Outdoor Clutter

I've mostly discussed the damage and frustration caused by clutter inside the house. Well, there's also clutter outside the house. Everything from a neglected flower bed to a rusted out car can show up in your yard and create clutter. Outside clutter is often one of the later signs of the disorder, when the house has become so hopeless that the clutter spills outside. Outside clutter is usually what initiates a civic response, from social workers to firefighters to parking personnel.

Today's clutter is not so exciting.

We have a nice little fence that surrounds our front yard. When it was built, it was set back just about 8" from the sidewalk, leaving a small border in which to plant. Well, it stayed weedy grass for sometime, and then, in a fit of energy, I cleared the grass and weeds and planted some lovely flowers. Mulched them in well, and they thrived. Until the fall that is, when they died (they were annuals, it was their time), and, since I neglected to add more mulch, the weeds took over. Same thing the next year. And, frankly, same thing this year so far. Older daughter and I cleared out the weeds, grass and old plants (some turnips planted by Younger daughter had thrived!), and, after a delightful trip to the nursery, planted snapdragons, marigolds, pansies, and a few other things, the names of which are lost as we tossed all the little plant sticks. I used to keep all of them, but I never referred to them and would end up with little piles of plastic all over. Better to just say good bye and not worry that I don't remember the name of plant x.

Here's the before:

And the after: