For the unitiated, "BVM" = Blessed Virgin Mary and "bathtub" is a little structure turned on its end that she stands in. She's not actually taking a bath. You see them a LOT in Boston-area front yards.

We always called them grottoes.

Ohhh this perfectly describes the North End!!! BVM's in Bathtubs, how wonderful! It's the same way over here in Eastie and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Keep up the good work! What a blessing indeed to have a garden in such a dense neighborhood, and considering the delicious food shopping opportunities in the North End, I'd say you've got it all. Just keep up what you're already doing. I set a monthly budget for home décor, and what a thrill it is to buy something for my home (or in your case, garden) every single month.

What a lovely tribute to your neighbor - my sympathies on your loss.

We lost a very special neighbor late last year; this year our manager dug up and divided the irises Miss Esther had planted years ago - leaving some in the original beds in front of her old apartment for the new tenents to enjoy - the rest were distributed among those of us who knew her and who love to garden.

It will be a beautiful legacy to a wonderful person when all those flowers start blooming.

Do your cats ever try to jump the fence?

Yeah, I really lucked out. I moved to the North End right after graduating college, and just fell in love with my building and the neighborhood. I've been in the apartment for 13 years so far, so I have over 1000 sq ft of indoor space and cheap rent. I do everything in my power to keep the landlord healthy. Of course, the apartment has a lot of problems -- two rooms were never wired for electricity, for example (and the rooms that were wired for electricity have copper wiring with cloth and some sort of hair wound around them, which looks fairly hazardous to me), and the bathroom is so small that you have to sit diagonally on the toilet.

My biggest problem on the deck is pigeon poop. If anyone could suggest a way to keep them off the roof ledge, I'd be much obliged. We had to buy all folding furniture for outdoor use and store it inside at night because of the pigeon poop problem.

Dana_G, you can kind of see it in the photos, but there's a 7-foot-tall chain-link fence all around the deck. I don't know why -- the deck faces onto the courtyard, so only Tony and Maria (my elderly neighbors) could have accessed it, and they never showed any particular interest in doing so. They spent most of their time making tomato sauce under their grape arbor. I know it sounds made-up, but it's true. But I digress.

You could try some of those plastic owls to scare away they pigeons. I''ve never been sure if they actually work, but I see them in use quite a bit.

Aww I love the North End. It's a treat to trek over there from where I live, Brookline. Your garden is off to a great start. Will you be putting in any plants that will climb the chain link fence to help block the metal some more?

PS, this is totally off topic, but I love the little flamingo you have up.

At one point, I draped sheets behind the chain link and spraypainted the whole thing, but that just made it stand out more. I really do hate it. I have planted some beans, peas, and morning glories, but they're not very far along. We don't get much sun, so the garden doesn't really get interesting until mid-July.

I have more flamingos along the top of the fence -- six in total.

JG -- I actually tried the owls! But the pigeons aren't afraid of them. They're wily, those pigeons.

I lived in the North End for several years and always loved the funk and anti-glamour of the old owner-occupied buildings. Rest assured, your bathroom ain't unique! But access to private outdoor space certainly is. Kudos to you for reclaiming it! It looks like a great place to sit outside on a hot evening.

As you said, keep your landlord healthy. Chances are, if he passed away, his kids would sell the building an a heartbeat to buy something in a subdivision in Saugus or Billerica.

In Jersey we call BVMs in bathtubs, Mary on the half shell and they are all over Italian areas.

Your outdoor area is lovely.

So pretty! And what very handsome cats!

I have had sucess keeping birds off the deck by using wind chimes.

The pigeons don't go on my deck (the combination of cats and pinwheel flamingos seems to keep them away), but they perch on the roof ledge five stories up and poop down onto my deck. Why can't they just face the other way?

Hey Jean -

These will change your life ... http://www.deterapigeon.com/

at least in regards to the pigeons.

Hi Jean,

Is there any chance that your landlord would let you remove the chainlink fencing if asked?

For the pigeons- if you do have access to the roof, spikes like tlf suggested, around the edge, would work (I think!)

Oh, I'm definitely going to invest in those spikes! Thanks for the tip!

The landlord would definitely let me remove the chain link, but I don't have any idea how to do so. It's sunk into the cement of the deck. I also wouldn't know what to put up in its place. And I'm hesitant to spend a lot of money on my apartment because I don't own it and could be evicted at any time. I've been a tenant-at-will for the past 13 years -- my landlord is one of those handshake agreement oldsters who thinks a lease is a distasteful thing for one friend to give another. And I know he would never throw me out or raise my rent, but his son has often spoken eagerly of the day when he gets to throw me out on my ass and turn the building over to a developer. Which is fine and totally within his rights and all that, but it makes me hesitant to sink any real funds into renovating the place. Now, if I owned the place, I would remove the back window and put in a sliding door onto the deck, and build a level wooden deck over the cement one (the cement deck is about a foot higher on one side than the other to encourage drainage, so it's a little uncomfortable to sit on if you're facing forward). That's probably what the rich person who moves in after I get evicted will do.