Fences. Gardens. (Bloody) Financial Food for Thought.

I need a fence.  I want to garden, but I need to contain my two children safely to be able to spend more than a few minutes at a time with them in the yard.  (Somehow, they just seem unwilling to stay quietly by my side while I schlep around with mulch and compost.)

My dog needs containment too.  She's been visiting the neighbors and coming back with mysterious bones and then barfing all over my carpet-- which makes me feel a little rabid.  (I know.  "Don't let your dog go make friends with the neighbors."  But if I don't let her out when she needs to go, she'll pee upstairs in secret.  And I can't see how I can leash and walk the dog on demand several times a day with a two- and four-year-old in the house with me.  Dogpee in the house, walking the lurchy antileash dog with two toddlers several times a day, dogvomit on the carpet, or a fence.  Which do you pick?)

But this isn't really about the fence idea.  (It's late.  I'm tired.  I'm sorry I can't stick to one topic.)

Tonight I've been hunting down pictures of fenced front yards (on older houses) tonight, which led to cottage gardens in the front yard, which led to potager gardens, which led to this amazing enormous public potager just an hour and a half from me (must visit!), which led to its newsletter, which led to this quote, which seems very much worth recording tonight:

"Money is like blood," says NEF researcher David Boyle. "Local purchases recirculate it, but patronize mega-chains or online retailers," he says, and "it flows out like a wound."

Ouch.  Wounding my community with each uber-convenient Amazon.com purchase.

It's something I want to keep in mind.  I'd heard of this concept before, of course, but something about the idea of the currency as lifeblood makes it a more potent image.

(Yes, I do get that distracted when I sit down to look something up on the internet, especially late  at night when the house is quiet.  I'm an ADD magpie of shiny pictures and information.)