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.