Ron - thanks. It's amazing what a couple of hundred dollars worth of annuals can do. Maybe I'll try growing the impatiens and marigolds from seed next year. You only see about a third of the plants in my yard.
Steve - I have tried to buy a couple of times, but no dice. I'd love to have it so I could put up a big garage. But it is attached to my neighbor's yard who lives on the street behind me. They use it for a very small garden ... but they always have had 2 or 3 dogs ... so it's their back yard doggie run.
Its probably one of about 5 build-able lots on the peninsula, so it would be expensive. It's 50 by 100 feet and valued at $225K for tax purposes, so it would probably take some serious cash to buy it if the owner wanted to sell.