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May 8, 2005

new grass, trees, roses

We planted two trees, have been watching grass grow, and had some roses sneak up on us.

The rose bush is one of the few scraggly-assed plants that were intentional plantings in the yard that survived the great cleansing of the first year. Last spring it didn't really do anything, but this year there are 10-15 roses that have come out of nowhere in the last 2 weeks or so. A nice surprise... One day there will be some kind of fence between this part of the yard and the abandoned vinyl-clad eyesore next door. There will be something for the rose to climb; it will be beautiful.

It has been 3 weeks since we tilled the old dog pen and planted grass. This is now a beautiful, soft, very green part of the yard. The new grass has visibly grown almost every day. I look forward to when we can do the entire yard... We've got plenty of grass-killing shingle-pulling and dumpster-having to get through before we can really do this, though.

We planted a small garden in the corner of the newly-tilled dirt. It is an experiment more than anything else. There are also sunflowers and daisies around the edge. If all goes well, it'll be kind of crazy back there in a little while.

We've often lamented the tree that have obviously been lost along our block over the years. We saw two go down during Hurricane Isabel, and we can see where others used to be. Adding insult to injury, the trees that are left are either bisected to accommodate the power lines or on their way to being tall enough to need cutting. I'm not sure why the city would plant pin oaks with full growth height of 60-80 feet under power lines that are 20 feet off of the ground.

We decided to do something about it, at least for our little piece of the world. We planted 2 thundercloud plum trees along the sidewalk out front. These trees are supposed to get to be 15-20 feet tall -- hopefully this will keep them away from the power lines but still provide something of a presence along the street. In addition, they flower early in the spring when most everything else is still bare.

Even with the trees being young and small and the other side of the sidewalk untouched and bare, the experience of walking the sidewalk feels remarkably different already. As the photograph shows, even these baby trees provide enough of a visual barrier between the sidewalk and the street to really differentiate the sidewalk as a more personal space.

Posted by john m at May 8, 2005 9:12 AM

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