Quote of the Day
Discontent is the first necessity of progress.
Thomas A. Edison "First" being the key word here. Before there were 30 flats (900 individual plants) of thyme sitting in my front yard, there was discontent. Of course, the discontent happened long before the thyme. Discontent happened about two years ago when I realized I was breaking up with the lawn. I didn't love it. It didn't love me. We really had nothing in common. When we first got together, the lawn was a novelty to me, and I was determined to make this work.
Other homeowners--people who have a deep and lasting love for their own lawns--tried to warn me that this relationship was futile. Outsiders could see that we were just too different from each other, the lawn and me. The most glaring difference is my concern for water conservation. I'm stingy with the water. Running the sprinklers feels like a sin, and I become overwhelmed with pangs of guilt when I hear the system kick on after the sun sets on warm summer evenings. The lawn...well, it doesn't really care that we live in a desert. It's thirsty all the time--a habit I couldn't convince it to break. That's what tore us apart--that and it's need for synthetic treatments to keep the bugs and weeds at bay. I like birds and clean ground water too much to abide by these filthy habits.
The old bitter, lawn, was too crippled to pick itself up and walk away on its own, so I tried killing it...softly...with words, and song, and lack of water, and that's when I discovered just how tenacious this thing is. For all it's weaknesses, it really has a will to survive. It doesn't want to work in my yard on my terms, but it also doesn't want to go away. It's like Bartelby the Scrivener. I ask it to please stop growing, please stop taking up space on my property, please pick up your old useless roots and vacate the premises. It replies, "I'd prefer not to."
Well, I had to move on. I couldn't lie to myself anymore, and I stopped pretending with the lawn a long time before I boxed up most of his stuff and sent it to the landfill. He's still trying to come around. It's ridiculous! Can't he see I love thyme now? I've always loved thyme. We're soul mates, I believe. This is why there are 30 flats of red flowering thyme waiting to move into the earth around my house. It's progress. Progress born from discontent.
2 comments:
I love this post. I think I am breaking up with my lawn too. It's actually mostly weeds now. I think I am going to make the entire back yard into garden plots with walk ways in between.
Fun! You should definitely consider raised beds--it will keep the pathways neat and will allow you to replenish the soil for the edible plants. You'll have to let me know how this works out.
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