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!
