Two Cents Worth
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It’s crazy time! We have waited a long time and it seems it is finally here. Although it’s been cooler than I like, the sun has been out for a few days. Up until now it’s been wet and cold with a few sunny breaks. Two days of sunshine and we think it’s spring, finally. Late but spring nevertheless.
Everywhere you look folks are outside digging, pulling, planting, mowing, cutting, raking, weeding. The race is on to get the yard the best in the neighbourhood or, at least, as nice as you can make it even if you still have to wear a winter coat.
Spring bulbs have bloomed and the foliage is ready to be broken down to hide behind annuals or perennials. Gardens are getting a good dig up and having manure added to replenish the soil. Mulch is being heaped on to help keep down the weeds. The lawn, cut a couple times already, got a good feed and soaked with weed killer to help bring it as close to golf course status as possible.
I have a friend who has been known to crawl on her knees with a paring knife and a bucket digging weeds out of her entire lawn. And it’s a beautiful yard, green with nary a weed to be found.
Another friend has had her lawn completely removed and replaced with ground cover, perennials, shrubs and mulch. And it’s a beautiful yard, clean with nary a blade of grass to be found.
Flower beds, treed areas, luxurious grassy paths, several hidden ponds complete with colourful fish, vegetable gardens, small greenhouses, a yummy raspberry patch, specialty flowering plants, bushes and trees, boxwoods shaped like chickens, buddahs, squirrels, etc. is how another friend spends her time from spring to late fall. She does have a weed or two in her lawn and gardens, but she loves the work and enjoys every minute spent at her labours.
Three absolutely opposite approaches to yard work. One needs a lush lawn as an important back drop to immaculate flower gardens and specimen trees. Hours and hours are spent outdoors maintaining the grounds with love and enjoyment. The second loves to garden but is unable to cut grass so she created a place where she can spend hours and hours outdoors maintaining the grounds with love and enjoyment. The third is a farmer at heart and does her best to create, with beauty and purpose, a successful farm environment in her village yard.
It’s a lifestyle, a genetic trait. The earth and growing things is part of who they are. They dedicate their time and energy willingly to produce a place of beauty, tranquility, calmness in a busy sometimes overpowering world.
I love to spend time in each of their yards. It’s quieting and calming. I would love to have that in my yard, but it’s just not my lifestyle. I missed that gene.
I say thank God for friends.