"David E. Ross" wrote in message
et...
On 4/4/2009 3:46 PM, Dioclese wrote:
My rural neighborhood is more or less city-fied. They all got pasture
type
fencing including the street-facing side. All is well manicured native
grasses as viewed from the street on these 5/10/20 acre plats. No native
spring flowers, they're all mowed down. No, these native flowers and
their
originating plants are not in competition with native grasses. I delight
when I arrive at home to see spring alive, these white and ultra-yellow
flowers will wilt soon enough. Soon to see summer, and most, if not all
of
it, will wilt and dry again in the Texas sun. I kept my fenceline around
my
house, not my property line. I don't understand my neighbors, help me
out.

Try living in a tract with a mandatory owners' association. Under the
CC&Rs (conditions, covenants, and restrictions) recorded on the
individual lots in the tract when the land was subdivided, the
association's architectural review committee might have more authority
than any government planning or zoning commission.

Fortunately, I don't live such a tract; but there are several very near.
In one, you can't plant a deciduous tree -- even in your back yard --
because the leaves might blow into a neighbor's swimming pool. You
can't leave your garage door open while working in your garden. And you
can't have any play equipment (e.g., swings) in your back yard if it
extends higher than the wall (not fence) around your property.

The restriction on trees is paradoxical. In the common areas of the
tract (owned by the association), there are valley white oaks (Quercus
lobata), which are deciduous and drop bushels of leaves. The
association cannot remove these trees because they were growing in the
tract before it was developed and are thus protected by county
ordinance. That's right: The association effectively owns -- and must
maintain -- trees that the association prohibits any individual
homeowner from planting.

Some of my neighbors would like to impose such an association on my
tract. They don't like the colors of some houses. They don't like the
drought-tolerant landscaping in some front yards. They don't like the
fact that I mulch my front lawn -- pink clover (Persicaria capitata)
instead of grass -- in the late fall with leaves from my valley white
oak and "evergreen" ash (not really evergreen). Fortunately, they can't
impose an association on me without my approval because it requires
recording CCRs on my lot, which they can't do.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary

There was, now defunct, housing associaton here when I first built the house
in 2005. The only concern was raising pigs. Chickens, they backed off from
banning but was considered.

Native Live Oaks just finished doing their early spring annual leaf drop
here. I did plant 2 Pecan trees, they're too small to make any substantial
leaf drop in autumn at the moment.

I also just realized something else. The county does shoulder maintenance on
public roads here. They also mow the shoulder if its not paved. There is
much less native flower population there as well.

Except a few dandelions, my yard is free of contemptuous weeds. I mowed the
backyard last week. The front yard is primarily Bermuda, as is still a bit
short. Now I have to make the fence trim run on both sides of the
fenceline. Required as have an electric fence inside the fence to keep the
dogs from digging under the fence. The larger area for mowing outside the
fenceline, I mow after spring has finished its flower run.

After reading your take on your neighbor's property restrictions, I'm so
glad the local HOA went defunct. It seems the neighbors are doing something
similar informally here though.
--
Dave
If you don't like the weather in Central Texas, just give it a minute...