Duck, Duck, Goose!

My yard is going to be violently assaulted very soon by the sidewalk people.  Cedar Rapids is putting in sidewalks in all the old neighborhoods (of which mine is one of them) .  My backyard runs into the street behind my house, which is where the sidewalk is going.  This means strange men with lots of heavy machinery will be using half of my backyard as a parking lot/place to destroy all my flowers.  Last year, Bud and I completely removed a large flower garden from the very back of my yard, since this was going to be completely decimated and most likely become part of the sidewalk.  Just a few days ago, the city put in their stakes again, and painted lines where they will be on my lawn.

Unfortunately, this means even more of my side garden will be run over, dug up, and obliterated.  My goose flowers ( I have no idea what they are called!) and some yellow lilies stand in the way of progress, so they are on the chopping block:

A friend gave me a few of these plants because I thought Bud would get a kick out of their resemblance to geese.  I have found out they spread--which is a good thing, 'cause now I can dig some up and share the wealth before they're gone.  Tomorrow morning I will be out in the yard, saving some geese!  Bud says not to be so upset about losing the flowers;  I just don't have the time to dig everything up and move them.  I did save most of my plants from my back garden last year, so I'm happy for that.  I feel sick about the houses down the street who have beautiful fully grown trees in their front yards that will be torn out to make way for the sidewalk.  What a shame and what a waste.  I've already shed some tears about the flowers, but if I had to lose a tree, I would really be upset!  So, I am lucky it's just flowers.  To make my self feel better, I stopped at Hy-Vee last night and bought some perennials that were 75% off and planted them around the front and side of my yard this morning.  Next summer, I will have some new plants to enjoy.

I also managed to transplant these from the condemned zone in my back yard.  Phew.  I've had them a long time!

On a brighter note, my lavender plants,  which  have  survived two winters in Iowa, are  now the prettiest and largest they've  ever been:

So, no parties in my backyard this summer.  That also means I won't have to mow part of it--see I did manage to find a ray of sunshine in this whole sidewalk mess!  Did I mention I also have to pay for half the cost of the sidewalk, and then shovel it in the winter?  Yep.  :{  Oops:  ray of sunshine gone.