Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Crazy for the ocean

 Yesterday we went to Seagull beach for an after dinner walk.
(Please note the use of the word "walk"
and the fact that Orin is fully dressed upon arrival.)
After abandoning his shoes, Orin splashed in the surf a little,
but soon complained that he needed to take his shorts off...

Then his coat and his shirt...
(You might notice that Casey is wearing a sweatshirt, boots,
and a jacket)
For a brief moment he stood on the edge of the water, 
and then he was in.
15 minutes later we dragged him out, purple-lipped and goose bumped,
but still entirely insistent that we let him play more.
"We will come back this summer..."
we assured him...
"When the water is warmer"
But he will not wait that long... there is no way.

I am staring to think he's part polar bear...

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Bye Bye Grass!

Last Spring when we moved to the Cape,
our front yard looked like this: 
just a bunch of deadish grass that needed to be
fertilized, watered, and mowed in order for it to look good
(we only bothered with the mowing part)
Not only was the grass high maintenance, but it provided no habitat
for birds and other critters, no flowers for the local pollinators, 
and no food/ herbs for us.
It wasn't hard to decide that the grass needed to go. 
So, last year when a nursery was scaling back their inventory
I bought every herb they carried and planted them in the front yard
along what was to be a pathway through the garden.
I am pretty sure the neighbors just thought I was crazy.
 After the winter, it was time to move on to step two
of our front garden plan.
I gathered up some pavers that we weren't using on the
side of the house and put them around the garden-to-be 
to define where the path would go.
We also planted a bunch of other plants, mostly cape cod natives,
to provide food and shelter for wildlife.
The next step was to till the entire yard to
kill the grass in each of the garden beds
before having 6 yards of mulch delivered to cover each bed.
And lastly, I planted another 20 or so varieties of flowering
plants and herbs by seed.

The next step is to line the pathways with rock 
and then cover them with sand or gravel...

It might take time, but I think our work will be well worth it
in a couple years when the plants get established 
and start to fill in the beds. 
Now I just have to convince the neighbors of that... :)