Thursday, March 19, 2020

Narrows

GZ asked about our childhood yards/gardens. I remembered it as being long and narrow. So I looked up the lot.


Lot width: 25 ft
Lot depth: 144 ft

The depth minus the house and garage was still pretty long, neither were very large. Say 90' long?

This patch of weedy grass with a concrete walk from the back door to the garage was my outside. Mom occasionally tilled a patch to plant tomatoes and radishes, and there was a sturdy rhubarb plant back beside the garage that I ate off of all summer. I had to pull dandelion and plantain weeds and edge. Later, I also mowed. There was a maple tree for a while, until it got sick and old and they cut it down. The grass never grew well there again. The fence to one side had a lilac, on the other side Mrs. Rizzardi's green grape arbor, that I snitched sour grapes from.

I sometimes had a swing set, a tetherball pole for a while, and the odd blow up pool. A couple of years there was an open sided tent and a frame hammock. Winter it was a snowman garden.

The front was just lawn, and a huge maple tree on the verge. Mom sometimes planted flowers right in front of the porch. Marigolds, I think. Lots of mosquitos.


3 comments:

gz said...

Thinking about the area of it, that's about a standard allotment garden size.
I had a pair in South Wales. We didn't buy much fruit or veg

Zhoen said...

gz,

It would have made a really good sized garden. Lots of clay, Michigan had lot of rain, but a short growing season. But it was just lawn. My aunt had less, but grew raspberries and carrots in sections.

Nimble said...

(.)