New York

Next year it will look much better because the bare ground will be covered and there will be more flowers. And what is "beautiful" to some - a short-mowed lawn that looks like a putting green, manicured shrubs, plants all in neat rows growing surrounded by brown mulch - might not be beautiful to someone else. It's definitely not beautiful to me; it's artificial and might as well be made of plastic. To me, a beautiful yard has a multitude of plants and flowers growing as nature intended, not in tidy rows; a year-round home for birds and pollinators, no useless and water-wasting turf grass (which might as well be made of plastic for all it gives back to the environment). I love my neighborhood - so many people have given over parts or all of their yards and boulevard spaces to native flowers and shrubs. And this time of year, with all the blooming coneflowers and black-eyed susans and sunflowers and liatris and solidago, and so many monarch butterflies visiting them, it's especially wonderful.