Bothering the Neighbors

I have several plants that will re-seed in the garden - Liatris, Penstemon, Agastache - mostly I don't mind because I can ID the seedlings and pull them out if I don't want them. But I do sometimes worry they're spreading into my neighbor's yard.

Notice the Penstemon is right at the edge of their yard (and yes, I have seen it show up in their yard, too. I guess I need to be better about dead heading).

But what I didn't expect to spread was one of my species tulips! This is a seedling of Little Beauty, a great species tulip that comes back every year [from Brent and Becky]. This looks so good that I may have to order some more and plant them IN my lawn. The foliage would be disguised in the grass and I'd have a spring blooming lawn!

If my neighbor's complain I'll point to their even more problematic bamboo that keep sneaking under the fence! Guess which one will be harder to manage. 

Decisions, decisions

My neighbor stores his boat just over the fence in his backyard for the winter. I live in New England. The non-boating season is LLLOOONNNNGGGG. As you can see, despite it being nearly Memorial Day the boat is still there.

It could be worse. It could be a rusted out old heap of a car... But I'd still rather not have it as the focal point of my backyard view.

To the left I have a very nice Physocarpus (Ninebark, Diablo) and to the right I have a large clump of Forsythia and during late summer I have a gorgeous Buddleia (Evil Ways) but there is a gap in my hedgerow and I've been trying to decide what to do.

Perhaps a nice, large Hydrangea paniculata or Hydrangea quercifolia would improve the spring view. 

Then again I have a male holly (Blue Prince) that I need to relocate that would fit nicely and block the view in a few years. The problem with that? Well.... Right now it's covered in native pollinators (read: bees) and it would be awfully close to the boat and my neighbor likes to spend lots of time "working" on his boat.... If he was friendly I could talk to him about it. He's not. He's... aloof [what a nice way to say that, huh?].

Decisions, decision....

Getting to Know the Neighbors

More accurately this post is about the neighbors getting to know me...

As my regular reader (hi, mom!) knows my main gardening area is in the front yard.  This means that every neighbor who regularly walks their dog, their kid or themselves has at least said hi to me.  Often they stop to chat.  This is a blessing and a curse.  A blessing because it's a great way to get to know the neighbors.  A curse because it can slow down my work in the garden when every person walking by stops to chat.

The street I live on has a very low turn over rate.  Most of the people have been here for years or decades.  So when they see me in the garden they ask lots of questions about who we are, where we work, where we're from.  I can't remember what everyone else does but it seems to have sunk in to the neighborhood consciousness that I am a Biologist.

I'm starting to get biology questions.

Don't get me wrong - I love being the Neighborhood Biologist.  I was a bit of a know-it-all as a kid and I never quite outgrow that.  I love learning new things and assume that other people do as well (what?  You aren't interested in the mating habits of slugs?  Seriously?  But it's COOL!).

I'm starting to have neighbors come to my door and call my name...  There's a snake...  I found an injured bird...  I think a rabbit got hit by a car...

Amazingly (to them) I actually DO know what to do about all of these events.  Snake?  Leave it alone or if it's in a bad spot I'll move it for you.  Injured bird?  There's a vet about 20 minutes from here who'll take injured wildlife.  Rabbit hit by car?  Sorry, by the time I got there it was too late.  Yes, it's sad.  Poor thing.  At least it didn't suffer.

Best of all is because I have years of experience dealing with wild animals I can help them.  The snake can be safely moved with minimum handling, reducing it's stress level.  The bird can be caught quickly and transported in a dark, quiet box to the vet.  The rabbit.  Well, I was just too late to do anything.

More importantly I can hopefully prevent human caused problems. 

If you store your bird food in a metal bin the mice can't get into it and if the mouse population goes down you'll have fewer snakes.

No, that's a fledgling bird.  It's normal for them to not be able to fly well.  The parents are around - you can just leave it be.

The skunk keeps visiting your yard because you feed your dogs outside and they leave food in their bowls.

Now if I can just find a neighborhood expert on plumbing...

Pretty picture of Coreopsis Zagreb for the heck of it.

A Gardener Walks Around The Neighborhood

I live in a small, quiet, neighborhood.  Turn off the "major" road (and it's not that major) and you'll find yourself on a block long street.  Go the the end, turn right, drive two houses, turn right again and in one block you're back on the "major" road.  Behind the neighborhood is a conservation area.  So the whole loop is about three blocks.  Today I went around the block with The Husband.  Just to get away from all the work I was doing in the garden for a bit.

First I ran into a neighbor whose wife just had a baby (like on Thursday just had a baby).  We chatted.  The wife has a small garden area and she's been thinking of scaling back since two young boys are enough for anyone!  She's thinking of having me over to dig up her plants and replace them with either sod (two young boys!) or shrubs.

Then I ran into another neighbor who has a HUGE vegetable garden in her front yard.  She and another neighbor go in together to do the work and share the produce.  I haven't really gotten to know her so I stopped and talked about what she was putting in, what she'd had success with and oh, did I want to see her chickens?  Absolutely!  I came away with two fresh eggs (YUM!) in exchange for some thoughts about what would look good in that difficult spot in the back that she just hadn't been able to figure out what to do with.

Down the street I went, eggs in hand and poor Husband in tow.  Oh, hi!  Looks like you're doing a lot of work today.  I'd never met those people but that comment opened up a discussion about how they're finally replacing the shrubs that haven't made them happy with something else and Oh, you live in THAT house well feel free to knock on the door and give me advice about these shrubs cause I don't know what I'm doing...

Round the last turn headed for home and neighbors I do know are digging up some grass.  It's a hard to mow spot and they are inspired by my massive grass removal project to get rid of it and put something besides law there.

Whew.  Good thing I walked around the block to get a brief respite from the garden!

Good Gardens make Good Neighbors.