I love this thread... I wish the other posters lived by me! My next-door
neighboors seem to be flower-phobic. They have an expanse of green lawn
and a wide gravel driveway, which the husband sprays with weed-killer
every couple of months. There's one old whisky barrel with a sad little
rhody in it and a pot of fuschias on the back deck in the summer...and
that's the extent of their plants. And meanwhile, my passiflora is
reaching over the fence, racing the honeysuckle to get to the other side
first. I try to train the vines back inward, but they do follow the sun,
so it always looks like they're threatening the sterile domain next door
with creeping, grasping fingers.

The crocosmias and glads and daisies and dahlias that I've been
encouraging along my side the fence are always poking their little heads
through to the neighbors, and I've more than once encouraged them to
pick any flowers that visit their side of the fence, but they never
have. No worry about any of these spreading into their cement or gravel;
they'd get sprayed if a single sprout were to appear. The sad thing is
that they have twice the size lot that we do, but it's all given over to
lawn and bare wooden deck.

But in the summer, we sit on our tiny patch of grass and watch
hummingbirds and butterflies at the flowers, and smell the lavender and
phlox, and wonder how they can stand to sit on their very clean deck and
only smell the waterproofing finish.

M.
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Melinda Tennielle

M10TVC15 (at) yahoo.com