do it yourself

We planted some plants in the communal garden on Sunday. Michal and I went to the local Castorama (ala Bunnings) and bought some pine needle crawlers and shrubs. The small block of flats we live in was built a year ago, the developer stuffed the new owners around and never finished off what he was meant to finish off (there is a pending law suit). Hence the parking area is somewhat of a nightmare, the garden area ain’t too crash hot either and the paving round the front stairs already needs uplifting. Everyone is pitching in and things are starting to take shape albeit very slowly. Our contribution (apart from the communal new door mat with feet and Wong’s basil) so far has been the plants.

The gardening ‘experience’ however, turned into a bitter war against what only appeared to be soil on top. As Michal sunk the spade into the dirt, we looked with dismay at the building rubble underneath, realising what the next door neighbour meant when he lent us the spade chuckling “don’t break the tool mate”. The developer in a budget attempt at ‘evening out’ the garden area, sunk broken bricks, tiles, bits of insulation, plastic, roof tiles and other shit associated with construction around the open area of the building and hid it with a thin layer of topsoil. We bought seven plants and ended up clearing eleven buckets worth of rubble before we could actually reach the earth and plant the poor buggers. Really made me want to slap someone. Ultimately the ordeal wasn’t all that surprising. Krakow, well Poland generally, is going through a massive housing boom. Real estate prices are skyrocketing and construction companies, swimming in the profits, are unable to build quickly enough to meet the demands. They really are the kings of the hill, with huge lobbying power, and can do whatever they goddamn like. It’s not much of a point of contention nor a topic of conversation round these parts anymore to learn that your construction company has screwed you over, failed to build a road in the building estate they promised to build, instead of a children’s playground they snuck in a 10 storey apartment eyesore mammoth without telling the people in the area, or just filed for bankruptcy leaving new would-be owners with huge mortgages they acquired to put down the deposit payments. And because the judicial system is good for nothing, the legal process takes years (on average 3) to come up with an outcome and pittance in terms of damages (compensation litigation is in its infancy in Poland). Fortunately the EU has implemented tight guidelines as to urban space (only 10 per cent of Krakow has urban planning) so everything built these days is more inhabitable. Poor suckers who bought before 2004 and this includes off the plan apartments that are still in construction stages today. What is the answer to this problem you ask? Build your own bloody house.

door mat

diy floral improvements

battle on wee shrubs...

sour cherry tree