rva's Sandbox of death garden

This is the side area between my neighbor’s rowhouse and mine. It’s maybe 6’ x ’3. It is surrounded on three sides by two concrete porches and the front of the houses.

Nothing grows here, owing to four factors:

1) No sun. The only light that gets through is between my neighbor’s porch roof and mine… maybe a 1 foot strip at best.

2) No water. The only water that gets in here is again through that gap between roofs.

3) Soil. It’s filled with some weird kind of grey/black sand. Almost like ash.

4) Dog. My neighbor’s dog romps through here maybe once or twice a month and roots up whatever sad plant might still be clinging desperately to life. Then he poops. Which I guess at least adds some fertilizer to the soil, although having dog poop 2 feet from my front door doesn’t exactly make me happy.

The only thing that has ever grown here is English ivy, which was here when I bought the house and which I pulled out because I hate, hate, hate English ivy.