Take off the fence
Why sometimes it’s great to have no boundaries
We have a new couple living next door. They bought the flat with a joint wall to our living room and their yard is bordering ours.
For years there has been a green fence between the two yards — plants that were rising high, shading the houses and blocking the view. Light wasn’t coming through and it did what it was meant to do: framed each yard, marked the boundaries and blocked us from our neighbors and vice versa.
While the man dropped by to apologize for the future noise during their renovations my husband just popped the question: how about taking the fence off?
We thought about it since we moved in, but there was never a good partner to ask. Previous tenants cared little about the place and moved in and out quite often. This couple bought the place and told us about their plans for the yard.
And then one day (not long after they finished renovating) it happened. They called a friend of theirs with a hedge trimmer who took off what he could. My husband joined in the minute he heard the noise and at one point there were 8 hands working on this 6 meter long fence.
And then: Voila!
Light came in and moved out, the eye could stretch longer (double actually) to their yard and we can now see the next (next) door yards. And why not, actually? These are not yards that serve people to tan in their bikinis (the front yards belong to those who live on the second floor as opposed to those who live on the first floor whose yard is connected to the flat) but rather grow things.
When our new neighbors told us about their plans to grow different vegetables we immediately asked them to grow new things so we could share. I don’t need all the herbs I grow, but rather need different ones.
Now, whenever I come home or step out I pause for a moment and muse about the time my view was blocked. Even though their yard is still barren (there’s so much work to do before you start planting) I enjoy this wide view over and over.
When my dad visited us recently he was quite shocked with this change. “Who did this?” he asked “Why?” and then again “but why should you?”
I started telling him that we both gain more space to glance at, better atmosphere, we can see them and say hi, we can walk in to each other’s yard (they use our composter bin which is great) and can take some of the yield the others don’t have and need (previous tenants left in their yard Aloe Vera which we use to soothe mosquito itches).
But now when I think about it I simply say “why not?” and why not sooner.
