Gardening

Back a few years ago I dated a woman who lived in Bar Harbor, Maine. She was renting a house there in town. What impressed me was the way that her landlords kept their yard, her yard, and another house that they rented out across the street. In all three house lots, there wasn't a blade of grass anywhere.

Once set up, they only about 3 hours once a week maintaining everything!. There was no trimming, very little weeding, and very little watering. As you can see from the image, the end result was very impressive!

The hot, dry summers here makes the grass rapidly turn into an ugly, yellow mess. The only way to avoid this is by thoroughly watering every day and by using large quantities of fertilizer. This is because grass is more adapted to the cool, damp climate of the British Isles, it's just not suited for the North American climate.

The picture on the right is the walkway into her landlord's home taken from the driveway. The shot below that is the gate into one of the rental property's front yard. The one on the left is a walkway into on of the rentals.

I have decided to landscape my own yard in a similar fashion, that is, devoid of all grass and with only groundcover and ornamentals. Each of the three yards where very small, but together, they are larger than my yard, so once my beds are established, it should take very little time to maintain it.

I have made a start this year, but it will take more time, perhaps over several years, to achieve the same effect as these yards in Bar Harbor.

You can check out my progress along with my plantings at http://myfolia.com/gardener/sonny