SUMMER STAYCATION Lazy, Hazy Days in Lakeshore STORY BY KAREN PATON-EVANS / PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL PIETRANGELO
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LIKE MANY HOMES in Essex and Kent Counties, one local backyard was subject to frequent sogginess. For years, the homeowners resigned themselves to not using the back half of their one-acre lot. “In the spring, we’d have water in a good quarter or more of our property. It made it really tough for the growing season, especially for grass,” the husband says. Adding to the challenge were over 90 mature maple, oak and ash trees casting shade everywhere and preventing grass from growing well. The family lived with the resulting brown patches because they loved their trees far more than having a lush lawn. Opportunity was forced upon the homeowners when an emerald ash borer invasion gnawed through Lakeshore. “We lost more than 70 trees that were 80 to 100 years old,” says the husband. Hundreds of trees died throughout the neighbourhood. After the dead trunks were cut down, sunshine lit up the yards. Before the emerald ash borer attack, “everyone’s property in our neighbourhood was wide open, with mostly minimal fencing just around swimming pools,” the husband says.
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