Shorewood is one big construction project, gas pipe replacement, Oakland Avenue replacement, perhaps even replacement of the ugly planters. WE Energies has been digging all summer, then the dirt left on sidewalks turns to mud when it rains. Our friend Paul, who has had a hip replacement and then a replacement of the replacement, almost had a third replacement when he slipped and fell, thanks to the muddy walks. And I've had some close calls.

For me, there’s also flower replacement. I called WE Energies about 7 or 8 times to make sure that they would not ruin what flowers I’d managed to save from bindweed and that they would not put a single grass seed nor any chemical fertilizers on our parkway. They were great about the first request, even painted a note about the flowers on the pavement, and were careful not to dig till I had moved all the plants. But not too long after they’d put in fresh topsoil, they covered every empty spot with grass seed, not just the topsoil, but along the edges where I had mulched to kill all plants and between the flowers. Though I’ve mentioned it to them a few times, it’s still there. In fact the grass has already begun to grow. After all my years of pulling weeds and grass, WE Energies has given me a fresh crop. The upside for me: it’s a reminder of how boring and useless grass really is. The blurb about GIMME GREEN (in my last blog) had this information: Lawns carpet 50,000 square miles in the United States, requiring more than 30,000 tons of pesticides each year and 200 gallons of water a day per American.

Grass isn’t a food crop, it’s not even a beauty crop, it’s merely a carpet crop. Think about that next time you use that daily 200 gallons of precious water for grass in a world where millions are hungry and thirsty.