Peacocks!

It may be too early to be envisioning the green on Meeting House Hill in Dorchester as a pleasure garden. After all, there isn't any greenery on the green, just ice and snow. As every good gardener knows though, it takes planning during the fallow months to ensure a bounty once the earth moves closer to the sun . Peacocks have just gone on sale.

We are not referring to the dandy rakes and elegantly made-up ladies that parade up and down Bowdoin Street where it runs near Adams Street and Quincy Street and Church Street. We are referring to the birds that were the favorite of the Greek goddess Hera (Juno in Latin). Here is a thought: why not populate Adams Park, which is under the watchful and majestic gaze of Dorchester's First Parish Church with peacocks? People may argue that the fowl would wander into the street and foul traffic but, alternatively, couldn't they be fitted with miniature collars and an electric fence be installed? It works with dogs.

Imagine Adams Park full of strutting, iridescent peacocks. It isn't hard. The birds are a perfect fit for the scenery. The cost of eight chicks is a mere $272.32. Even if no single benefactor wants to foot the whole bill, there is no doubt a community collection would cover the cost not just of the chicks but the electric fence as well. Who doesn't like peacocks? Even if the collection can comes up short, some lavender guineas could be substituted for a similar, if less spectacular effect.

This park isn't deserted during the year's warmer months but the addition of a little avian pageantry would only add eye appeal to what is already a feast for the eyes. If something is good, why not go over the top making it better? Stranger things have happened in Dorchester, the part of Boston where dreams become real.

Who is a good gardener? Here is fictional one that got pretty far on the principles of good garden management: