Arts, Environment and the Child: Walking the Wheel of the Seasons Midget Manor
I have been living in this house for six years. The little old lady that lived here before me had most of the trees cut down after the ice storm in '96. The most important part of the landscape is the ceder tree on the edge of E street. It has been in distress for a couple of years and the tree doctor has given me good suggestions for increasing its life span. The biggest things I did was move the drive way out from under it and down hill. In it's place I have started a shade garden. When and if the ceder has to be removed I hope to have the stump carved into a tall long eared rabbit. I would mourn the loss of the tree, but a ceder rabbit would ease the loss.
The origional house was 512 square feet on a double lot. There was a lot of lawn that the neighbors mowed for the little old lady. I have been slowly killing the lawn and replacing it with shrubs and perrenials. Some plants have been rescued from under the lawn or english ivy. In the last three years I have been remodeling the house and it is now three times its origional size. The landscape has changed. I have a lot of work to do.
My plans for the landscape includes adding more fruit trees like crab apple and red apple, and turning the lawn into a meadow. I would like to have paths around the yard and shrubs that encourage the birds. Ultimately I want native plants, especially camas in the meadow. The neighbors would appreciate some kind of blind for the poop garden that would quiet some of the barking. Last fall I sprinkled non native poppy seeds along the dogs run. I got the seeds from their back alley. I have checked out a couple of books from the library about propagating native plants. Last year I did cuttings and I enjoyed getting the plants for free.
A list of plants found in my yard, some welcome, some not so welcome:
Western Red ceder, Hemlock, douglas fir, laurel, big leaf maple, I got it for five dollars - maple, red huckleberry, five kinds of ferns, three kinds of violets, wild strawberry, snow berry, red flowering currant, hydrangeas, camelia, rhodedendron, forsythia, beauty bush, lilac, holly, moss, nootka rose (possibly), regular rose, climbing rose, great grandma's rose, a cat names Rosie, two kinds of dogwood, native cherry, pear, hazlenut, english ivy, trailing black berry, a baby madrone, daylillies, daffodils, oxalys, perrywinkle, st.johns wart, daisies, rosemary, oregano, sage, thyme, parsley, chive, crocus, marjoram, redberried shrubs the robins love, fennel, dill, and irises and plants I haven't learned the names of.
