The Nature Surrounding My Home

dandilions, sunflowers, and prickly lettuce weeds are welcomed here

I was born in the Bronx; Concrete, buildings, cars, people, noise, phelm in the streets, and other things people genially attribute to city living. I have been a homeowner for most of my adult life. I lived in Colorado for thirty years now. Unlike many homeowners, I am not obsessed with my lawn, trees, or weeds, for that matter. It’s a waste of time watering and caring for my lawn for the sole purpose of just looking at it. My front lawn is rocks. I removed the grass, replaced it with stones, and xeriscaped it with indigenous plants that need little water. I save water, and I save money.

There’s an area in my backyard where sunflowers grow wild and unchecked. I never cut it; I just let it grow. I also have two huge Rose of Sharon buses that are growing out of control, and they draw a lot of bees, but that’s fine. None of us has gotten bit yet. I have several bird feeders around my home and one of them has a camera so I can record the local birds and watch some of the migrators as they pass through Colorado.

The trees I planted around my home are not unique or exocytic. As a matter of fact, some consider the trees around my house to be nuisances, undesired or invasive. I planted three of them: a Tartarian maple, two cottonwoods, and a weeping willow. All these trees, except the maple tree, are gigantic and show no signs of stopping. Then, I have a bunch of wild-growing Siberian elms. They pop up and grow out of control.

I do trim my trees and keep my yard relatively neat. I do not buy grass or sod. I let what’s growing naturally and keep it cut for my grandkids to play. and enjoy. The cottonwood trees are tall and impressive, with giant leaves fluttering in the wind. The weeping Willow grew from a twig, and now I can see it from an airplane when I land at Colorado Springs Airport. The Willow and the three green ash trees I planted in the front of the house give me a little privacy, which I strive for.

Around the side of my house, some prickly lettuce was growing. This plant is considered an unsightly weed and is discarded. After some research, I picked the weed and processed it for its medicinal properties by making an extract and a concentrate. Studies have shown that the properties of prickly lettuce are good for insomnia and pain. I put the concentrate and extract in tinted dropper bottles. I take a couple of drops in water, and it works well. It also has madicimal properties that mimic opium. I can’t say if that part is accurate, but I think that is the reason it works for insomnia because it really relaxes the mind.

I’ve identified over 27 species of birds that visited my bird feeders. Other brids that do not use the feeders are hawks, owles, and Ravens. At various times, I see deer and coyotes. Bull snakes are plentiful, and mating frogs are very noisey. The dry climate in Colorado keeps mosquitos at a minimum. Though polluted with light from this semi-urban area, the night sky is still dark enough for me to see most of the major constellations, which I verify with my star gazer software. On many warm nights, I set my camera on a tripod and film the stars dancing in the sky through time-lapse photography.

I may not keep my lawn pristine or my weeds to a minimum. I don’t lovingly water my lawn or stand in awe of the dark green, nonindigenous Kentucky grass. However, if I have any conversation about the outside of my home, it would be about the different hummingbirds that visit my feeder, the bees that visit the Rose of Sharon bushes, or the milkweeds I am trying to grow to attack monarch butterflies on thier way to South America.