Competitive Comrades

Gardening is so competitive on our street. But there is also a camaraderie too. None of us hire landscape artists to do the work. We do it ourselves. Even as we try to out-do each other, we help each other build a better garden.

For example, my next door neighbour recently put up some drapes on her porch. From the street, her porch looks like a tent of mystery and excitement. When the wind blows, the drapes billow and you can see smoke coming out from the drapes as Neighbour sits on her porch smoking.

Another neighbour teased, "I wonder how long it will take Sylph to put up drapes to match yours." I said, "One day. I just need to run out and get the drapes." Neighbour then told me where to get the drapes and how much they cost. Of course I didn't get them. I like the look, but it's my neighbour's look. I personally prefer the open window view from my porch.

We have all been tending our gardens tirelessly. I am so pleased with mine. I revamped some parts and incorporated existing plants in the new garden. Neighbour decided that since I revamped mine, he has to re-balance his. So he dug out a big piece of lawn and put in a little garden at the front. I said, I have the perfect spot for that lawn you dug up. So he brought the sod to my backyard where it sat beautifully in a bare spot.

One day, while walking past our garden centre, I saw an urn I liked at 80% off. The week before, one of the neighbours and I had walked by and we both wanted that urn. But we felt it was too expensive even at 50% off. Now at 80% off and on the last day before the garden centre closes for the season, I bought two of those urns and gave one to my neighbour. She was thrilled.

I am growing a front lawn. I want to grow a nice looking lawn because two of my immediate neighbours have beautiful, lush, even lawns while mine has always been browny, spotty, and lumpy. But now, mine is at least green. Another neighbour just put down new sod to grow over her brown spots. She said, I can't stand seeing you all with green lawns while mine is brown.

Our gardens are telltale of our personalities. One neighbour's is neat and organized. His garden looks clean, though not exciting. Another grows small, frilly flowers. Everything looks neat and elegant, just like her. Another just looks neglected no matter what she does to the garden.

Mine is, well, someone said it is intuitively organic. It is aesthetically pleasing in a quirky way. It is not exactly disorganized because now there are cedar bark chips on the ground to bring the garden together. It looks like chaos reigned in. It has a feeling of abundance and abandonment, with a few hurtles just for fun. Sis' fiance referred to it as the Jungle of Nool.

I love that my neighbours give me plants from their gardens. I give them tips on what to put in their garden to protect their homes according to feng shui principles. Not that I am an expert. I am merely repeating what our feng shui practitioner told us about our house. Now we all have turtle figures in our backyards (their hard shell protects the house and its occupants), and a money tree in the kitchen window (there is a direct line from the front door to the back door. The plants blocks the flow of money out the door and attracts wealth into the house). One neighbour keeps fish now (to trigger movement in his career sector) and another keeps the Chinese kitchen gods in his kitchen (to bring luck, prosperity, and safety).

So even as we compete to see who keeps the better house and garden, we look out for each other.