The green green grass of home

As I've mentioned before, they like their lawns in this part of the world.  That's no problem for me: I'm fond of an expanse of turf myself.  With the onset of spring the lawn in our back yard has erupted into a colourful display.  Apart from the rich green, of course, there are a lot of weeds that make for a picturesque effect.  Lots of dandelions.  Lots. And quite a few different little purplish things that are rather pretty.  Now back in New Zealand I'd generally view dandelions and other weeds with disdain, but here the general effect is very like a meadow, with a liberal application of wild flowers.

I'm not the only one enjoying it, here's a bunny enjoying the view: lunch as far as the eye can see!

The meadow effect is helped along by the fact that there are no fences worth speaking of out there, so it's not just our back yard we look on to but the back yards of at least a dozen neighbours on our block.  There's at least an acre of meadow out there looking picturesque.  Or at least there was until the mowing started.  They do like a lawn here but preferably a neatly trimmed one.  Mrs Walles agrees that the view has been very pretty, but I suspect our view is a minority one and the others - quite understandably - prefer their lawn shaved neatly into submission.

It's interesting to watch the mowing spread.  One person decides enough is enough and mows their patch, then a sense of guilt compels everyone else to follow suit in short order.  Unless, like us, you can't get your mower to work.  We borrowed the neighbour's yesterday to mow the little patch out the front (I do have some standards) after ours refused to budge.  I've exhausted my limited knowledge of small engine repair, and it's going to take a few days for the professionals to fix it.

So at least one little block of untamed nature gets a reprieve - at least until next week.  I think I can be patient.

Garden decor

Last time I left off with a teaser about what people put in their gardens instead of plants, and now I'm feeling a bit sheepish because I'm short of photos to illustrate just what I mean.  Possibly this is because I'm too busy taking it all in when I come across a good specimen to snap a picture, and possibly because when I see something I want to document I'm worried that the owner might view my photographic interest with displeasure, and express that displeasure through the medium of bad language or firearms.

Anyway, whatever the reason I don't have a lot to show, but needless to say that googling for "yard decoration" will turn up plenty of examples.  You've got your gnomes and other statuary, of course, your fake flowers, your wind chimes, your little windmills and so on, which are familiar from New Zealand.  There is a lot of seasonal decoration too (inside and out).  Imagine the kind of thing that people around the world do for Christmas and multiply it by all the varied public holidays.  At the moment Easter is the theme, before that it was St Patrick's day.  First shamrocks, now bunnies.

I've got no problem with this on the whole, it's not unfamiliar even if quite a few people take it over the top.  But there are some elements which aren't so familiar.  Like the flags.

I don't mean Old Glory, though I do have plenty of examples of the stars and stripes flying outside homes. Here.

And here.

And here.  Handy if you forget which country you're in.

No, I'm talking about garden flags.  Mrs Walles and I have one, everyone does.  Some people have more than one.  They're little flags that hang down from a metal frame you stick in the ground (the middle US flag up there is really an overgrown garden flag, to give you the idea).  You can get them in all kinds of patterns, typically they are seasonal, so as you can imagine bunnies and chicks are common at the moment.  I think they're rather sweet, and I didn't suspect their existence before I came here.

Of course some people kill two birds with one stone, and fly a stars and stripes garden flag, especially around the patriotic holidays.  Now if only they made them with the design of the New Zealand flag, I'd be able to ruffle a few feathers around here...

Daffodils

Today was really the first time this season that I've been able to go for a walk.  The planets were all aligned: I had the time and the weather wasn't throwing snow or rain at me.

I learned on my brief excursion outside that I had been a little harsh in my previous assessment of American gardening.  Having previously been here only in the height of summer (when it's stifling) or the height of winter (when it's freezing and everything is covered in inches of snow and ice) I had formed the opinion that the people in these parts don't go in for flower gardens.

But the many daffodils, tulips and hyacinths I saw today proved that this isn't entirely true.  Many houses have a few little clutches of spring flowers in their front yards  It's pretty and reassuring but, I have to say, it's still not gardening as I know it.

Now I certainly don't want to tar everyone with the same brush here.  There are people who garden and in some places I am sure it is more common than it is around here.  But you can in other ways that gardening is a minority pastime.  It's mentioned very little on TV, for a start.  There is a series of ads running at the moment from the Home Depot, in which they feel it is necessary to define "perennial" and "annual".

There are quite a few keen vegetable gardeners, even among our neighbours.  But flowers don't really seem to be their thing (an interesting exception in Pennsylvania are the Amish who, I once read, edge their crops with flowers).

That doesn't mean that yards are bare, though.  Next time I'll look at some of the ways Americans decorate outside the house without recourse to horticulture.