made: Bamboo Planter

Our old pooch Libby had a penchant for landscape design, always chewing up things that were in her way, digging out plants or laying on top of them. Our new dog Bodi has more of a knack for interior design. And so a couple of months back - before we could figure out some of his little quirks - he decided that the curtain in the dining room was not to to his liking. So, he ripped it apart. That left us with an uncovered window, and re-inspired John to move forward with a bamboo garden he has wanted to install for a long time at the back driveway.

First step was to rent a cement cutter from Home Despot and cut out a hole for the new plants.

Then came the harder part: sledgehammering out the cement and getting all the cobbles out of the hole.

This weekend it all came together finally with the bamboo and the New Mexico river cobble. We opted for two plants of "Golden Goddess" clumping bamboo. With some luck (and water), it will grow to about 8 feet tall. But it's already doing the intended trick: screening the back window from the back neighbors and screening our ugly cement driveway from us.

John also had this creative idea for patterning the back window itself, rather than installing another curtain. He installed easy-stick window frosting on a few of the windows, leaving an open pattern for little views of the bamboo forest.

Bodi can see out the window panes at the bottom (which is what he was asking for in the first place) and we can see greenery and have a touch of privacy all at the same time.

We call this the new bamboo planter the "Healing Garden," and it's dedicated to John's mom Marie who is healing from a nasty broken leg (like a champ, I might add). The Healing Garden is a great new welcome point to the back garden and will tie in beautifully with the bamboo muhly growing beyond the gate once it greens up this spring.