Inside Our Dutch House: The Garden

In my post about our bedroom, I told you I was covering the last room in our house. What I didn't tell you is I still have a couple posts left to wrap up the Inside Our Dutch House series. This one is about our garden (otherwise known as the small patch of concrete tiles which play host to a fast growing vine).

When I first moved into our house in Utrecht, I found the small garden area charming. "In the summer," I thought, "I'll spend the days reading or writing at the cute patio dinner. We can have dinner outside or enjoy a glass of wine in the sun on a Saturday afternoon."

I soon put aside those thoughts, however, as the late fall and winter weather was not conducive to spending time relaxing outdoors. In the back of my mind I still thought of my plans for the summer, but as I shivered next to the radiator, I could hardly imagine a day it would get warm enough to spend time outside.

Winter Garden

During the winter, the snow started to pile up and soon the twine holding up the vine (pictured above on the left) broke. The vine started sagging and suddenly the garden's space seemed less inviting. "Maybe when it gets warmer, we can retie the vine," I thought. "Or maybe we can email or landlady to bring a ladder so we can fix the vine."

Eventually, the weather did improve. Spring brought numerous sunny days, and I actually started spending more time outside. Only, I spent most of this time at the park instead of in the garden. Going to the park satisfied my need to get out of the house in a way that our small garden space did not. Plus, the spring weather brought with it a new energizing force for every living thing.

Our vine went from the manageable plant you see in the winter photo to this...

April 12 - Garden

 ...by mid April. And less than a month later we had the following scene (note that the table had to be moved as it was being overtaken by the vine).

May 8 - Garden

Who knew pretty little flowers like the following one could spark such a change?

Spring Flower

At one point we did contact our landlady to see if the vine could be reattached, but we didn't get a response back for quite a while, and soon the vine was out of control.

May 20 - Garden

Notice how the vine has stretched all the way across the garden and onto the ground in the picture above. It even started to wrap around the handles on the door. I felt like I was living in a horror movie with the plant as the antagonist.

I finally got fed up with the situation and decided what the vine needed was a good haircut. I would turn this hippy garden into a respectable spot to enjoy a cup of tea. I bought a pair of loppers and started chopping. I think I threw away at least 3 garbage bags full of leaves.

May 24 - Garden

Maybe it didn't turn out that respectable (apparently I couldn't even take the time to set up the table and chairs properly), but I think the "haircut" did help improve the space. Once again, I felt like I might use the space.

Only, it turns out that spring was the warmest season this year. Since then, we've had the rare sunny and warm day, but in general the weather has been much chillier and rainier this summer. So even with the time and effort that went in to making the space livable, we've never eaten dinner or even enjoyed a drink in the garden. With only 2 days left at the house, I think it's safe to say that this was and is the least used space of our house (although it does provide a semi-nice view from both the living room (where all the above photos were taken) and from the kitchen (view pictured below).

May 24 - View of Garden from the Kitchen