State of Cape Cod

Leave it alone, why don'tcha?

We moved to Cape Cod from New Jersey in 1974. Like most “washashores" we fell in love with the place after vacationing here. The climate was agreeable; the beaches, great. The long golf season was a plus. We liked the woods, the narrow, winding roads, and the low-key, casual life style. The houses with their weathered shingles were charming. We loved the informal, low maintenance landscaping most people seemed to favor.

We came from a suburban town in northern New Jersey: the exact turnpike exit escapes me. The homes weren’t all the same, but the rectangular lots were. Each house was set back the same distance from the street with a sidewalk in front separated from the curb by a grassy strip. All had paved driveways and were surrounded by meticulously clipped shrubs and manicured lawns. There were few trees. It had all the charm of habitats in a zoo.

Our house on the Cape is in the middle of a nearly triangular lot with streets on both sides and across the flattened point. We left all the trees except those which had to go to allow access for construction equipment and a septic system. This left a small lawn between the house and a patch of woods in back along with narrow strips of grass on the two sides, between the house and a dense row of hemlocks. There is a stand of pine and oak in front. No Lawn.

The term “lawn” is a misnomer. Initially grass was indeed planted. For a while it was duly watered, fed, limed, weeded, and mowed. This quickly got old and hasn't been done in years.

The term “lawn” is a misnomer. Initially grass was indeed planted. For a while it was duly watered, fed, limed, weeded, and mowed. This quickly got old and hasn't been done in years. Some grass survives, along with moss and carpet-like vegetation that's attractive and soft underfoot, with tiny white or yellow flowers in summer. Whatever grows gets mowed like a real lawn, but not nearly as often. A light machine suffices for the spaces around the house. A rugged mulching mower, salvaged from the dump, pulverizes the brush and other vegetation that insists on trying to grow among the trees out front and mulches the leaves in the fall. No raking, ever. It looks rather neat and in harmony with what we consider the Cape Cod ambiance.

Once the only house in the area, the neighborhood is now fully developed. The lots, except for ours, are pretty much the same size and shape. The houses are set back about the same distance from the street, each with a paved driveway, a lawn and meticulously manicured shrubs. The grass is automatically irrigated, rain or shine. Landscapers regularly infest the area, trailers blocking the streets and the peace disturbed by noisy machinery. There aren’t many trees. The effect is eerily reminiscent of the New Jersey town we abandoned.

Presumably these people moved here because they had visited Cape Cod and liked it. Why, then, did they go to such lengths to replicate the neighborhoods they left behind? These aren't tract houses but individual homes built on privately purchased lots. Here was a lovely, wooded area inhabited by quail, skunks, rabbits, raccoons, birds, and even an occasional turtle or fox. Shouldn't people have taken pains to disrupt it as little as possible?

While the environment deserves respect, people needn't always defer to nature. The Fourth of July fireworks should be held on the beach and the plovers should just have to make do. There shouldn’t be any Canada geese defiling the playing fields and golf courses. Coyotes should be treated like the predators they are. Gulls and terns can settle their differences without human interference. Four wheelers ought to have access to beach trails year round and, whales and pacifists to the contrary, those defending our country deserve the best radar and sonar available.

Cape Cod is universally acknowledged to be an area of unique natural beauty worthy of special consideration. Why, then, are so many who found it attractive enough to settle here trying to suburbanize it? They knew there weren’t many sidewalks, four lane highways, nor big box stores. They drove in the summer traffic. Newcomers constantly agitate to abolish hunting, a way of life here since time immemorial. Cape Cod houses had lawns but they weren't worshipped, and sandy areas where grass had a tough time taking hold were tolerated. If those things were important to them, why did they move here? They should have gone to New Jersey. It’s got everything they seem to hold dear.