The other day we got a call on our landline from a neighbor on the next block letting us know that the Postie delivered our Bismarck Tribune to her house instead of our house. We walked down to get the paper, and realized that neither of us remembered exactly what house the neighbor lived in. Husband asked someone in the yard next to the place we thought was the correct house if that was where she lived. The person indicated it was and then said “Oh, you are the people with the wild garden”.
I suppose our garden does look pretty wild in comparison with the tame and typical lawns and flower beds in the rest of the neighborhood. It looks particularly wild these days now that the butternut squash and cantaloupes are running amok. The butternuts are taking over the flower bed on the north side of the driveway.
If you look closely toward the back of the last photo, you can see cantaloupe vines growing up the red rose close to the house
This is the view from the street looking south and west.
The pole beans look sort of wild, I think.
My last name, Boomgaarden, conjures up visions of exploding vegetables and flowers, although the name is just the Dutch word for apple orchard. I suppose there are worse things to be know for than having a wild garden.
What are you known for in your neighborhood? How has your mail delivery been lately? Any garden updates?
Trail Baboon 
I don’t know what I’m known for in my neighborhood. Mail delivery continues to be irregular. Sumac and sweet cicely have taken over my backyard. Trees and bushes and weeds have taken over my front yard because I’ve allowed it. Love it. Cynthia “Life is a shifting carpet…learn to dance.”
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Love your gardens too! Cynthia “Life is a shifting carpet…learn to dance.”
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Known for picking up trash.
Our mail delivery is erratic. Far to frequently, mail is put in the wrong box. Just sloppy.
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In 1993, the USP issued a commemorative Elvis stamp. Fans put the first issues on envelopes addressed to fictitious addresses so as to get them “Return to Sender.” Collector’s items now.
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Well, there’s the school-bus yellow front door…
And probably the front boulevard that’s converted to perennials – but some of those are considered weeds by some folks – esp. right now when the daisies are on their way out.
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That’s when you raise your nose in the air and explain to those folks that the boulevard is “naturalized.”
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We are really happy with the echinacea, which is spreading all over the flower beds. The squash vines cover the weeds. I think we need to start cutting the vines back somewhat to encourage the squash to get big. I think we will have 20 squash, most of which will go to the food pantry. The tomatoes are starting to ripen. Most of the Brandywines and Brandyboys will also go to the food pantry. I am keeping the San Marzanos for tomato sauce.
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I planted cat mint seeds on the south side of the house last year, and it is spreading all over. There is Italian oregano that winters over well here, and is spreading all over, too.
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I tiptoed through part the squash bed and counted at least 21 butternuts.
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
My gardens are quite “naturalized” this year, meaning there are places that are pretty weedy. The tomatoes are producing like State Fair Blue Ribbon tomato plants. I had two gallons of them that I made into about a gallon of pasta sauce yesterday. We have had a bumper crop of beets, as well. Peppers of all kinds are pretty sparse. My raspberries are not producing well and I have not determined what the problem is, except that rabbits and deer ate them to the ground over the winter which takes the early fruit buds. I was so physically and emotionally exhausted after my mother’s passing and my last day of work a month later, that I have not had the energy to weed in the manner I like. Note to self: do not plan your retirement then have your mother pass away a month before. It was a lot.
At this time I am known in the neighborhood as Phoebe the Popular Puppy’s human. This dog is a magnet for neighborly attention. She is also energetic and requires a lot of exercise. So I hired the neighbor kids to walk her and play with her in the evenings. Their friends are also involved, so all the kids within a mile seem to know her. I walk her in the mornings when people on the walking route recognize her, too. I am just her accessory!
Off to walk her now.
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I suppose I’m the “weird old author guy” on our block, although our immediate neighbors are all fans of my books, so more like “the weird old guy.” Our garden might qualify as wild too, seeing as how we haven’t maintained it to perfection (lots of small trees sneaking up inside the shrubs, hedges, wheatgrass, etc. And I don’t use a lawn service or water the lawn, so ours always lags behind the neighbors in greenness and lack of weeds.
We’re also the couple with no children, which is probably not only unique to the block but unique to the neighborhood. Some call that weird, I just say different or not “normal.”
Chris in Owatonna
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Sounds like my yard…surrounded by sumac on the noter side and weeds and trees on the south side…
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Glad we don’t have a Sumac invasion! We’re still hoping we finally eradicated the trumpet vine that was supposed to be a honeysuckle plant. 😦
Chris
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Next spring I am going to plant two climbing roses to grow up the railing in the front stoep. There is one there already that I am weaving through the slats.
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The only problem with the cat mint is that you encourage cats to do drugs in your yard.
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The congress of our neighbors, who meet annually to discuss and reach a consensus on how they should regard us has also agreed not to disclose to us their decision. Consequently, I don’t know but I suspect they have determined not to regard us at all.
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Somehow I started getting all the notifications of responses on WordPress, and then I start getting the daily emails and the responses and I keep clicking on buttons and trying to get it back to the way. It was where I just got the email but not all the responses. Technology. Bah.
I don’t think the neighbors think much of us. I know some of our suppliers have told a new driver we’re “that Farm way down in the valley“ or “the people with the long driveway”.
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That may have happened to me once, a long time ago… I ended up opting to receive nothing on a regular basis, and I just go independently to the Trail..
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I do not have a garden but where I park has a tree growing up between some concrete slabs. A Tree Grows In Franklin.
I’ll learn to take pictures.
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In a building with 64 apartments living on the ground floor at one end only three neighbors are aware I exist. They know my story. But see me in the sumner about once a month and less often in the winter. I am surprised by how little confusion there is in our mail except 100 Dublin Rd. and 100 Dublin Ct. keep getting mixed up. Two huge buildings side by side. What idiot came up with that idea?
Clyde
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I am also known for my yard/garden. Several years ago my streets was re-jiggered (I live on a county-owned road) and being in the middle between 50th and 51st, I ended up with the largest boulevard on the block. When they came and laid down sod, I took a lot of it up and planted flowers. My yard is now 90% flowers, 10% grass; the grass has kind of given up at this point. All perennials except for the hanging pots and no ground cover (well, none on purpose).
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I am known by many for carrying dog treats. I have never had dogs, but it is rather gratifying to give a dog a treat and realize that forevermore you have become the person who MIGHT HAVE A TREAT. And the dog will often whine and strain at the leash when it recocgnizes you. If it is behind a fence, a dog who has previously been a barker quiets and waits to see if a treat is forthcoming.
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This makes me laugh!
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This made me smile!
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