"D. Gerasimatos" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Sunflower wrote:

I'm probably the problem neighbor that everyone else is complaining
about.
I don't *do* lawns and golfball junipers and hedges like everyone else
does
and I keep getting nasty notes from the city, but so far no citations.


What do you do instead? Xeriscape? Weeds?


Dimitri

I killed all the grass (except in the flowerbeds, darn it) and planted
ground covers and mixed shrub borders of mostly roses with a nice sized
patch of wildflowers that I DO keep weeded. It's just more informal than
formal. I have an old wooden ladder painted blue that I have a climbing rose
growing on, and several ramblers scrambling through trees and lots of sweet
william, coreopsis, verbena and other self seeded "raggedy" plants
intermixed through the whole thing. I do mow the strip of groundcover out
by the road, because even though the maximun height of it was about 8", that
was still too tall to make the city happy, even though they have no
ordinance that states how high "grass" can be. It's a certified Backyard
Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation, which doesn't mean
that much, but since I was certified and posted the sign, there haven't
been any more complaints. Yet. I'm just waiting on the city guy to come by
again and tell me my "weeds" are too high. Last time, I asked him which
plants he was talking about, the vinca minor, or the coreopsis tinctoria, or
the coreopsis lancelota, or maybe the verbena tenuisecta, or perhaps the
trifolium repens, or maybe the rudbeckia hirta, or perhaps the verbena
bonariensis. Then I asked him to define exactly what a "weed" was and why
he viewed my flowers as weeds. Haven't seen that guy since, but I've seen
the city truck drive by slowly a time or two. I guess they figure it's not
worth it to try to to take it any further.

"Sunflower" wrote in message
...

"D. Gerasimatos" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Sunflower wrote:

I'm probably the problem neighbor that everyone else is complaining
about.
I don't *do* lawns and golfball junipers and hedges like everyone else
does
and I keep getting nasty notes from the city, but so far no citations.


What do you do instead? Xeriscape? Weeds?


Dimitri

I killed all the grass (except in the flowerbeds, darn it) and planted
ground covers and mixed shrub borders of mostly roses with a nice sized
patch of wildflowers that I DO keep weeded. It's just more informal than
formal. I have an old wooden ladder painted blue that I have a climbing
rose
growing on, and several ramblers scrambling through trees and lots of
sweet
william, coreopsis, verbena and other self seeded "raggedy" plants
intermixed through the whole thing. I do mow the strip of groundcover out
by the road, because even though the maximun height of it was about 8",
that
was still too tall to make the city happy, even though they have no
ordinance that states how high "grass" can be. It's a certified Backyard
Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation, which doesn't mean
that much, but since I was certified and posted the sign, there haven't
been any more complaints. Yet. I'm just waiting on the city guy to come
by
again and tell me my "weeds" are too high. Last time, I asked him which
plants he was talking about, the vinca minor, or the coreopsis tinctoria,
or
the coreopsis lancelota, or maybe the verbena tenuisecta, or perhaps the
trifolium repens, or maybe the rudbeckia hirta, or perhaps the verbena
bonariensis. Then I asked him to define exactly what a "weed" was and why
he viewed my flowers as weeds. Haven't seen that guy since, but I've seen
the city truck drive by slowly a time or two. I guess they figure it's
not
worth it to try to to take it any further.

I think that is an entirely different situation than having a bad neighbor.
As long as you didn't move into a development that required a particular
type of lawn, then I see no problem. Your landscape might be unconventional
for the area, but it is not a neglected mess. I have neighbors who are the
nicest people you would ever meet. They are both smart and articulate.
Unfortunately their idea of landscaping is to spray their entire backyard
with RoundUp about every 4 months. It has created a lot of erosion problems
and after about two weeks, weeds begin to take over and flourish until the
next applications of poison. What they are doing doesn't violate any rules
or laws and I just try to ignore it as I would rather have nice neighbors
with a bad back yard than assholes with a nice garden.

In article ,
Sunflower wrote:

I killed all the grass (except in the flowerbeds, darn it) and planted
ground covers and mixed shrub borders of mostly roses with a nice sized
patch of wildflowers that I DO keep weeded. It's just more informal than
formal. I have an old wooden ladder painted blue that I have a climbing rose
growing on, and several ramblers scrambling through trees and lots of sweet
william, coreopsis, verbena and other self seeded "raggedy" plants
intermixed through the whole thing. I do mow the strip of groundcover out
by the road, because even though the maximun height of it was about 8", that
was still too tall to make the city happy, even though they have no
ordinance that states how high "grass" can be. It's a certified Backyard
Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation, which doesn't mean
that much, but since I was certified and posted the sign, there haven't
been any more complaints. Yet. I'm just waiting on the city guy to come by
again and tell me my "weeds" are too high. Last time, I asked him which
plants he was talking about, the vinca minor, or the coreopsis tinctoria, or
the coreopsis lancelota, or maybe the verbena tenuisecta, or perhaps the
trifolium repens, or maybe the rudbeckia hirta, or perhaps the verbena
bonariensis. Then I asked him to define exactly what a "weed" was and why
he viewed my flowers as weeds. Haven't seen that guy since, but I've seen
the city truck drive by slowly a time or two. I guess they figure it's not
worth it to try to to take it any further.



I will go so far as to say that you don't seem to be a problem neighbor
at all. What part of the country are you in?


Dimitri

"D. Gerasimatos" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Sunflower wrote:

I killed all the grass (except in the flowerbeds, darn it) and planted
ground covers and mixed shrub borders of mostly roses with a nice sized
patch of wildflowers that I DO keep weeded. It's just more informal than
formal. I have an old wooden ladder painted blue that I have a climbing
rose
growing on, and several ramblers scrambling through trees and lots of
sweet
william, coreopsis, verbena and other self seeded "raggedy" plants
intermixed through the whole thing. I do mow the strip of groundcover
out
by the road, because even though the maximun height of it was about 8",
that
was still too tall to make the city happy, even though they have no
ordinance that states how high "grass" can be. It's a certified Backyard
Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation, which doesn't mean
that much, but since I was certified and posted the sign, there haven't
been any more complaints. Yet. I'm just waiting on the city guy to come
by
again and tell me my "weeds" are too high. Last time, I asked him which
plants he was talking about, the vinca minor, or the coreopsis tinctoria,
or
the coreopsis lancelota, or maybe the verbena tenuisecta, or perhaps the
trifolium repens, or maybe the rudbeckia hirta, or perhaps the verbena
bonariensis. Then I asked him to define exactly what a "weed" was and
why
he viewed my flowers as weeds. Haven't seen that guy since, but I've
seen
the city truck drive by slowly a time or two. I guess they figure it's
not
worth it to try to to take it any further.



I will go so far as to say that you don't seem to be a problem neighbor
at all. What part of the country are you in?


Dimitri

Thanks, but I think a few folks on the street would differ with you. ;~(
I'm in the South, in MS and surviving it the best I can. The acres of
heavily fertilized and chemcalized bermuda and boring holly and junipers
with the 2.1 crepe myrtles and limbed up magnolia grandifloras can get to be
hypnotic. One neighbor did plant a weeping cherry surrounded by annuals--in
the lowest spot in the yard with hideous drainage--in Southern clay that any
potter would kill for. It's already showing distress.

But, this is an older subdivision, and full of cantankerous folks who've
been here since it was put in in the 70's and who don't like "different".
Across the busy road at the end of the street is a new subdivision straight
out of the cotton field, and many of the younger homeowners there prefer to
walk ours because of the mature trees and less cookie cutter home styles.
From some of these people, I've actually gotten *compliments* on how the
yard works. One of these days, I'll do a "before and after" series of pics
for a webpage. Still too many projects left to complete to be the "after"
though.