Halloween Decorations

When I was a child (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth), we were taught never to walk on our neighbors’ lawns. We were only allowed to step on paved areas. No short cuts were allowed through people’s yards either. Times change. Now children are allowed to walk, run and ride their bicycles wherever they please. Even if you want to make your yard off-limits, you cannot. That is considered “disciplining other peoples’ children”. So the local children are free to turn my neighbor’s large corner yard into an impromptu soccer or baseball field and my front yard becomes a parking lot for their bicycles.

You would think that it would have occurred to me as I was planning and digging it, that my Entry Garden sits right across the Right of Way to my front door. Alas, I didn’t realize it until last fall, a few days before Halloween. Quite a dilemma! Do I sacrifice my plants and labor to the Trick or Treaters or do I risk the wrath of the entire neighborhood and force everyone to only use the paved areas of my yard?

I decided upon wrath and bought yellow caution tape at Home Depot. I placed plant stakes at all the corners of the bed and wrapped the entire area with tape. Adding insult to injury, I wasn’t home that evening. My work hours are 4 PM to midnight. The experiment was a success. No footprints in the soil or TP festooning my trees. My door was egg- and soap-free.

I put up my “Halloween Decorations” again this year but this time, I took pictures:


Yes, I know that the poles are askew. So am I. I’m battling either the world’s worst cold or a mild case of the flu. Every square inch of my body hurts.

And in case you are wondering why I don’t just install a walkway from my front door directly to the street, that has already been tried. When I moved into this house, there was a walk with steps accommodating the slope of the yard from the door to the curb. Apparently the concrete was too hard on the feet and/or the steps were too strenuous. My lawn has always been the preferred route to my front door.