Gardening for the short run, knowing we can’t invest anything in our apartment garden, as we’ll be shipping out soonish, can be frustrating, but keeps us honest.  So it’s annuals, veggies, and some perennial wildflowers and herbs for now, not all the cool long-term trees, natives, and perennials we’d like, but it’s still therapeutic.  It keeps me sane.  In an area where half the barrack-like houses are vacant or boarded up, and the rest are mostly devoid of any landscaping to speak of, as if everyone has just given up on life and creativity, I try to beautify wherever I am, and hold out hope for better surroundings.  If the future owners trash it all, so be it.  At least we took some pride in our humble circumstances.  Hopefully I’ll even have some surplus to share.