lake pics

This has got to go

This travel home, parked less than 10' from my bedroom wall woke me out of a sound sleep making a high-pitched whine that sounded like something is going to blow. I have asked my neighbor to move it - it's not allowed to be parked there without a zoning permit. He has refused.

What to do when the grass dies... aka screw the lawn, plant a garden!

So last summer, between the grubs and the dry spells, my front lawn just withered away. I didn't think too much about it at the time - it's withered before and come back the next spring, but not this time!

So as I mow the dam thing, which is mostly weeds with a few TALL stalks of some kind of grass popping up here and there (which is WHY I have to mow it at all) I'm thinking if I want grass, I suppose it's best to wait for fall... and then I'm thinking - do I really WANT grass? If Mother Nature has decided that Vermont's gonna be a little bit hotter and a little bit dryer for the near future - who am I to fight it? Maybe I need to be thoughtful and plant a few small low-maintainence gardens instead of a full lawn. Enrich the soil well and put in plants that will shade the ground for the bigger ones who need more water...

So anyway, here's the start - I had a small garden that I'd planted around an old tree stump a few years ago - my neighbor cut a seat into it and the Grandkids really like it! So I decided where future paths might look good and dug this up and planted it last weekend - this is the result so far. The blue is a pond (aka a new wheel barrow bed that I bought on sale for $4 a couple of years ago, which was sitting in the corner of the garage - all but forgotten!) with a solar-powered water feature. In the evening I sit between those shrubs (yes, I'll prune you soon, I promise...) and the lilac bush and listen to the sound of birds singing and water splashing while watching the sunset... it's really quite lovely!

earth to who...?

to each of us

be well with the earth

take the gentler path.