CONTENT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL READERS

Be forewarned.  This is going to be ugly, well some of it is.

Remember the gazebo?  July 18, 2007:

VPH and I distinctly recall reading in the assembly directions a particularly stern warning to remove the roof for the winter in areas prone to snow, but where the heck were we going to store it?  Plus we're on the CT shoreline, we really don't get a lot of snow. 

Are you prepared?  Really, this is going to be ugly.  The snow didn't do this:

It was the ice.  In early December we had an ice storm dump 3-4 inches of ice on everything that stuck around for weeks.  The poor gazebo just couldn't handle it.  I suspect that even without the roof on the frame would have crumpled under the weight of the ice.  As an aside, with the exception of that ice storm, we didn't get a storm that required salt or shoveling again until February.  And even that only stuck around for a few days.  All in all this isn't much of a loss.  Turns out we only zipped it closed twice and it wasn't all that effective when we did.  It did make the gravel patio into a distinct outdoor room though. 

I have no idea how we're going to get the thing apart.  It was a bitch to assemble in the first place -- thank goodness younger step-son is over 6 feet tall.  I know what you're asking me through the computer screen, "But can't you fix it?"  Nope, it's a goner.  The flimsy metal supports are completely bent (some in half).  My plan is to recycle as much of it as I can.  I want to use the screens to line the bottom of large planters to keep the potting soil from escaping and the corner trellises as -- you guessed it -- trellises.  I can probably fashion the waterproof roof into a cover for the firewood and/or firepit table and use the rest to patch the holes in the pop-up sheds (from the inside of course, aesthetics are important).  And I can use the unbent poles, if there are any, as plant stakes. 

We will probably still need a structure on the gravel patio to create an "outdoor room," so I'm thinking pergola.  I don't like the white prefabricated ones that are for sale at my local wholesale club and I don't want to spend $2,500+ for someone to put up a real wood one for me.  DIY would be lovely, but the only thing VPH can fix is lunch and while I'm handy, I'm too scared to use a circular saw or watch VPH try.  Also, remember we're in a rental, we've already splurged by putting in 2 patios.  I found a prefab pergola on Ebay that isn't butt ugly (I think it was formerly available at Sam's Club):

So I bid on one in NJ that I can pick up for less than the approximately $200 shipping they would charge.  We'll see. 

So you may have noticed that I got super lazy in the fall and didn't do a proper garden clean-up (I know you saw the dead tomato plants still in place in the photo of the dead gazebo above).  As long as I'm airing my dirty laundry I might as well go all out.  I knew there was a chance that the contents of the ceramic planters would freeze and they would crack.  I should have emptied them all or at least flipped them upside down for the winter, but I didn't.  Most survived the winter just fine, but the cheap teacup planters from Christmas Tree Shops bit it during the ice storm that took out the gazebo:

But the spearmint on the potting table is fine and is even showing signs of life:

The last casualty of the ice storm that I noticed today was the clock.  The thermometer arrived broken (it's hard to read below, but it registered 70 degrees and it was barely 50 as I took these photos.  It is now permanently 9:30 and 20 degrees hotter than it really is.  I still like the way they look even if they don't work:

So if I'm actually going to split this massive amount of work into manageable pieces my first task should be to complete the fall clean-up and clear the dead plants and used (possibly diseased in some cases) potting soil out of the containers (not to mention all the dead plants out of the hanging baskets and the Christmas Wreath off my front door):

Next up some of the things that are actually growing in my garden.  But feel free to confess in the comments about what you lost over the winter by not preparing properly for cold weather.

Comments

[Melanthia]

Suck! Suck! Suck! But at least some of it is salvageable for other use.

[Nancy Bond]

Ouch. Sorry mostly about the gazebo, but your plans for salvage sound great! Good luck with the rest of your cleanup.

[gina]

bastard garden gazebo!!! this is awesome!

heather i looked at that same pergola on ebay and a few other sites! it looks really nice in the pictures so I can't wait to see how you like it. can you please hurry up and buy it and install it so i can see if "we" like it??

[Heather's Garden]

Melanthia -- Thanks for coming to visit. Welcome to the fun world of gardening blogging. I can't wait to see more of your garden.

Nancy -- Thanks, I'm going to need some luck with the rest of it.

Gina -- Damn, I was just outbid on the pergola. There's still 3 days left in this auction, so I'm just going to wait until the last moment and outbid the other guy again. I'm not surprised that you like the same one though!

[eliz]

Ha and double ha! I shouldn't laugh. Of course, if your VPH was as paranoid as mine this would not have happened. If it's that flimsy you're better off, in any case.

The pergola looks great.

[Mummer]

I'm heading back first to my NC garden the last week of May, and I will take pix of my local disasters then. I expect (and hope) that my perennial herbs, and fruits have done well. That, of course, is the idea of an Asian rocked-in garden.
CT yard work will entail extensive weed-killing. I'm so looking forward to that - I love neatening-up. Any idea how/where I can get low-cost flatish rock for a dry-stacked wall?

[Heather's Garden]

Elizabeth -- You're absolutely right, what if a branch had fallend off one of the large trees above the gazebo while we were sitting out there, we'd have been killed. But what do you expect for $180? And I've been way outbid for the pergola on Ebay so I've got to come up with another plan.

Mom -- You remember that you can't buy anything cheap up here, right? CT Stone is good, but expensive. There's a place in North Branford that opened last year, but I can't remember the name, nor have I been there yet.