Musings on a Backyard

The grass is always greener on the other side......

In my case, this old adage is actually very true. My backyard neighbor has a perfect yard. Lawn is not something you can take for granted where we live. It takes time, money, sprinklers and usually a professional crew, but his is always full, thick, weed-free and the perfect shade of green. Ours is not. Ours is sparse, dry and mostly weeds. The sprinklers don't cover the whole yard, that is, when they are working, which is sporadic, so parts of our "lawn" are sand. My poor husband spends countless hours working on the sprinklers which break again as soon as they are fixed. When they're not working, the grass dies and we're left with lots of sand. Then, the dog (and sometimes, the kids) dig holes so when the sprinklers are working and the weeds start growing again, our yard is nice and lumpy. I won't even go into all the overgrown trees, shrubs and vines that we can never keep up with.

Between, balls, bats, dirt encrusted Barbies, dog toys and lots of tacky plastic kids furniture, our yard is almost always cluttered. Throw in chip bags, freezer pop wrappers, forgotten cups, plates, spoons, scissors, STEAK KNIVES (I'm never sure why), every pair of shoes my daughter owns, countless frog and bug habitats and you have a real mess. I try to keep up with it, but they can mess it up way faster than I can keep up, usually while I'm busy cleaning the inside of the house. I often look through my dirty, disheveled, dry, weedy yard at my neighbor's and wish mine were as neat and green as his.

I spoke to my backyard neighbor the other day for the first time, other than an occasional wave. My kids play with the kids in the yard next to his and he was angry because they were using his yard as a go between rather than walk all the way around the block. He was relatively polite but essentially he is a grumpy old man who doesn't like kids (or dogs) very much. He complained that he doesn't want kids in his yard because they mess up the grass and break his sprinkler heads. He went on to explain that that's why he doesn't let his step kids play in the backyard. If they play in the backyard, not only will they damage his perfect yard but they will attract other children which can only lead to further damage. So, in his mind, keeping children locked up inside is a perfectly reasonable way to ensure enviable nice, green grass....nice green grass that only my family can see......nice green grass that is never enjoyed by anyone. Suddenly I wasn't envious.

My yard is often messy but it is enjoyed, a lot! We have a little butterfly garden that we love to tend. We can watch butterflies suck nectar through their straw-like tongues. We've watched and nurtured countless bugs and caterpillars. We have a little patio we made ourselves. It's not beautiful, but it gets used constantly. We have a little table and chairs. They're not the nice, comfy patio furniture I dream of but they're used. I eat breakfast on the patio almost every morning. We use it to eat dinner, play games, carve pumpkins, dye eggs, play with play-dough, read stories and have camp fires. We have a sand box, a very weathered swing set, a playhouse, as of just recently, a cheap unattractive above ground pool and my kids have just saved enough money to buy a trampoline. None of these things add to the visual appeal of my backyard at all, they definitely take away from it. But, judging by the amount of neighbor kids in my backyard on a regular basis, they definitely add to its overall appeal. Yes, my backyard is messy and weedy but, my backyard is fun. My backyard is busy. My backyard is full and happy and enjoyed. I'll take that over perfectly green unused grass any day!