Beth's Front Yard
April 29, 2014
We are tearing up our front lawn to make a garden. Yesterday evening after supper we planted corn where the sidewalk used to be. The milkweed patch will go along the front fence (which is not there yet). Pebble paths will replace the cement sidewalk, and they will curve from the side rather than a straight path to the porch. This weekend we might find a shrub-azalea, maybe-to put in front of the house to help buffer our house from the development going in across the street.
I’m glad that the development is finally happening. For a few years the land just sat, waiting. It was a wonderful grassy “empty” spot filled by birds and small critters and such. I wished I could buy it and turn it into a park… or maybe just leave it wild, imagine that!! But the price tag was way too high. There will be one or two apartment buildings, several duplexes and perhaps one or two single dwellings. Hard to imagine all that. Now it's happening, and we can finally see what's going to come of it. When it’s done we can decide if we still want to live here.
I suspect we will. We like being able to walk to the store, to the coffee shop, the library. The fire house is a block away. The best Goodwill retail store in town is just minutes from our house. And we can walk out the front door without any steps up or down, which will come in handy, perhaps, as we grow old.
It occurred to me to put notices in the mailboxes of all the new residents:
“Thank you for loving this land and helping to restore it to its natural state as a reserve for birds and small critters.” And then maybe attach to that a coupon to shop for wildflowers at one of the organic places around here.
Something like that. The idea being that rather than be negative about this negative event, steer it back around to something positive.
At least it is a development in the city rather than urban sprawl. It will be high density, which is probably a better way to manage us humans than to spread us out all over the county. We have torn out our sidewalk and will keep the driveway gravel, and will gradually replace all the grass with things that don't need mowing.... to at least help the bit of earth around our house to breathe better and perhaps create a refuge for the displaced critters.
Speaking of critters, I found this hole in the front yard and I wonder if it could be home to a rat? What else would make such a big, pipe-like tunnel?
We are tearing up our front lawn to make a garden. Yesterday evening after supper we planted corn where the sidewalk used to be. The milkweed patch will go along the front fence (which is not there yet). Pebble paths will replace the cement sidewalk, and they will curve from the side rather than a straight path to the porch. This weekend we might find a shrub-azalea, maybe-to put in front of the house to help buffer our house from the development going in across the street.
I’m glad that the development is finally happening. For a few years the land just sat, waiting. It was a wonderful grassy “empty” spot filled by birds and small critters and such. I wished I could buy it and turn it into a park… or maybe just leave it wild, imagine that!! But the price tag was way too high. There will be one or two apartment buildings, several duplexes and perhaps one or two single dwellings. Hard to imagine all that. Now it's happening, and we can finally see what's going to come of it. When it’s done we can decide if we still want to live here.
I suspect we will. We like being able to walk to the store, to the coffee shop, the library. The fire house is a block away. The best Goodwill retail store in town is just minutes from our house. And we can walk out the front door without any steps up or down, which will come in handy, perhaps, as we grow old.
It occurred to me to put notices in the mailboxes of all the new residents:
“Thank you for loving this land and helping to restore it to its natural state as a reserve for birds and small critters.” And then maybe attach to that a coupon to shop for wildflowers at one of the organic places around here.
Something like that. The idea being that rather than be negative about this negative event, steer it back around to something positive.
At least it is a development in the city rather than urban sprawl. It will be high density, which is probably a better way to manage us humans than to spread us out all over the county. We have torn out our sidewalk and will keep the driveway gravel, and will gradually replace all the grass with things that don't need mowing.... to at least help the bit of earth around our house to breathe better and perhaps create a refuge for the displaced critters.
Speaking of critters, I found this hole in the front yard and I wonder if it could be home to a rat? What else would make such a big, pipe-like tunnel?