Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Who Gives A Hang About The Neighborhood

I am writing this post on the lovely Lenovo laptop, from the comfort of my side porch steps.  I say comfort but really mean cramped mismatched black outdoor carpeting covered side porch steps, but anyway...

I have just completed phase one of my plan to perennial-ize my yard.  I am a very lazy gardener who loves a well manicured yet not boring garden, and so I figure if I can plant all at once and then just have to do basic weeding I should be okay.  Digressing (not really, but stick with me I do have a point here) I have a small area of my side yard that houses a lovely tree that blooms pink in spring and drops nasty cherry like fruit all over the side lawn and driveway in the early fall. That side lawn borders our semi-retired neighbor who I not so lovingly call Terry Francona  based on looks alone.
This neighbor is a lawn mowing nazi.  He is out there cutting his grass three times a week, and I swear to you that I have seen him picking single leaves off it on more than one occasion. Just the other day he cut back some bushes that were overhanging from our BACK YARD onto the invisible property line we share, and instead of bagging the tree waste up and tossing it, since he was soooo concerned about it, he dumped the pile of branches onto our yard and took off.  I wanted to leave them there for the world to see what a lunatic we live next door to, but Jay, being the good person that he is bagged them up for disposal. 

That act of neighborly kindness got me thinking about in my day to day life, I care very little for what others think about me, but in my semi-suburbanite edge of the city home dwelling life, I have been caring WAY TOO MUCH about what the neighbors think of my house (which is under minor construction by the way).  When we bought the house I had grand schemes of fabulous lawn burros, pink flamingos and tacky pink  and purple flowers everywhere, but with having the twins and now being pregnant again my plans keep getting put on the back burner. I also was concerned with "what with the neighbors think" thoughts. I have moved on though, and will be slowly but surely commencing my grand dreams of the green and brown cape with pink and purple tacky flowers and crap all over the place.  
My dream house (inside and out truth be told)!

I have two tomato plants growing in my little side yard garden, as well as a pot that I have planted a bunch of flat leaf Italian parsley in. Next to that I just today (about forty five minutes ago actually) planted three rows of fabulous pink and purple perennials that include: poppies, forget me nots, and some other things.  I bordered my little garden with vintage bricks that the previous owners had lined the yard with in the 50s. It looks cute already and will be darling once the flowers spring up.   
Here are some photos of whats going on in the yard so far: 
My new flowerbed/tomato garden!


My needing weeding road/driveway side flower bed with fabulous bird that you may recognize from the movie Pecker!

The lovely roses that I rescued from under 5 feet of debris about 3 years ago!

I also have alongside the other side of my house where the other neighbor who shall remain nameless occupies the adjoining plot a fabulous little garden of Hosta in purple and white, huge white Peonys, and hopefully some hydrangea (which someone who shall remain nameless covered with construction bricks, so we'll see if they come back to me).  I am off to a good start, if only I could have these little moments of productivity a little more often!

Anyway, the moral of my long and winding story is that neighbors are like opinions, and you all know what opinions are like! 



1 comment:

  1. If I didn't know better I'd think we had the same neighbor.

    Ours mows at least twice a week and leaf blows the driveway every other day!

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