The decline of the American lawn.

The decline of the American lawn. - By Tom Vanderbilt - Slate Magazine

This really hit home. In recent weeks I have been agonizing over the disaster that is our lawn. Our lawn wasn't impeccable last year, but it was serviceable, and I worked pretty hard on it. But in December we had to have our sewer line replaced. This meant that the front lawn (and the poinsettia bush I had treasured and worked hard on) was completely torn out. In addition our sprinkler system got cut up and was not repaired (which was an agreed upon part of the contract). So here we are, May 2, and I have no lawn in the front yard, no sprinkler system to water what there is. And this has just been killing me. The last couple of years I have worked pretty hard on our yard. And now it is in worse shape than it was when we moved in.

So I have been thinking about what to do with the yard. And there has been the disaster area that is the back yard as well. The disaster is that we filled the kids play yard with pea gravel several years back. Well we have several stray cats in our neighborhood. And they use the play area as a litter box. Normally I would say no big deal, trap the strays and take them to the Humane society. Well the problem is that our neighbor and his wife have made semi-pets of these strays. Of course they don't have kids, are rarely if ever out of doors and so they don't care that the yard smells horrid and that there is a health hazard.

So these are the obstacles I face going into the spring and summer months. This article though made me think. What am I trying to do with the yard? What is my goal here, actually? I want a place where the kids can play number one. And number two would be appearances. Growing up I had 2 houses that I would consider "childhood homes": my Mom's house and my Dad's. Both houses had large lots and not much traditional play equipment. And I didn't feel slighted or any worse for wear for not having that. I enjoyed the heck out of both yards, with lots of different areas to play soldier in.

So I have resolved, right now, this instant, to change my viewpoint on the yard. My focus is on creating something that is functional for the kids and adults first. This means a large semi-flat area in both front and back for playing boccie ball, soccer etc. And have some nice areas for entertaining and sitting for folks watching the above fun activities. What I don't want is areas of no fun, don't touch or walk. And I don't want something unmanageable, that will be a huge pain to take care of. So, less plastic play toys, more trees and bushes, especially now that the kids have reached an age where they can enjoy and appreciate the idea of growing something.