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don_in_colorado

'Hosta Mooch' on my Street

don_in_colorado
9 years ago

LOL At least he wants to be. This sounds like something out of the 'Garden Ettiquite' thread that Ken (I think) posted long ago, which makes it even sillier to me...

I have an annoying neighbor, fairly nice guy, but the annoying part is, starting this spring, when we're in my backyard chatting, he often has made a habit of saying things like "When you need to divide some of these hostas, let me know, I'll take some from you as opposed to you just throwing them away..." What? LOL I told him I have never divided them (except for my Grand Tiara and a couple others, but HE doesn't need to know that) and have no plans to do so. The last time he hinted at it, I referred him to Hallson Gardens and Naylor Creek! LOL
Don B.

P.S. He still has no hostas on his property. Maybe he thinks I'll change my mind. Maybe Hell will freeze over first. Hosta-mooch. New word for the day : )

Anyone have a 'Hosta Mooch' in the neighborhood?

P.P.S. If you're reading this thread, you KNOW who you are, BRENNAN from acroos the street!!! LOL

I am adding a random hosta pic, because why not? Pic is of the colorful legs of 'Riptide'.

This post was edited by Don_in_Colorado on Fri, Aug 22, 14 at 15:55

Comments (56)

  • bkay2000
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I got rid of my Ann Kulpa to a hosta mooch. So, they aren't all bad.

    bk

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Nope, sorry DD. I don't divide my hostas. Not for HIM anyway ; ) I DID give two Guacamoles to other neighbors, though. I decreed they were more deserving of (my) hostas Heh heh heh...

    Hey, Hallson Gardens is a GREAT place to buy hostas! Let him BUY his own. Oh wait, keyword is "buy". Cheap A** neighbor!

    Don B.

    This post was edited by Don_in_Colorado on Fri, Aug 22, 14 at 18:01

  • mosswitch
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    People are always after my plants. After 25 years of gardening here I always have plenty I divide every year and give away to the first sucker (I mean lucky recipient) that comes along. Except my hostas, and I always make it clear that they can have pieces of most anything I have, except hostas, because I don't divide them. But I am glad to share the seeds!

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    They're always after me Lucky Charms!

    Don B.

  • in ny zone5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    With the recent interpretations of gun laws, how come anybody dares even to walk into someone's garden from the street.

  • tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Don, looks like that Riptide is ready to divide. Just a quick spade down between it. lol

    tj

  • oldfixer
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Share a few seeds?

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oh, not that one, TJ! That's one of my special ones! Like all my others : )

    Don B.

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Not the seedpods, Oldfixer! Those are my special seedpods! lol

    Don B.

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Do you know how to thwart "moochers"? You tell them exactly what YOU paid for each and every one (I have a computer brain in terms of my hosta, lol). That should make them think about it a little.

    Then you go on about how long it has taken you to grow it to that size ... And if that's not enough, place a value on that mature hosta in today's prices and that should do it!

    On the flip side, I'm with some of you....there is nothing more enjoyable than sharing with someone who is a fairly new gardener and just needs a few plants to get them going. Hey, come on in....choose a perennial and I'll gladly dig you up a piece! As far as hostas go, depends on what, who, and will it thrive in their yard or am I sending it to an early grave??? (Where otherwise it would continue to be happy at home.)

    Pickier when it comes to hostas. I can part with good sized divisions of AlboMarginata (carppy corrector!), Golden Scepter, Ventricosa, a Lancifolia, maybe a teeny Kifukurin Otome, or a division of Golden Tiara but that is it!

    I'm getting the biggest thrill watching my hostas attain maturity and they won't achieve that if I'm constantly dividing them, now can they? :-)

    Anyone getting a hosta out of me considers themselves very fortunate because they tell me so! LOL. Boy, do I have them trained, or what? Lol

    Real mooches do not appreciate their "gifts"....and they are just too cheap to buy their own. Beware...they will resort to flattery! Lol. So......back to paragraphs one and two of this post.

    Jo

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    LOL that's funny, Jo. Well, if someone pulls an "Aden" in my garden, I'll know whose backyard I'll check first, BRENNAN! LOL

    Don B.

  • hostahosta
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I really don't have any hosta mooches. Even my best hosta friend and I don't ask for divisions out of each others gardens. My sister hinted once that my hosta were getting big and I probably should start dividing them, but never pushed the issue. (I have given her a few divisions, the common and fast growing ones)

    My best hosta friend and I do generously share when we divide (which is rare for me)There was one hosta I admired several times in her garden last year, and guess what? At the end of the season, she gifted me with a large division off it! But I didn't ask for it. Unfortunately, though she has hundreds of hosta, she didn't keep track of names until recently, and I don't know what it is!

    We also kinda know what is in each other's gardens, so if either of us makes a hosta trip, we often divide a large plant to share with each other, or even buy an extra plant for the other's garden. It is so fun to get these unexpected garden gifts.

  • mac48025 ( SE michigan)
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I freely give hosta's away but I NEVER divide them. When someone asks me when I divide my hosta's they are really asking "when can I come get some free hosta's?" I just tell them I never divide them. My good friend with many more hosta's than me takes it a step further and responds with. " only an idiot would divide a hosta!" And to think his garden was on HGTV's Gardeners Journal show. He was nice to Erica though. Lol

  • Jon 6a SE MA
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have lived in the same house for many, many years and have never had any problems with anyone, except the 'neighbors from hell' that border me in the back.

    If you want to hear about moochers this tops it all. I own a vacant lot next door to my house lot. For over 10 years my 'neighbors' would always walk over and sooner or later say, 'If you ever want to sell the lot, let us know. You KNOW we will never build on it so it will stay the same as if you owned it. We are interested if we can get a 'good deal'. I would think to myself 'Sure, I'm stupid'

    After many years, I simply told them the price of a comparable lot sold across the street and they became visibly upset and they never came over again, great...but they started to clear off my lot by about 350-400 sq. ft. and increased their front yard. They were planting grass, cutting down my trees and using the trees as boundary markers.

    I wrote them a letter of no trespass and gave a copy to the police. Nothing for a year. I went to the station and they said I needed to get a process server to make it legal. I paid to have a process server deliver a No Trespass order (I enjoyed it as he delivered it with a pistol in his back pocket). It was two months after before they stopped mowing the grass. They then would rake branches onto my property and they kept the grass in the sidewalk area in front of my lot mowed.

    Recently, because I would rake back the branches back onto their property, they (or more precisely the batty woman) placed rows of large branches over on my property as raking wasn't getting her anywhere. I ran a mason's string directly along the property line, took all the branches (good size) and threw them as far as I could onto their lawn. I then ran another line along the property line of my lot and out to the street, Took a large sheet of cardboard set it in 6 inches from the mason line and killed the grass (you know how I like RoundUp) in the sidewalk area in front of my property which they were pretending was their front lawn. A short time later she jumped into my Ravine area startled my dog, who knocked over the chiminea filled with hot coals. I made a video of her as she continued to move over to the corner lot and fling branches from her property onto mine. I pressed charges and she had to pay for a lawyer for two appearances (I didn't need a lawyer to tell the truth) was fined $150 court charges and has it on her record and will be held against her if she ever does anything stupid again.

    As part of the deal to get off easy, they said the would build a fence. They did. It is a real nice fence and I love having it....but it seems they decided to have one of my big trees cut down that was 2 inches on their property. It wasn't in the way of the fence Which is set 8 inches onto their property; fencing company standard, they just thought since it was 2 inches on their property they would have it cut down. The tree had a 19 3/4 inch diameter trunk.

    I studied up on MA law and if there is any portion of a tree on your property and some on another's property, both own it and neither can cut it down. You can trim overhanging branches, but you cannot make the tree 'ugly' (subjective) and cannot kill the tree in the process.

    OK, they have broken the law, now I am awaiting a calculation from a certified consulting arborist (probably in the top ten in the country) to give me an estimate on the ash tree they cut down. Interestingly enough when someone knowingly cuts down a 'boundary tree' or any other tree on someone else's property the judgment is tripled. It should end up a tidy amount, probably a lot more than the $7000 limit for small claims, where I filed to avoid lawyers. The certified arborist's fee is far less, although I was warned it would be huge.

    I don't think anyone will be topping these mooches.

    Jon

    This post was edited by jonnyb023 on Sun, Aug 24, 14 at 12:44

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow, Jon...That is FREAKING NUTS!!! I'm not really sure what else to say, so...That is FREAKING NUTS!!! Amazing, truly.

    Don B.

  • Jon 6a SE MA
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The woman is bat crazy, and she was an Earth Sciences teacher...now on disability for a 'bad back'.

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    ...bad back from all that heaving of branches to your side, no doubt....bad karma....what goes around, comes around... enjoy the beautiful tranquility you laboured over, Jon. :-)

    Jo

  • newhostalady Z6 ON, Canada
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    When people come to visit and see my garden, they might say something like "Oh my gosh. You have so many plants!" (It might look like that because I have a lot of hosta in pots.) I always feel like they are saying . . . hint, hint . . . "you can't possibly need all those plants. How about you give me a one or two?" We'll they are kind of like my babies that I tend to and nurture. I want to divide if and when I am good and ready.

    In regards to Swentastic's comment "Just take it as a compliment that he wants to be just like you." I think it is more like your neighbor wants to be just like you . . . for free!!!!!

    When your neighbor asks about whether you are dividing and if he could have some, you might say "I'm not planning to divide any of my hosta, but trust me, you'll be the first to know!" Maybe that will satisfy him for a while at least.

    I hope you win your case Jonny. That is a nasty neighbor.

  • cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow, jonny. I will never complain about my neighbors again. I hope yours decide to move! That is the worst neighbor story ever.

    I have never had anyone ask me for hostas, but I do give away ferns like mad.

    Cynthia

  • DelawareDonna
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Jon - Your neighbors are incredibly malicious and vindictive. I wouldn't be surprised if they removed the fence in the middle of the night. I hope they pay dearly financially for their sheer stupidity.

    DD

  • Babka NorCal 9b
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Jon- My strongest sympathies with your ordeal.

    Around here the passers by just pluck ripe fruit from trees in front yards, as if they are for everyone to enjoy. My son has a navel orange that borders his front sidewalk, and wouldn't you know it is the best flavored of his variety of citrus trees. He's lucky to get a couple for himself! We used to have a couple Blenheim apricot trees in our front lawn. Passers by just "assumed" they were meant for them too. I'm just that old lady who yells at them when they trespass. Grrrrrrrrr.

    -Babka

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Y'know, Babka, 'old lady' or not, trespassing is trespassing, and rude is rude, so I don't blame you a bit there.

    Hope you 'kill' these idiot neighbors of yours in court, Jon. Good luck!

    Don B.

  • donna_in_sask
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The problem with letting "some" people know that you are willing to share is that once you give them one plant, they usually expect more...I actually have the opposite dilemma...a good friend of mine has an incredible hosta garden and she has offered pieces of whatever I want...I simply don't have any room in my yard unless I dig out new beds. If I do take her up on it, you bet I would give her a gift to show my appreciation.

    Jon, it must be awfully draining to have to deal with those nasty neighbours...sometimes it's better to try to get along in the first place, but hard to do when they are mentally deranged.

  • almosthooked zone5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sorry for your neighbor problems Jon and Bakka you need to put a sign on your tree saying poisonous spray has just been done... that should stop the moochers picking your fruit
    I have been very fortunate to have such good neighbors. If it were not for Myrle and the beautiful plants she gave me, I would never have known the love of hosta. She gifted me some of her doubles and got my first last hosta bed started on a long road to many more beds. That was a little over three years ago. The odd time I can enable her but it is very rare because she has 4 times as many mature plants as me. The other two neighbors are not hosta lovers and one just hates life and people in general so never have to bother with someone so nasty. I have given a few to start my daughter with perennials and she is doing great in the short northern BC climate and they are living and looking good. Seeing they are thriving, I will give her more IF iI divide anything. I would sooner buy her some as gift then divide my young 3 yr plants that I am waiting to see huge soon.
    I have shared fern and the odd other plants to someone that remarks but not my hosta that I have bought and waiting to grow large

  • bishop5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm a giver. God has blessed me we'll over the years, so whether its a hosta, food, or any thing else, if I can share I do. However, even I have limits. I don't give prized plants and I must feel the recipient is deserving.

    With Hosta's how great is it to help a neighbor or family member develop the same appreciation as you.

  • mikgag Z5b NS Canada
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The woman who came to our house to watch our kids after school now has a very lovely hosta garden.....

  • MadPlanter1 zone 5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm kind of split on this one. It really irritates me when my husbands co-workers send him home to ask for plants. The theory seems to be if I have a gardenful, I can fill theirs, too. I do give away excess iris and daylilies. The iris are sometimes just getting composted because I've run out of people to palm them off on.

    And some of my favorite hostas are ones a friend has given me. It never hurts to share - with someone deserving, not a moocher.

    Jon's neighbors are unbelievable. Maybe the disability board would enjoy movies of her heaving branches.

  • ci_lantro
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Maybe the disability board would enjoy movies of her heaving branches.

    Yeh, I thought of that, too but Jon said she was an Earth Sciences teacher...and I don't think we want her back in a school shaping impressionable young minds, do we?

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    back in the day.. at the old house...

    i had a 4 by 6 foot nursery bed ...

    whenever i dug a hosta.... or got a large new one... i would break off a piece. .. and put it in the nursery ...

    and as the tour was finishing.. i would give gifts away ...

    by that point.. they knew i wasnt digging up to their taste ... and they knew all about how i mail ordered plants ...

    and.. they were happy with whatever they got ... and if they werent.. i beat them about the head and chest with the division.. and kicked their glowing behind off the property ... but i digress.. ya think.. lol

    ken

    ps: jonny wins

  • Jon 6a SE MA
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have been fortunate through the years in having great neighbors. I had neighbors next door that were very good friends for over 25 years and are still good friends. I have a young couple across the street that have a new baby and they bring him over all the time and they are great. The new people next door are friendly and we always have laughs together, even over this. I have lived here for over 40 years and I have never had cross words with any; never has anyone complained to me about anything. When people drive by, if they don't stop and roll down their windows to talk, they wave and smile.

    My other 'neighbors' have now paid for a lawyer for 2 appearances and $150 for court costs. They now face a $7000 small claims action by me for cutting down a large tree that is on my property (boundary tree). I have paid $15 for the criminal filing. I have paid $150 for the small claims filing and $500 (super deal, I think he sympathizes with me) to get one of the top ten consulting arborists in the country to give me an estimate of the value of the tree. He visited yesterday and is going to mail me his estimation.

    I think that all this will prevent any more instances and I can have simple enjoyment of my property and my other neighbors.

    Thanks everyone for your support. I appreciate it. Please don't worry that I am going to let these people spoil my life, although I hope to legally make theirs miserable if they persist. I hope the fence ends it, but I keep thinking they can't be this stupid and they keep proving me wrong.

    Jon

  • User
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This is an amazing thread.

    I have one really creepy neighbor who blows leaves off his roof, and then sits down at the eaves to watch us over our privacy fence. He was at one point claiming our driveway was HIS, when my DH asked him why a tree remover had backed his trailer into our driveway and across our lawn. Because of that, I put in a property line flower bed in the front along that property line. I went so far as to make it double sided to look good from both gardens. I laid a row of bricks flat on the property line so he could put his lawn mower wheel up on it since he is anal about his grass. Well, he has taken to moving the bricks over and the line, which I popped with a cord, now curves into my flower bed. For a while his grandson was playing frizbees with a friend, and stayed on my side of the bed, and jumped the plants to go back home. Only, they knocked over one of 5 Italian cypress so the roots were out of the ground. We came home to see it laying there. Now he is cutting the major portion of the back yard of the vacant house behind them, especially since I bought a portion of the back yard of the lady who lives behind us. That is where my hosta garden is, now in a totally walled in garden.

    My nice little neighbor and her friend (and now mine) from down the street sell divisions of their plants as a regular thing with yard sales. So they are used to dividing things. When they began in early spring wanting to visit my hosta garden, and said, "Ohhh, those are nice. When do you plan to divide?" Like everyone else, I knew what that translated into, a request for a division. I know they each had ONE HOSTA, which came from Lowes. It was a greenie, and I think it was Honeybells. But they were admiring my more exotic hosta. Well, come Mother's Day, I gifted each of them a hosta, Paradise Island, ordered from Hostas On The Hill near Birmingham. I have not heard how that hosta is doing.

    I was raised with the "passalong plant" concept, my grandmothers always toured their gardens begun with passalong plants, and made cuttings mostly, sometimes divisions, of their plants. I always listened to the history of where each plant came from, and it was just a part of my family history. I grew up to create my first "memory" garden at MoccasinLanding with the plants honoring friends and family.

    I'd LIKE to share, but hosta are really different. They need to be mature, and I think I deserve to grow this garden just the way I want it to look. IF I can get them mature, it will be an accomplishment. I'd like to share that experience with my friends, family, and neighbors, not share my hosta.

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've shared plants with neighbors, as I stated on a previous post. I'm happy to educate and share. All my daylilies are now with my next door neighbor, and she loves them. THAT is not my issue.

    I just won't share with BRENNAN!! Buy a beer once in a while, too, BRENNAN! LOL

    Very interesting/horrifying reading about some of these neighbors from hell. Best of luck with these freaking maniacs!

    Don B.

    Ken, if you smack your neighbors around with hosta divisions, I heard that can help stimulate growth. Of the hostas, not the neighbors : )

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ken, what a lovely, and generous way to have commemorated a tour of your gardens.
    What a Hilarious last paragraph!!!

    Don, your comment to Ken, equally hilarious! You're quick, lol.

    Mocc, it really takes all kinds, doesn't it? What never ceases to amaze me is the sense of "entitlement" some people have...and I'm not referring to the younger generation (not all, of course) to whom this phrase might be most apropos. It's people of all ages it seems.

    Whatever happened to "work/pay for what you want" ...instead of "what can I get for nothing" ... read that as "steal". I suppose there will always be those with their hand out - not the needy, rather the freeloaders.

    Respect for other people's property seems to have gone by the wayside.

    Respect for the Hosta however has increased exponentially! Even Brennan recognizes that, lol.

    I'm sorry, I'll climb off that soapbox now. :-(

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I should tell Brennan that he's now an Internet celebrity, known from here to Ireland! LOL

    Don B.

  • bragu_DSM 5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Don, I thot you already were sharing your bounty with your 'brother' mac …

    bring one more enthusiast into the fold! You need to 'enable' him …

    you should have plenty of guacs to 'share' …

    dave

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oh, Dave, I have shared some Guacamole plants with a couple of neighbors...It's a nice feeling to share the friendship plant...

    ...just not with BRENNAN! I'll share the 'moochers plant' with him...Some Bindweed!!

    : )

  • in ny zone5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    We have great neighbors. I have well defined property lines. Actually as part of moving costs my original employer in 1987 paid for a licensed suryeyor to review and establish surveyor rods in the ground plus give me a plot map. I used that several times to show people where my and their property lines are. We also have a fence around the back yard, so everything is in agreement and at peace here.
    Though one young lady neighbor told me she had asked landscapers to cut down 2 of my trees, but then realized that they were mine.
    One neighbor here thought that property lines run exactly in the middle between houses. Not true, their house was oriented differently to look bigger.
    Bernd

  • User
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have to laugh about this now because when that neighbor (-ish...she lives one street over) showed up asking for liatris cuttings and seeds, she started commenting on my hostas looking so nice so late in the season as well. I just said thank you and continued with digging up some liatris for her. It never occurred to me she might be hinting at getting some of those as well. I'll make sure to have a deflect-and-redirect strategy on hand if she does show up again and offer something less "special" than the ones she was eyeing that day.

  • Jon 6a SE MA
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Bernd,

    My neighbors have had their land surveyed 4 times. They have accused me of moving their property markers which are plastic markers with a 3/4 " steel bar with a large 'anchor' set 3 feet deep. I know this because (on the fourth survey) it took their surveyor an hour to dig out each marker that they wanted replaced with 4x4 concrete markers 4 feet deep. I paid $100 to replace the marker in the front of their house, that they kept secretly buried, with a similar 4x4 concrete marker at that location.

    When the surveyor was in the back of my property and putting in the concrete markers, he was pounding in around the markers to set them in solid. I said to him 'Hey, don't put those in so tight, how in the heck am I ever going to be able to pull that out' We both laughed.

    The tree they cut down which was over 90% on my property was evaluated at $5,349.00. Treble damages for knowingly cutting down a tree on someone else's property would be over $16,000.

    Maybe my $7,000 small claim is too small, but I think it is a 'bird in the hand'.

    Jon

    This post was edited by jonnyb023 on Mon, Aug 25, 14 at 18:19

  • in ny zone5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Jon,
    you are doing it right. One of my front surveyor rods also got pounded under the lawn by a former neighbor, but I can reconstruct from my plot map and find it again. It is important to know the property lines on my only 0.45 acre lot when doing new plantings. Some trees are expensive to buy. Being a hobby gardener any ft of land is important to keep, could plant a lot of hostas on a 1 ft strip of land.
    The law permitting pruning of neighbor's trees to a property line mentioned above is important for me, because 3 very large Green Giant arborvitaes of my neighbor's need regularly to be cut back for me to pass thru on my own property. Nobody expected those cute and inexpensive little arborvitaes become these monsters in 20 years.
    Bernd

  • User
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Now this little thing planted on the property line would cause a big problem I'm sure. I give a link below to where I found the photo.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Drive through tree, not many left.

  • Jon 6a SE MA
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Bernd,

    Laws vary from state to state, but here in MA you cannot kill a boundary tree by pruning it nor can you make it 'ugly' which is sure to give lawyers a lot of work. You can judiciously prune branches that overhang your property.

    Moc.

    If that size tree were on the boundary in MA, both property owners would be stuck with it unless they both agreed to cut it down.

    Jon

    I'm not a tree lawyer, but I play one in the Hosta Forum.

  • Babka NorCal 9b
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Here in tree-hugging California you are are required to get a permit to remove any tree in your own yard that is more than 38" in circumference. You can and will be fined if you do...in the thousands of dollars. Even if you planted that tree yourself 40 years ago, fertilized and watered and pruned it. You have to provide proof that said tree qualifies for removal. (see below)

    Then you must replace it with a new tree 24" box size, OR pay an in-lieu--of fee which goes to planting a tree somewhere in our wonderful city.

    Are we the land of Fruits and Nuts?????? YUP

    ...but our weather is perfect here.
    ***************************************************************
    1. The tree is diseased or badly damaged.
    2. The tree represents a potential hazard to people, structures or other
    trees.
    3. The tree is in sound condition but restricts the owners’ ability to
    enjoy the reasonable use or economic potential of the property. It
    may also unreasonably restrict an adjoining property owner’s use or
    economic potential of the adjoining property. If this applies, the
    factors below will be used to make a decision regarding removal.
    If the tree is healthy, the following factors shall be used to evaluate
    the application:
     The need to allow construction of improvements and to allow
    economic or reasonable enjoyment of property
     The approximate age of the tree relative to its average life span
     The limited useful landscape value due to its inappropriate
    species, size and location relative to the existing structures on the
    property
     The topography of the land and the effect of the requested action
    on water retention and diversion or increased flow of surface
    water The potential effect of removal on soil erosion and stability
    where the tree is located
     Current and future visual screening potential
     Overcrowding of trees unreasonably restricting the use of the land

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    How 'bout the land of endless revenue streams...

    Don B.

  • Babka NorCal 9b
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yeah, MY revenue.

    -Babka

  • don_in_colorado
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Exactly, Babka.

    Don B.

  • in ny zone5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    When people buy trees they should read how big they finally will get and place trees accordingly away from property lines. Plastic tags tied to trees in the nursery only mention the size of a conifer in 10 years, but they will continue growing at a similar rate somewhat forever. I.e. a 3ft tall Green Giant at HD will be 40 ft tall and 20 ft wide in 30 or so years. When I would let neighbor's trees grow half of that = 10 ft onto my property, then the town would no longer be able to read their water meter or trample through my hostas.

  • Jon 6a SE MA
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Mother Nature planted this tree so I hesitate to question its location. It doesn't matter to the value as they go by species, location, health; calculated by the value of a 3 inch caliper tree planted by a nursery and establish a value per square inch and use factors for these attributes to get the final value.

    I couldn't believe the case where someone was having trouble with drains clogging and cracks in their foundation from a neighbor's tree and the court said the tree would stay !!! It seems, in some cases, trees have more rights than people.

    Jon

  • User
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    First post of Josephine67 about stopping moochers with a $$$ sign sounds like a good deal to me. I know that my hosta being well over 500 in number now, NOT counting the many duplicates I BOUGHT, well, if they average a conservative estimate of $10 to $15 each, can you do the math? One at auction was $200! And that does not count the many many bags of potting mix, pine bark, and the stupid POTS each one requires. AND the shipping charges for each order. AND the water bill.

    So I think to myself, "there is no free lunch" for any moocher. I have one which was gifted to me this year by Land Of The Giants. You know how much it would have cost me to buy it? $200 for a Dorothy Benedict! And that is one I have sitting on the table in the center of my hosta garden. If anyone wishes to hint about taking some home, I have that one close by to use as an example. THEY don't need to know that it was a GIFT HOSTA.

    I have a great many seedpods formed on many fragrant hostas this year. To special people, I am considering sharing some of those. But Mama plantaginea herself set only ONE pod, and to me that would be giving away Joseph and his coat to slave traders. It simply won't be happening.

    But, those on Elegans, Seducer, Victory, Clear Fork River Valley, hmmmmm, maybe.....but, they were right there beside my blooming fragrants, so.....it MIGHT happen? but don't hold me to it. Let's say that if they all germinated, I'd be knee deep in fragrant hostas! Mostly green, of course.