off for close to a year (or much, much longer). Go ahead and do something that could wait for a very loooooong time and no one would notice. Well....

It's 5' L x 22" D x 22" H. and made completely with reclaimed materials that have been languishing in the backyard forever. At the moment, it's not pretty at all. Since this photo, the area has been cleaned up a bit more, the box is now level, and it sparked another non-priority task which will use up a bit more of the mess in the back and make me feel very smug all at the same time. But back to the box. Two choices: paint or mosaic. I'm heading toward mosaic, but it depends on how lazy I want to be. And as for what gets planted in it -- I'm a little over jade and would prefer something...else. What though is a toss-up. Stay tuned.