Friday, July 13, 2012

Redneck Water Feature

So on one side of my  house, the terrain slopes downward quite a bit.  And the soil is horrible there.  Despite our efforts to plant more grass seed in this area and grow it, it refuses to cooperate. 

I've got a long sprinkler-type hose that I set up on the sides of my house, which waters the grass without watering my neighbors' houses, a fact I'm sure they appreciate.  I still do set up the hose and water this area, because the top of the slope - a place where the hose reaches to - has plentiful and happy grass.  So I set up my hose, from happy grass to no grass, and water it every other day for a few hours.  I just keep hoping that my consistent watering will do something for this dry patch.  So far, so bad.

I was weeding in the backyard the other day and just feeling really great.  Happy, at one with nature, etc.  I paused and looked around, just enjoying myself.  And, frankly, enjoying time away from my children, who were probably fighting inside.  It's like Lord of the Flies in there sometimes.

And then I heard it - this beautiful tinkling, plopping, happy noise. I was trying to put my finger on it.  What is that calming, serene sound?  And I realized - the barren area, since it slopes downward, had collected the water into a pool.  And when water sprinkled out and landed into the pool, that was where that noise was coming from.  I had my own little water feature!! 

Forget spending thousands on landscaping.  All you have to have is a slope, bare ground, and a sprinkler.  And you've got yourself some fine ambiance.  Come over anytime, guys.  We can sit next to my bag of poopy diapers on my back step and enjoy the happy plopping noise together.  I may even give you an otter pop.

Really, we should start calling my house The Idahoan Bellagio.

2 comments:

Clint said...

I started laughing as I read this. As we moved into our house 2 years ago, we had visions of grandeur of what great botanists the neighbors would think we were by our beautiful gardens and yard. The yard had at one time been the best in the neighborhood until original owners got too old to deal with it. They eventually sold it to an investor, and it had been rented for about 5 years by a family who took pretty good care of the yard, but who were not going to spend significant time in the yard. I thought for sure we could bring this place back to it's former glory, but our efforts have been lackluster at best. At least our grass is green......well....most of it anyway. And our flower gardens are full of mature beautiful flowers.......and weeds....... and weed trees....and are overgrown. It makes me feel soooo much better to realize I'm not the only with yard problems. Not to say that your yard is as bad as ours. Hopefully someday we won't look like we are the renters.

Ben said...

Haaa! love it. Oh that area is tough!

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