Outdoor beautification has begun. My neighbors are blocking time to mulch, prune, arrange, clean, adjust and repair the fronts of their homes, and it’s a fascinating ritual to behold. When I and my family first moved to the neighborhood back in 1964, my parents were given a dressing down by a couple who were miffed at the replacement of the front steps. The original was wood and had developed a slippery and warped appearance, so concrete was poured and molded instead, along with nice wrought iron railings. The neighbors’ complaint? That everybody else would have to redo their fronts, too.
They must be spinning at double speed in their graves right about now. Landscaping is a big-buck business, and spring is the perfect opportunity to make changes to that post winter front yard.
I wish I could join the throngs, because I have ideas and plans for the front, but the opportunity may well pass me by because I’ve been recovering from an unexpected medical event and can’t do any big bending or lifting. My lawn care man has been by himself the whole past year, because unemployment was a better incentive than actually going out and doing lawn work, so he had no back-up staff as they elected to stay home. I can’t be so unthinking as to ask him if he would want to redo my flower beds while he is attempting to mow a sufficient number of lawns all summer to make his seasonal income all by himself.
There seem to be some bizarre, unidentifiable pods growing in my flower bed, along with the merciful balance of a pleasant array of jonquils and recently retired early season crocuses. What follows, though, is a massive invasion of ferns which overgrow my walk and have outlived their contribution to any joy. I want to mulch and put in some low shrubs instead.
On the other side are Japonica in the town’s school colors, a bird bath my neighbor was nice enough to relocate up front for me, and a holly tree stump which is trying hard to come back from the dead as a bush. Some of the ferns have also invaded that side. Fronting the house is a lovely dogwood, and the town’s shade tree commission just planted a European Hornbeam at the curb. They even included a watering bag to help it along in its first weeks of being planted. I have already filled the bag and put the tree on a schedule so it gets refilled once a week per the township’s much appreciated instructions.
Maybe the tree will grow big and fast enough to hide the fact that I’m failing as a curb appeal fanatic.
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