Blog de Puree

There are some interesting dynamics around the perimeter of our yard because we live on a corner lot. Along the two sides that face the street, there is a lot of foot traffic, dog walkers and people who like to park their cars partially on the grass.

The people walking around the neighborhood aren’t an issue, but I’m quite tired of stepping in dog waste when I walk around my yard and trying to regrow patches of grass that have been decimated by car tires.

On the west side of our yard, I have yet to come up with a solution, but the front yard is starting to come together. We’ve started building a stone wall by slowly collecting rocks from the woods, the beach and Craigslist when someone is trying to get rid of theirs. Behind the stone wall will be a chipped border that will be planted with tall flowers such as foxglove and lupine, depending on the sun/shade conditions with the huge Sugar Maple tree there. In front of the stone wall, will be wintergreen  ground cover.

Wintergreen is an interesting plant. It produces oils that are used in candy and gum and the leaves can be used to make wintergreen tea. It is also an evergreen plant that keeps bright red berries long into the winter to feed birds.  Wintergreen grows to about six inches tall and creeps along ground, thus its other name, Creeping Wintergreen.

In addition to giving our home more street appeal and providing food for the local critters during the long New England winters, our hope is that the wintergreen will prevent local dogs from defecating in front of the stone wall.

 
(The baby wintergreen along our front yard.)