We have had a garden for many years, some years more ambitious than
others. This is one of the less ambitious years. We have a few
vegetables - tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach and hot
peppers. And those are in various sized containers. Most of the
in-ground garden itself we let go wild, with a large wildflower
patch and a half-dozen sunflowers. We also have two small apple
trees that are just beginning to bear fruit.

My wife particularly enjoys having animals in the yard, so we have
bird feeders that attract both birds and squirrels. Later in the
summer the squirrels love scaling the sunflower stalks and eating
the seeds. Various neighborhood cats visit us daily and get a treat,
and we have a skunk this year who helped get rid of our grubs. We've
had a marmot visit in past years, but he doesn't seem to be around
this year. Still plenty of activity.

As you can imagine, our lawn can not in any way be considered the
ideal neighborhood lawn, what with skunk-dug holes and a patchwork
of grass, clover, wildflowers and dandelions. But it is damned easy
to maintain, and doesn't need any pesticides or even a lot of
water. The bees also like it. Unfortunately one of our neighbors is
the stereotypical obsessive lawn guy, with the perfectly manicured,
lush green lawn that requires constant water, chemicals and
mowing. He put up a fence two years ago after demanding we
chemically treat our grubs, and we told him no. Out of sight, out of
mind.

We do still mow the lawn, although we started late this year to give
the dandelions time to bloom for the bees and other pollinating
insects. Our town and many others in the area specifically urged
residents not to mow their lawns in May and to allow the dandelions
to grow unhindered just for this reason. This seems to be a thing
lately, which we are glad for. Hopefully some day soon the "perfect"
suburban lawn will be a footnote in the history books.