The Landscape Artist And His Tractor
January 8, 2001
Before we bought our farm, we rented a home in Seattle Washington. Tim spent many hours landscaping the teeny, tiny, fenced yard.
He went all-out! It was stunning -- "theme" areas, complete with rocks that he hand-carried and fit in place for a nice terrace effect. Very pretty! We even had two dutch dwarf (black and white striped) bunnies that hopped around within the fenced area! Daily, we'd find fresh carrots and other goodies in the yard for the bunnies -- gifts from the neighborhood children.
Each year our home was included in a neighborhood "garden walk".
When we bought our 15-acres in the country, we quickly learned that "normal" landscaping didn't work in an environment full of critters.
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The chickens take "dirt bathes" in the flowerbeds, which uprooted everything! (However, we don't need to pull weeds!) |
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Our peacocks (peafowl), munched away happily at the flowerpots within minutes of planting and the potbellied pigs thought the rose bushes were a tasty treat. |
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The naughty goats were the most destructive of all! They found a way out of the pasture one day and destroyed over $300.00 worth of plants! |
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The horses "mow" our grass -- we just let them out of the pasture for a couple of days. They are much more efficient than a lawn mower, with less waste than the bag full of clippings! |
So it goes, we had to rethink the use of a wheelbarrow and garden hose. Now, Tim uses his tractor and the pond or streams for landscaping projects!
His current landscaping project is located near our driveway as guests come through our gate. We have an antique tractor there and some trees already, but Tim wanted to "see water" from the driveway. The stream was there behind large piles of debris (a.k.a. garbage, construction rubbish and fill materials that previous owners had put there).
Tim worked for days in the cold and pouring rain, in an effort to make the most of the daylight hours. Slowly, he began removing the unwanted piles, he was careful not to disturb the bunnies and squirrels that live near there too. The stream is flowing freely again and he is adding in rocks, native plants and large fallen logs to "naturalize" the area.
It's going to be really pretty. I recall the first time we saw the same area. The driveway was lined with abandoned vehicles and scary signs warning trespassers of their impending doom.
A couple of evenings ago, Tim came in with
a box that was making a "Quack, quack" noise.
Erin was tickled to find two little white ducks inside!
She named them
"Triangle" and "The Letter M".
Black Pond Farm "A place where ducks are purchased as part of a landscaping project."