Accepting My Earth Day Challenge

My yard has gotten to be quite an eyesore. Once it was just overgrown and chaotic. Now it's overgrown, chaotic, and dead, like the former yard molted and left its skin strewn about. Since Earth Day's greatest cheerleader happens to be my sister, I decided I had better get out there today to do something about the mess.

From what I can tell by talking with the neighbors, the previous owner of my house was a little bit crazy, sort of a pagan version of Tom Cruise, if you will. Three neighbors and the postman stopped to chat with me today as I pulled the unidentifiable foliage from the ground. Each one looked me the eye, shook his or her head, and sighed, "I don't know what he was thinking." One joked about the dead bodies that must be buried under the mounds of dirt where two green posts hold up these ridiculous swarms of dead vines. I've actually wondered about that myself.

Since I don't really know how to improve the yard, I appreciated the advice that each one offered, even if I didn't always understand it. "Just put down some sod." "What about wood chips?" "Maybe some ground growth would look nice." I get sod and wood chips, but does ground growth actually mean something other than what's already there? I mean, isn't it all ground growth?

I worked for two hours in the yard today and I can't say that it looks much better than it did before. I will say, however, the day was successful if only to show the neighbors that I'm at least trying to do something about this blot on our otherwise lovely block. And I'm beginning to think that my roommate, Julie, is right. Just moving in was improvement enough in their eyes.