Hi folks,

I have a weird gardening space at my new place (where I moved in on
May 25).

Due to neighborhood rules that I don't really have the energy to
challenge, I'm only allowed to plant trees and shrubs and flowers in
my lawn (and I've put in 3 fruit trees and 4 raspberry plants
disguised as ornamental shrubs, ha!).

Veggie gardens in the lawn are a no-no; so therefore, to get around
the rules, I will have to plant my veggies in containers (I did plant
some pole beans on the south side of the house where I think I can
disguise them as some sort of vine, hee hee, and also managed to sneak
some basil in with the flowers that were already growing next to the
house, but I don't want to push my luck by being too obvious about
growing veggies where I'm not supposed to).

The place I have for containers is the front porch/deck. It is on the
east side of the house, and has a pine tree just to the north of it,
so there isn't a heck of a lot of sun there. So far, I have some
tomatoes in large pots (I've used the pots that the trees came in).

It's July 17 now, so pretty much too late to plant anything, I think,
unless someone can give me some good ideas.

What do you suggest I grow there now?

And what do you suggest I grow there next spring?

Thank you in advance,

Andrea Baker

You don't say where you live, but here in PA, I will be planting leaf
lettuce and other greens in a few weeks time. They will last well into the
fall. The advantage of having them in pots will be that they will be easy
to cover, or even move into shelter (unheated garage) if an early frost
threatens. Some of the leaf lettuces are quite pretty, with red leaves
and/or splotches.

Swiss chard is another good idea, either in pots or in the ground. The
variety "Bright Lights" is a mix of colors--reds, salmons, yellows, and
whites--and is quite attractive. They grow it as an ornamental at Longwood
Gardens, and if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for the rest of
us. It likes some sun, but doesn't need to have direct sun all day long.

A shrub to consider for next spring is the Crandall currant. It's very
pretty when it blooms, with yellow blossoms that smell enticingly of cloves.
The fruits are a bit of an acquired taste raw--I love them, but not everyone
does--but they make excellent juice or jelly, and superior fruit wine. They
will grow and fruit in partial shade, and are an american native that
requires little care, aside from pruning, and in my experience have no pest
or disease problems. They're not usually available at nurseries, you would
need to mail order them.

Cheers,
Sue

"andrea baker" wrote in message
om...
Hi folks,

I have a weird gardening space at my new place (where I moved in on
May 25).

Due to neighborhood rules that I don't really have the energy to
challenge, I'm only allowed to plant trees and shrubs and flowers in
my lawn (and I've put in 3 fruit trees and 4 raspberry plants
disguised as ornamental shrubs, ha!).

Veggie gardens in the lawn are a no-no; so therefore, to get around
the rules, I will have to plant my veggies in containers (I did plant
some pole beans on the south side of the house where I think I can
disguise them as some sort of vine, hee hee, and also managed to sneak
some basil in with the flowers that were already growing next to the
house, but I don't want to push my luck by being too obvious about
growing veggies where I'm not supposed to).

The place I have for containers is the front porch/deck. It is on the
east side of the house, and has a pine tree just to the north of it,
so there isn't a heck of a lot of sun there. So far, I have some
tomatoes in large pots (I've used the pots that the trees came in).

It's July 17 now, so pretty much too late to plant anything, I think,
unless someone can give me some good ideas.

What do you suggest I grow there now?

And what do you suggest I grow there next spring?

Thank you in advance,

Andrea Baker

On 17 Jul 2003 17:20:58 -0700,
(andrea baker) wrote:

Hi folks,

I have a weird gardening space at my new place (where I moved in on
May 25).

Due to neighborhood rules that I don't really have the energy to
challenge, I'm only allowed to plant trees and shrubs and flowers in
my lawn (and I've put in 3 fruit trees and 4 raspberry plants
disguised as ornamental shrubs, ha!).

Do the neighborhood rules have the force of law or contract
(such as a Homeowner's Association) or are they just an
informal agreement?

If the latter, I would ignore them.



Veggie gardens in the lawn are a no-no; so therefore, to get around
the rules, I will have to plant my veggies in containers (I did plant
some pole beans on the south side of the house where I think I can
disguise them as some sort of vine, hee hee, and also managed to sneak
some basil in with the flowers that were already growing next to the
house, but I don't want to push my luck by being too obvious about
growing veggies where I'm not supposed to).

The place I have for containers is the front porch/deck. It is on the
east side of the house, and has a pine tree just to the north of it,
so there isn't a heck of a lot of sun there. So far, I have some
tomatoes in large pots (I've used the pots that the trees came in).

It's July 17 now, so pretty much too late to plant anything, I think,
unless someone can give me some good ideas.

Where are you? When is your first killing frost expected
there?

What do you suggest I grow there now?

And what do you suggest I grow there next spring?


I'd put the containers ON THE LAWN wherever I got the most
sun. Each large container could have a few flowers mixed in
with the veggies. They could be edible flowers (there are a
lot of them) if you wish.

Some veggies are decorative: basil, peppers, eggplant: all
pretty plants. The multi-colored Swiss chard is rather
decorative as well.

I'd furthermore probably use old tires as containers just
to spite the neighbors, but I am a mean and unreasonable
woman: actually, I wouldn't buy a house subject to a
Homeowner's Association - which doesn't help you any.
Sorry. You have my sympathy.

Pat

I'm sorry you have to deal with this. These seemingly arbitrary rules
for others homes just boggle my mind at times. We had a man in a
nearbly city who was order to yank out his rosebushes because the
homeowners assoc. deemed them unattractive in the winter. sigh.

But to your problem:

Lettuces, spinach, peas have done well in pots in my yard in areas with
less shade. I do a lot of herb but most of them seem to prefer lots of
light, the only ones I can think of off hand that would do well in shade
would be mints or parsley.

A few years back we rented a house. The owners were nice about letting
us plant whatever, but the front yard was situated better for a garden
and I didn't want to upset the neighbors or the owner by planting a farm
out front. I did find a few things that worked for both. I edged the
flower bed with alpine strawberries. These are dantier looking plants
like an ornamental strawberry; it has no runners and has the bonus of
delicious tiny berries. Here in my area of CA, sage is planted a lot as
an ornamental plant and has lovely spikes of flowers - plant the
culinary kinds and you will have a pretty bush that has edible leaves.
Scented geraniums are also nice. I see rosemary pruned up into hedges
or trailing over retaining walls in many places, maybe some of that
could be incorporated into the garden? Thyme looks nice creeping around
rocks in the garden. I have seen blueberries used as ornamental shrubs
as well.

good luck in your quest to balance the rules with your desire to garden
edible plants.

marcella

In article ,
(andrea baker) wrote:

Hi folks,

I have a weird gardening space at my new place (where I moved in on
May 25).

Due to neighborhood rules that I don't really have the energy to
challenge, I'm only allowed to plant trees and shrubs and flowers in
my lawn (and I've put in 3 fruit trees and 4 raspberry plants
disguised as ornamental shrubs, ha!).

Veggie gardens in the lawn are a no-no; so therefore, to get around
the rules, I will have to plant my veggies in containers (I did plant
some pole beans on the south side of the house where I think I can
disguise them as some sort of vine, hee hee, and also managed to sneak
some basil in with the flowers that were already growing next to the
house, but I don't want to push my luck by being too obvious about
growing veggies where I'm not supposed to).

The place I have for containers is the front porch/deck. It is on the
east side of the house, and has a pine tree just to the north of it,
so there isn't a heck of a lot of sun there. So far, I have some
tomatoes in large pots (I've used the pots that the trees came in).

It's July 17 now, so pretty much too late to plant anything, I think,
unless someone can give me some good ideas.

What do you suggest I grow there now?

And what do you suggest I grow there next spring?

Thank you in advance,

Andrea Baker

In article ,
(andrea baker) wrote:

Veggie gardens in the lawn are a no-no


I'd be curious to know the exact wording of this prohibition.

In article ,
(andrea baker) wrote:

The place I have for containers is the front porch/deck. It is on the
east side of the house, and has a pine tree just to the north of it,
so there isn't a heck of a lot of sun there. So far, I have some
tomatoes in large pots (I've used the pots that the trees came in).


I grow leaf lettuce with pansies in pots next to my door. Eastern
exposure, morning sun, pm shade. The lettuce does a *lot* better
there than out in the full sun, and IMO it looks cool with pansies.

Could you interplant sweet peas and edible peas? Can you plant your
herbs out front? They aren't veggies and they're attractive plants.
I think edible landscaping looks a lot more interesting than just flowers
or just veggies.

What zone are you in? Why did you move into a neighborhood with
landscaping police?? =:-O You must really like the house!

Jan

In article , Pat Meadows
wrote:

On 17 Jul 2003 17:20:58 -0700,
(andrea baker) wrote:

Hi folks,

I have a weird gardening space at my new place (where I moved in on
May 25).
[...]

I'd furthermore probably use old tires as containers just
to spite the neighbors, but I am a mean and unreasonable
woman: actually, I wouldn't buy a house subject to a
Homeowner's Association - which doesn't help you any.
Sorry. You have my sympathy.

Pat

You can move into my neighborhood any time you want, Pat!
I'm practicing to be a curmudgeon when I'm old. So far, I'm
just eccentric and grouchy, but hey, it's a start! Maybe you
could give me some pointers ;-)

I think the old tires idea is a dandy : ) To be *really* tacky,
she could whitewash the tires, or spray paint them gold or silver.
Oh, and maybe she could start collecting those concrete statues
that people put on their lawns, but paint them. Not just one or two
statues, but a whole bunch of them. All painted to look "life-like."
And string up multi-colored Christmas lights and light them up
every night, not just during the holidays. Lights that light up in
sequence or that blink off and on.

Oh, I got it -- get one of those plywood lawn ornaments that look
like the hind end of a fat lady who's bent over. (My mom's neighbor
has one of them. I shake my head every time I drive by the dang thing.)

My new hobby is giving insufferable people "the vapors."
It's *really* fun and incredibly easy to do.

Jan

Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote in message ...
In article ,
(andrea baker) wrote:

Veggie gardens in the lawn are a no-no


I'd be curious to know the exact wording of this prohibition.

Well, 80% of the new homes built in this country have an HOA, and they
will tell you what you can plant or can not plant. I am surprised that
she was able to put some rasberries in. The things some of my friends
and colleagues have to do to grow veggies... I don't know if they make
me cry or laugh. One of them is so happy, he has been able to grow
zucchini in the front flowerbed for two years now. No one has caught
up with it yet. Another two grow a few sad tomatoes in pots. This
thing alone is worth coping with occasional repairs in our older
homes.

In article ,
(simy1) wrote:

Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote in message
...
In article ,
(andrea baker) wrote:

Veggie gardens in the lawn are a no-no


I'd be curious to know the exact wording of this prohibition.

Well, 80% of the new homes built in this country have an HOA, and they
will tell you what you can plant or can not plant.......

Where did you find that statistic? But like I said, I'd like to know
the exact wording of the stipulation.

On Fri, 18 Jul 2003 12:14:25 -0800, (Jan
Flora) wrote:



You can move into my neighborhood any time you want, Pat!
I'm practicing to be a curmudgeon when I'm old. So far, I'm
just eccentric and grouchy, but hey, it's a start! Maybe you
could give me some pointers ;-)

I think the old tires idea is a dandy : ) To be *really* tacky,
she could whitewash the tires, or spray paint them gold or silver.
Oh, and maybe she could start collecting those concrete statues
that people put on their lawns, but paint them. Not just one or two
statues, but a whole bunch of them. All painted to look "life-like."
And string up multi-colored Christmas lights and light them up
every night, not just during the holidays. Lights that light up in
sequence or that blink off and on.

Oh, I got it -- get one of those plywood lawn ornaments that look
like the hind end of a fat lady who's bent over. (My mom's neighbor
has one of them. I shake my head every time I drive by the dang thing.)


These are all excellent ideas! I LOVE them... Did you
forget the plastic flamingoes?

Another good idea - but drastic - that I have actually SEEN
done (and it *was* done to spite the neighbors) was to have
an entire house painted in bright red, white, and blue
horizontal stripes...it was truly frightful!

For several reasons, we *are* using tire gardening, btw, we
will have about 60 'round raised solar-collecting planters'
in our garden shortly -we need to place about 10 more and
then it's finished.

This is in the back yard, and not easily visible by anyone
but our two immediate neighbors. So far, the 'tire
gardening' is working out very well for us, and I really
like it very much. (We could not have afforded enough wood
or cement blocks to make conventional raised beds.)

A major reason we're doing it is that I cannot garden flat
on the ground anymore, I have too much chronic joint/muscle
pain. We bought a 'rolling garden seat' affair and now I
can sit comfortably on it, and happily tend each
tire-planter. There are other reasons too: horrible heavy
clay instead of soil - we're filling the tires with
purchased spent-mushroom soil.

Anyway, I am going to TRY making pretty planters out of
tires also - see
http://www.tirecrafting.com/funbook2...canpottery.htm

I don't know whether we can actually turn the tires inside
out with only ONE sidewall cut off, but we're going to try.

If we succeed, then I'll paint them. I like the
blue-striped one at the web-page above - I don't like the
ones with stands. I wouldn't stripe them, just use a plain
color.

*If* we come up with something presentable, I'll use them in
the front yard for strawberries - maybe a 3-tired strawberry
garden (different sized tires). I'll also use them on our
front porch for flowers, again *if* we actually produce
something good-looking. Our house is white, with dark
blue-green trim - I'd probably paint them to match the trim.

Pat

On 18 Jul 2003 17:02:41 -0700, (simy1)
wrote:


Well, 80% of the new homes built in this country have an HOA, and they
will tell you what you can plant or can not plant. I am surprised that
she was able to put some rasberries in. The things some of my friends
and colleagues have to do to grow veggies... I don't know if they make
me cry or laugh. One of them is so happy, he has been able to grow
zucchini in the front flowerbed for two years now. No one has caught
up with it yet. Another two grow a few sad tomatoes in pots. This
thing alone is worth coping with occasional repairs in our older
homes.

It sure is. I think those things are a terrible abomination
and I would NEVER NEVER buy a house subject to them.

Ne one is going to tell me I can't hang my wash outdoors,
either! Or have my two large dogs.

Fortunately, when we moved to this very rural area, they are
just completely unknown here.

Pat

In article , Pat Meadows
wrote:

On 18 Jul 2003 17:02:41 -0700, (simy1)
wrote:


Well, 80% of the new homes built in this country have an HOA, and they
will tell you what you can plant or can not plant. I am surprised that
she was able to put some rasberries in. The things some of my friends
and colleagues have to do to grow veggies... I don't know if they make
me cry or laugh. One of them is so happy, he has been able to grow
zucchini in the front flowerbed for two years now. No one has caught
up with it yet. Another two grow a few sad tomatoes in pots. This
thing alone is worth coping with occasional repairs in our older
homes.

It sure is. I think those things are a terrible abomination
and I would NEVER NEVER buy a house subject to them.

Ne one is going to tell me I can't hang my wash outdoors,
either! Or have my two large dogs.

Fortunately, when we moved to this very rural area, they are
just completely unknown here.

Pat

I'm still ticked off about the San Francisco Police Dept. pulling my
grandmother's poppy plants up in her front yard in 1965. Don't get
me started on HOA's. They're an abomination!

I was going to buy some investment property in this area, but they
all had covenents. One seller said I couldn't have sled dogs out in the
yard. Fine. So I asked him if it would be a problem if I parked my
log truck (a semi with a log dolly) in the driveway. Hell, I almost gave
the guy the vapors! I declined to buy any building lots from him.

We have neighbors out here who would *love* to institute HOA's.
They bought the first lot in a new subdivision, built a log mansion, and
now feel justified to supervise everything that happens in the neighborhood.
They get really torqued when I tell them that they should have bought all
of the lots, if they wanted to control "their viewshed." All of the other
neighbors have dragged old house trailers and outbuildings in, which
gives the log mansion people the vapors and just tickles the rest of us.

My house has tarpaper siding, so people prone to the vapors swoon when
they see this place. It's a 3-story timber-framed house, overlooking a
7-acre lake that we own. (We just haven't gotten around to milling the rest
of the siding yet on the sawmill.) Our saving grace is being in the middle of
220 acres, so no one is allowed to comment on our house without trespassing
or being invited over. And we don't invite people who are prone to the vapors,
since I clean my saddles in the kitchen and pop fixes chainsaws on the kitchen
table. (This is a *working* ranch house, not one you'll see in the fancy
magazines.)

I can't believe people are allowing HOA's to prevail. That's baloney, no matter
how thin you slice it.

Jan