I know it does sound incredulous, but we bought this house because of the large
property and the old growth live oaks. These trees all have 100 foot canopies
and I wanted to put a lap pool in so needed large property, so to speak.

We must have looked at 75 houses before we saw this one. It was higher than we
wanted to spend at the time, but it did all fall together. The property was
virgin with all the soil left in tact with huge trees. A rare thing in Texas
where they mow down native trees and replace them with idiotic choices which
have short lifespan.

As an aside, it was only six miles to Mark's job at Dell. That was nice since
he can come home for lunch every day. It all worked.

You are correct about dragging myself out! I sometimes have to lay down to weed
or dig a new bed! Neighbors pass in their speedy cars and smile because they
all know me. They've all gotten plants from me and the next door neighbor will
let me garden on her property too! More grass to remove.

I think we are basically on the same page. I did have really good, deep soil
in this garden when I got here, but I tilled in 12 yards of compost when they
built the pool. Added measure and all However, there was not one plant
anywhere. The first year I waited to see what came up. I discovered I had a
backyard full of horsemint, Mexican hats, coreopsis, Engleman's daisies, lyre
leaf sage, native ferns, etc...but I was willing to wait a few years and slowly
relocate these plants to be somewhat more uniform in a prairie setting.

I'm certified Wildlife Habitat, but as far as the front garden goes; I keep it
neat as I can to conform. I am fortunate we do have other gardeners in the
neighborhood so the same 7 shrubs and two trees are not that bad. The two trees
they give out in this sub-division were crepe myrtles! Nice 10 foot tall
plants. We got lucky I guess.

V


On Sun, 06 Apr 2003 18:17:58 GMT, wrote:

You have been gardening a long time. Your gardens are going to look good and no
matter how much pain you are in you will drag yourself outside to weed and keep it
under control. Not everyone has the talent, the time, the taste. But up here the
big houses on 1/4 acre in the new burbs have nearly the identical industrial/cookie
cutter design plantings and that is ALL they have. I think we are talking about
different kinds of agreements cause I think they all have the same company come to
spray with poisons and plant the same pathetic plants and trees and the same COLOR
mulch. there is NO individuality at all. there are no cottage gardens out front.
so that is what I am describing and decrying.
I am quite sure that you didnt buy your present house for the landscaping... LOL, if
I remember your pictures correctly there wasnt any soil either???? So you did buy
this house because of the location, or was it something else? Ingrid

animaux wrote:
I never said that. Each week I remove more and more turf and put in plants.
Most are native, all are adapted. These are in beds. I don't have a jungle of
vines and messy looking weeds...IN THE FRONT.

Control freaks? People who live in my development all signed an agreement.
They could have moved elsewhere. Fortunately, I don't have problems here. We
have a small sub-division of 35 homes, all at least half acre zoned.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Those rules are wholly unfair to your mother. Her property should have been
grand fathered in. That would get my hackles up for sure. The only major
restrictions we have in here are that we cannot park trailers "forever" on the
property (my neighbor has one in his driveway all the time) and we have to keep
our lawns mown (still not too harsh) and pets need to be kept leashed (which is
a law in the town, anyway), things like that.

There is no way I would even consider living in a place you described. Eff
that. I'm totally with you on that one. Oh, I just thought of another one, no
above ground pools. Nothing I cannot live with. The restrictions you speak of
are almost Nazi concentration camp! Geesh. Isn't there anything your mother
can do, legally? That sucks.

V


On Sun, 06 Apr 2003 18:30:12 GMT, wrote:

OK.. that is what I thought, but didnt want to say it. Somehow I remembered you were
really sick and had to make the move and were desperate about taking as many plants
with you as possible and desperate about getting them heeled in if not planted. but
then my memory is going too, so wasnt sure I remembered right. in the "covenants"
near my mothers it sure doesnt look like individuality in planting is allowed at all.
In the city built up around my mother fences are discouraged or mostly banned now.
So a 6' high x 8' long privacy fence is allowed when it comes off the corner of the
house on one side of a patio. fences on lot lines can only be wood 3' high and must
be 50% open. 6' high fences around swimming pools are only allowed to be 3' from the
side of the pool. Cannot put up any kind of fence that would keep either rabbits or
deer out of plantings ... and that includes veggie gardens! which is why there are
such limited plants used .. the place is overrun with rabbits and deer. Now these
are the new rules and apply to EVERYONE in the city, doesnt matter if they were here
100 or 50 or 25 or 1 year ago. Ingrid

animaux wrote:
The only reason we bought this house was out of desperation. This was the only
new house in all of the Austin area which was almost ready to move into.

Every year I give away more and more divisions of ornamental grasses and
perennials. This year I gave away 10 vitex trees which came up from seed and
pots and pots of grasses.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Frogleg wrote:

On Sat, 05 Apr 2003 15:28:16 GMT, animaux
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Apr 2003 01:11:02 GMT, C. Hurst wrote:


The ultimate in biological terrorism...a ticked -off neighbor with a
sack of dandelion seeds


To which that attacked neighbor will apply herbicides and the beat goes on.

One would think that devoted, or even interested gardeners would be a
gentlefolk.

Did *I* ever claim to be "gentlefolk?"

Yet so many of the posts here are of revenge, attack,
lawsuit, "getting back at." Of course there are always Noxious
Neighbors who blight one's gardens and neighborhoods, but I hopefully
think most aren't driven by malicious intent. A few errant dandelions
can escalate into a shotgun attack in today's climate.

Only if you're caught establishing a field upwind from your target.

Why make
someone else's life miserable because you feel you are wronged?

It feels good.

Why
escalate confrontation? ['though I'm all in favor of eschewing
obfuscation.]

Why get caught?

*Why* does someone have a washing machine in their yard?

Because I threw it there?

Is it because they can't afford to have it hauled away?

Because they suck by neighborhood consensus, and they deserve it?

Surely not, or
at least seldom, that they regard it as an ornament to their
landscape. *Talk* to people. *Tell* them what your objections are, and
listen to their response. Offer to help. Explain exactly why their
habits annoy you or are contrary to local regs, and that you'd rather
speak personally than call the Weed Police.

I could tell you horror stories about the local absentee landlord that
would make you vomit.

Or torch their trees and
poison their animals.

zxcvbob wrote:

*Talk* to people. *Tell* them what your objections are, and
listen to their response. Offer to help. Explain exactly why their
habits annoy you or are contrary to local regs, and that you'd rather
speak personally than call the Weed Police. Or torch their trees and
poison their animals.

I haven't the slightest idea of who or what you are referring to. Nobody
suggested we poison animals or torch trees.

It comes up all the time here, and you know it. It just hasn't been
mentioned in this particular message thread. Yet.

Animals and trees, I like. Animals and trees don't play rap bullshit
at 160 db through other people's neighborhoods.

AMEN to that!

wrote in message
...
dont have to buy into a subdivision like that. my mother bought cow
pasture 60 years
ago and the burbs grew up around her and started passing "laws". she put
up a fine
gauge wire rabbit fence to stop em eating everything and because the
neighbors from
hell complained and turns out the city passed a law forbidding fences and
they
ordered her to take it down or she would be fined $1000 per day. doesnt
matter the
neighbor from hell couldnt see the fence unless she is standing on my
mothers road.
there is no relief from creeping protection of "property rights", there is
no
constitutional right to freedom from assinine laws. The only way to fight
this is a
constitutional amendment limiting the number of laws or rules, so they
want a new
rule they have to get rid of an old one. Ingrid


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.