How to make a (probably forbidden) bonsai shelf
Just don't tell my coop board, okay?
“Can I borrow a handsaw?” I asked my super. “I’m repairing a cabinet and need to cut a board.”
It wasn’t entirely a lie. In an apartment building with no access to outdoor space, creating some for yourself is a kind of repair, right? And what is a plant shelf if not a short cabinet for storing one row of trees?
If you’re just joining us, squirrels on my fire escape chewed up and killed half my bonsai garden. I’ve put in new countermeasures since then, but what I really needed was an outdoor space the squirrels couldn’t access. This is one of my bedroom windows, a good 15 feet from the fire escape outside my living room, with another window in between. The Evel Knievel of squirrels could make the jump, maybe. I’m hoping most won’t make the effort.
The design I settled on is simple—okay, it’s crude. But so far, it works. After conning my mom and stepdad into hanging out at Home Depot, with the added virtue of using their car to get there, putting the shelf together took just a couple hours. The base support is an air conditioner bracket. If I were doing this again, I’d use two, one on each side of the window, but the single bracket has been sturdy thus far. Then I cut a plain wood board to fit snugly into the brick recess of the window and drilled it into the bracket. Okay, my friend Ethan did that. He didn’t trust me with his electric drill, which was probably a good idea. I’m not what you’d call a “handy” “person.” However I did screw on some C-clamps for extra stability.
Then I hammered a strip of fine chicken wire into the board with hardware staples. The wire is mainly a safety fence, but also an animal deterrent. Any squirrel that tries to climb over it will get a nasty poke in their belly.
I’m not sure is this setup is “legal,” per se, and I imagine my building’s management wouldn’t be too happy if they knew about it. Fortunately, my neighbors are easygoing. I don’t say anything about their nightly chanting hour in the winter months, they haven’t said anything about my guerilla green space.
A few of my trees are too large for the shelf, so they’ll remain on the fire escape.
I’m optimistic. The shelf has been up for a few weeks now. I love waking up to the sight of my trees in the morning.
Even my recently defoliated eastern red cedar tree is showing new signs of life. Spring is coming.
Tree reading
Reader Mari Uyehara shared this feature on the slow death of New England’s forests due to, you guessed it, climate change. It’s a difficult but necessary read, to see what the death of an ecosystem looks like in real time. Also, go read everything Mari writes, starting with this short thread about the legacy of the American internment camps for Japanese citizens during WWII. [New York Times]
I am so happy to see Alexis Nikole, a vegan forager Tiktok genius, get the recognition she deserves. [Civil Eats]