There is a house on the road I live. Not surprising, eh? Well, the people that live inside that ordinary looking house try to transform it into a not-so-ordinary looking house. How? Via gardening.

Maybe it’s that they live on the corner. But either way, EVERYONE loves to go to their house for trick-or-treating on Halloween. Why? They’ve got the best decorations!

On that October 31st after I went out on Halloween, I really wanted to go to their house. Regardless of what their candy was. There were at least fifty pumpkins in front, a witch, lights, spooky noises, fog from a generator, and much more.

A month before that, they were– once again– modeling their front yard. There was a immense pile of tulips, flowers, and weeds. Everything in their garden was gone. Nothing left.

A day later, there were new flora: geraniums, new tulips, roses, and new scenery.

I poked my dad and asked, “When was the last time we did that?”

He answered with a sour look, “We don’t have time… and we’ve never done that.”

My family is really about hating to get their hands dirty once in a while. Not literally, but unless the subdivision sends us a letter telling us that if we don’t get some new stone turtles we are not allowed to stay, we won’t do it.

Sure, we mow the grass (ahem… correction, I mow the grass) and trim the bushes, and crop the trees, but we’ve never done a major overhaul.

Yet these people totally bomb their whole yard every month or so keeps me wondering. They must really love their lawn.

A few months ago, I saw an elderly man across the street (a different house) get a ladder and climb up and adjust the weird shape that they hung across the top of the door.

Touching.