This week's theme is a picture with the word prompt "Growing Wild". Both here and in The Husband's hometown the municipal workers went on strike two years ago. It lasted six weeks here in Toronto and things went back to exactly as they were within a few days of the end of the strike. Except for the rodent population, but that's another story for another day.
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| Picture copied from HERE. |
In The Husband's home town, they held out for over three months. Neighbours got together and mowed the lawns in the playgrounds so the kids would have somewhere to play, but otherwise all the green space in the city was left to grow wild. Most of the riverfront ended up looking a lot like this week's picture prompt. In fact, the one at right was actually taken in his hometown. His hometown has been deeply affected by the meltdown in North American manufacturing and I'm sure the mayor is looking for cost savings wherever he can. Which is probably why they have decided to let nature take it's course and have left this urban wilderness alone years after the end of the strike. It has done wonders for the local insect population.
It's amazing how much perception shapes reality. In an open field in the middle of nowhere you see a scene like that and think "How pretty!" But in a major city you think (or at least *I* think) "How unkempt!" It looks derelict and decrepit, like nobody cares. I suppose it does help make the abandoned factories less obvious. If everything looks neglected, the places that actually
are just blend into the landscape. It's not neglect, it's
Urban Regeneration!
It's an interesting strategy. In the front of my house there is a boulevard affectionately known as "The Patch of Death" because nothing but native weeds will grow there. It is the epitome of my failure as a gardener and a source of great shame. I'm thinking of having it declared an "Urban Regeneration Site" and calling it a day. When my neighbours complain, and they will, I'll tell them I'm not too lazy to tend to my garden, I'm just growing wild.
This post is part of GBE2. Week #14 Challenge - Growing Wild.. For more info, click here.
12 comments:
Good approach :-) could use this line as well for my garden!
Will remember this if my neighbors ever say anything...good job!
Sounds just like my garden too, which I've also now re-named 'Urban Regeneration' - thanks!
now aren't you SOMETHING; ! It's not neglect, it's Urban Regeneration!
love your perception!!! : )
Now that's my kind of gardening. It happens here every year, your neighbors will get used to it.
Pam
I love your approach! :O)
I, personally, appreciate beauty in the wild as opposed to cultured landscape.
great blog!
I can appreciate beauty in the wild as well as manicured perfection. Both have their brand of perfection. Beauty in the wild has the untouched perfection of the hand of God, where the other was forced to look beautiful.
Lovely post!! I liked your approach to the theme.
Kathy
http://www.thetruckerswife.com/index.html
So good to know I am not alone! I have a 'death strip' also. Mine happens to be beside our barn. I plant and tend and pull weeds there every year for about a month and then...I throw up my hands and call it my "Natural Garden" left in the hands of God and his birds who are constantly 'planting' seeds for me.
Love this blog, really made me feel better about my Natural Garden Strip!
Thanks all! Feel free to borrow the strategy for your own landscape planning. "Urban Regeneration" sounds a lot nicer than "Ah, fuck it."
This was a unique and interesting approach to the prompt. I hadn't thought of the field like that.
Joyce
http://joycelansky.blogspot.com
Yep, I have a few Urban Regeneration Sites around my home too. Great post.
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