De-Landscape

Almost seven decades ago, this little house was built at what was beginning to be a WWII suburb to this little town. A simple little three-bedroom house with not add-ons or adjustments through the years was purchased about thirty years ago as a recluse or shelter from a divorce and the results of a father dying. Filled with leftover furniture and a sprawling lawn, I became part of the suburban culture.

After getting the electricity turned on and the water and gas started, nothing changed. There was a kitchen but little cooking. A single bathroom supplied just enough space to turn around. When the grass got unwelding, I’d use a mower on a long extension cord then only step on it to hang out laundry or take out the trash. A few scrawny bushes and three old trees all in the wrong spots dotted the green spread. What wrapped the house had little personality. The yard work was only a chore and was never used.

Then I met this girl.

http://nimrodstudios.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-does-you-garden-grow.html

Through the 80’s and half of the 90’s, the landscape changed. Trees came down, other trees went in, a constant rearranging of ideas with tons of mulch and stones and timbers and a load full of dirt. I was younger then and stronger and had enough money to become Lowe’s most special person.

So pots were filled and holes were dug and more dirt was needed and beds were raised and more dirt was needed.

And so a dimple in the lawn became a crater. It was called ‘the pit’. Once it was deeper than my head, I thought it might not be healthy to keep digging to China. So a tarp was layered into the hole and filled with water. What was a ‘pit’ became a ‘pond’. Flowering plants, gigantic fish and the sound of splashing water brought a calm to the new design.

Well, the fish died, the water drained and it has been a watering hole for the birds and a breeding ground for mosquitoes for several years. The thought of putting in a new pool or a hot tub or even a swimming pond has rattled around for a while. The thought of filling in the hole would require a pile of dirt and the purchase of a wheelbarrow and many hours of sweat. Been there, done that.

So as age grows on the yard is being de-landscaped. Thinning out the forest and filling in the gaps for easier maintenance has become the goal.

Today, a man and a truck and a wheelbarrow and a shovel filled in ‘the pit’. Whatever was buried down there will be there for much longer time. Whatever the memories of that hole have been filled. Perhaps a flowerbed or grass plot or a small farm may grow there in future years.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, a couple of trees will leave “Puppywoods” and more sunshine will bath the new dirt plot. At a certain point one has to do it or pay to have it done, so while I can afford it, I’ll save my back.

And no one will remember ‘the pit’ but archeologist will dig down and find that blue tarp and wonder.