Dancing Ground Park
Our neighborhood has miles of paved walking trails, a pool and clubhouse, open meadows, and the builder kept the existing arroyos and drainage swales, siting all the houses around them. It makes this community very natural looking, even though it is densely built.
There is also a park in the middle of everything.
It's kind of interesting -- it's not a swings and basketball park. Like the rest of the neighborhood, it has a very naturalistic look. A lot of the space is given over to big stands of meadow weeds. I can't believe I'm saying this. -- I'm a tidy gardener -- but the billowy out of control weeds look good in this context.
There are big untended stands of red Mexican Hat (ratibida) flanking the walkways.
Yarrow has gone crazy flopping about under some trees.
A grounds crew comes in and chops at things a bit, but it's pretty unkempt.
There are some tidier parts -- a pavilion with benches, surrounded by irrigated lawn mowed neatly, for example.
The green lawn is ringed by trees underplanted with glossy green leaved fragrant sumac, a plant I have grown and am attempting to grow in my Santa Fe garden. It's nice to see it sprawling about naturally in big patches edging the lawn.
The watered lawn is big. It's for frisbee and sitting on and for kids to chase each other about. You need lawn for that.
But other parts of the park are not watered. Where there are no weedy meadow plants or plantings of fragrant sumacs, and where the lawn is not watered, this is what you get:
You can toss frisbees and play on this brown open dirt too, but the lawn is much nicer.
The park also has some odd structures. There are stucco walls with bench seats molded in them for sitting about.
And there are stucco walls that don't do anything -- they are not parts of buildings or places to sit, they are just freestanding low walls about five feet tall, with window openings, standing around the park.
Another freestanding wall frames a small plaza, where the plants have gone a little wild. The oddity of this formal plaza in the middle of nowhere in the park, with a non-functional wall with open window holes in it, and plants out of control is somehow unexpected and charming.
The only concession to playscape materials in the park is a beach sand pit and baby slide.
The park is up a bit of a hill from our house, and it's a great place to watch the sun set. Kids play here, boys ride bikes through it, dog walkers walk their pets and ignore the pet poop bag dispensers installed all over the park. Plants run wild, but were clearly thoughtfully chosen and installed.
It's an interesting space -- haphazardly maintained, partially irrigated, obviously beautifully designed, and dotted with odd structures.
There is also a park in the middle of everything.
It's kind of interesting -- it's not a swings and basketball park. Like the rest of the neighborhood, it has a very naturalistic look. A lot of the space is given over to big stands of meadow weeds. I can't believe I'm saying this. -- I'm a tidy gardener -- but the billowy out of control weeds look good in this context.
There are big untended stands of red Mexican Hat (ratibida) flanking the walkways.
Yarrow has gone crazy flopping about under some trees.
A grounds crew comes in and chops at things a bit, but it's pretty unkempt.
There are some tidier parts -- a pavilion with benches, surrounded by irrigated lawn mowed neatly, for example.
The green lawn is ringed by trees underplanted with glossy green leaved fragrant sumac, a plant I have grown and am attempting to grow in my Santa Fe garden. It's nice to see it sprawling about naturally in big patches edging the lawn.
The watered lawn is big. It's for frisbee and sitting on and for kids to chase each other about. You need lawn for that.
But other parts of the park are not watered. Where there are no weedy meadow plants or plantings of fragrant sumacs, and where the lawn is not watered, this is what you get:
You can toss frisbees and play on this brown open dirt too, but the lawn is much nicer.
The park also has some odd structures. There are stucco walls with bench seats molded in them for sitting about.
And there are stucco walls that don't do anything -- they are not parts of buildings or places to sit, they are just freestanding low walls about five feet tall, with window openings, standing around the park.
Another freestanding wall frames a small plaza, where the plants have gone a little wild. The oddity of this formal plaza in the middle of nowhere in the park, with a non-functional wall with open window holes in it, and plants out of control is somehow unexpected and charming.
The only concession to playscape materials in the park is a beach sand pit and baby slide.
The park is up a bit of a hill from our house, and it's a great place to watch the sun set. Kids play here, boys ride bikes through it, dog walkers walk their pets and ignore the pet poop bag dispensers installed all over the park. Plants run wild, but were clearly thoughtfully chosen and installed.
It's an interesting space -- haphazardly maintained, partially irrigated, obviously beautifully designed, and dotted with odd structures.
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