Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Art in the Yard: Before


This past weekend I decided to finally resolve an issue that has rankled since we moved in a year ago....there is a drain next to the sidewalk leading to my front steps. Apparently all of my neighbor's and my front yard's runoff is meant to go down that hole and then squirt out onto my lawn. Previous owners decided this was ugly and so planted hedges over it to hide it. However normal that sounds, it was a bad idea. Bushes shed leaves, so naturally those leaves end up covering the drain (not mention that the bark nuggets acting as mulch tend to float in water and also clog the drain). This leads to giant puddles in path to the front door. Not so good.

I really didn't want to remove those hedges though - they've been there for ten years at least, so they have nice hearty root balls by now. Incidentally, my neighbor came out three times in the course of our work day, he laughed every time and told me how glad he was that he wasn't me!

Above you see my journal entry from Friday, the hedges as they were. Below was the "vision" that I had for what I wanted (see even on Friday I knew I would change my mind - because I've done DIY before and I know I always change my mind!)



Below is my "before" photo. Next time I'll give you the "after" sketch and photos.

2 comments:

Jennifer Rose said...

could you get a drain cover or some mesh for it?

Rose Welty said...

It does have a cover, a flat cover. I suppose I wasn't entirely clear - it was the cover that gets "covered" and stops the water from flowing down the drain hole.

My dad suggested a rounded cover and I might track one of those down if I continue to have problems. There is another aspect of this - I just don't like those hedges :-). I mean people have been living with those hedges for ten years. I guess for me they just shout "the builder, uncreatively, put these standard hedges here." I'm not interested in competing for the best lawn in the neighborhood, but I would like to have a creative and beautiful yard. I drove around several neighborhoods recently looking for inspiration, couldn't find it! Everyone had those hedges. :-)