Berlin is quite an interesting city, and sometimes to my great surprise, there are playgrounds sprinkled around everywhere. Within walking distance of us, I can think of 5 different playgrounds…and each of them is wildly different from the other. Actually, it would be six if you include the massive one in the Berlin Zoo — but that playground is seriously in a whole other class of playgrounds.

But have you ever wandered across a playground somewhere and you just knew it wasn’t getting the love it needed? The trash cans are being emptied and it’s not filthy, but it’s also just not really clean, there’s tags on the playground equipment and just not much for kids to do there despite an ample amount of space?

Well, that pretty much describes the playground closest to our house. It’s not the saddest playground I’ve ever been to and it has a slide, but it could use some TLC. And despite the fact that there are quite a few kids living around here, I have rarely seen anyone but us using it — aside from the older kids that go there to hang out and smoke…and apparently throw their trash and bottles all over the place, despite there being 5 trash cans on the premises.

Mackenzie has a decent time there, but since it’s summer and she’s usually in sandals or flip flops, she wants to run around barefoot. Now normally I would have no problems with that at all…but when there’s shards of glass laying around everywhere, I just can’t allow it. Telling a nearly 4-year-old to watch out for glass while playing is like asking her to prove the theory of evolution — it’s just not going to happen.

In addition to the glass, there’s other bits of trash in the bushes, weeds growing all over the sand and just a lack of love being shown for the space. There are some nice trees around the edges and lots of flower beds, but nothing really planted in there to make it look pretty. I definitely foresee myself doing some guerrilla gardening here next year with some of our leftover flower seeds. At least it would add some color to the area.

For the most part, it’s a pretty cute playground. It’s nothing exciting but you can take a ball there and play without any concerns…and I may make it my exercise space since I don’t thin the neighbors will like us jumping on their heads. So this playground is becoming a new pet project for me. Whenever we go there (which is usually about once a week), I spend 15-30 min pulling weeds, picking up glass, and otherwise making good use of the trash cans scattered around. If I should ever happen to come across any other parents with their kids there who seem to care, I may try to bring them in on the initiative. It certainly wouldn’t take much time or effort if everyone was spending a few minutes pulling a few weeds from the sand each time they are there with their kids. But whether or not others would actually take the time is a whole other question.

Have you ever started a neighborhood project to clean up a certain space or spruce up an otherwise ugly public area? How did it work out?

Natural Life Link-Up Highlights from Last Week

First off, a big hug and thanks to everyone who linked up last week for this new linky.

Did you see how impossibly cute these tail feather pics are over on The Mystic Chicken?? They are sure to cheer you up and leave you happy for the weekend ahead!

And in case you are in need of home renovation inspiration, go see what amazing things Rita has been doing over at This (Sorta) Old House! I am so impressed with the tiling project they did in the bathroom. It looks great — and I know what a pain it was since I still have vivid memories of the tiling we did in our guest house bathroom… 😉

Want to join in the fun and link to your own blog or images online? You can share about anything related to natural living, from gardening to recipes to home remedies to anything else related to natural living.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

Posts you might want to link up could include:

• Green & natural living
• Real Food recipes
• Repurposing & upcycling ideas and projects
• Home remedies & aromatherapy
• Gardening goodness
• Sustainable smartness
• And other things related to living a more natural life

Here’s how this works: 

1. [list style=”check”]
   • You are free to join the Natural Living link up at any time. You can also skip a few weeks and then come back. It’s entirely up to you.
   • Please link directly to the specific post on your blog that relates to green living — not your main blog URL.
   • Please only link to your own blog or photos hosted online.
   • Link back to No Ordinary Homestead or the Natural Living link up post in your blog post. This way, if someone else wants to join the fun, they can. You can either link with text or using the Natural Living badge. Below is a code for the badge above – feel free to resize it as you need. Just copy and paste this code into your post or save and upload the image to your blog: <a href=”https://www.noordinaryhomestead.com/category/natural-living/natural-living-link-up/“><img title=”natural living link up″ src=”https://www.noordinaryhomestead.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/noh-natural-living-linky.jpg” alt=”natural living link up” width=”300″  /></a> 
   • I highly encourage you to visit other participants and leave comments. This is a great way to meet new friends and become inspired about your garden! I try to visit all the blogs participating as well every week [/list]

That’s it! Share your green ideas with us by linking up at the bottom of this week’s Natural Living post!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!