Gardening and Gardens

I had the opportunity to visit Narragansett, Rhode Island a few weeks ago. It is a lovely seaside town and each home looks peaceful and well manicured. Driving around the neighborhood, I saw many beautiful shrubs in bloom like Hydrangea, Crape Myrtle and Rose of Sharon. When all of a sudden, my 4 year old son calls out "Look, a Flamingo!" I stopped the car immediately, knowing full well that Flamingos were not indigenous to the Northeast. So imagine my surprise when I saw roughly 20 pink Flamingos on the front lawn of house across the street.  Have a look: As you can see, these Flamingos are not real. To me, when I think about pink Flamingos as lawn ornaments, it screams tackiness. But to be honest, there was something intriguingly appealing about these. Maybe it was the sheer number of birds, their haphazard placement across the lawn or the fact that each was standing in a different pose. Maybe the owner loves Flamingos. Maybe these birds were placed on the lawn as a pr...