VERY cute spectre and Chick 3d.
But where did the conversation about pet peeves go??? lol
Not that I mind.

My fault. As my mynah would say, "Sorry. Sorry Sorry."

One of my pet peeves is that I CANNOT grow catnip in my garden. It always gets destroyed. One year, I tried to grow it in hanging baskets. Cats can climb.

Ok..back to pet peeves. Catnip growing everywhere except in the veggie garden where I want it to stay.

It is in among the boxwood hedge, under the Virginia Juniper (aka Eastern red Cedar), in my roses, in every single flower bed, in the lawn, and even in the cracks between the driveway concrete slabs.

Do birds or something else spread the seeds?

John D -

I have a solution for you..instead of using a hanging basket take a wire one and put it over your catnip that's in the ground - so it looks like a wire igloo. The catnip grows through the wire basket and prevents the cats from destroying the plant. I've had my catnip for three years now, neither Spot nor Honu have destroyed it though they drape themselves all over it, and the two of them keep it nicely trimmed so it doesn't reseed.

Barbara

OOOooo, Barbara, you is one smart lady!

I think I'll plant some catnip this year...

;-)

Love,

Claudia

Barbara:
Thanks! Great idea!

I learn more on the Gardenweb...

Now onto my current pet peeve--the "Hurry up and wait" nature of construction. Between the weather and waiting on the stone, I'm starting to think the Great Wall of Chapel Hill will NEVER get built....I know this isn't true, it just FEELS that way today.

sigh

melanie

I know what you mean about the hurry up and wait, Melanie. I've finally thrown in the trowel and arranged to have a pro designer help me with the changes to my property. But...he won't be here for a couple more weeks, and in the meantime I feel like my hands are tied. (I did place a small order with Bluestone anyway, hey, plants are easy to move, right?)

Try and try as I may, every time I think I have one part of the yard drawn out the way I want it, something else gets in the way...either a mature existing plant doesn't fit in well with my plan, or another area gets left dangling, or something. I'm left feeling frustrated and stumped.

So, my pet peeve is that it will take ten lifetimes as an amateur to get the experience that a professional designer/gardener will learn in a few years on the job. I'm not getting any younger, and I'm finding it hard to be patient. I know, I know, the process is fun, too, but I'm anxious to have some results to enjoy for a change.
Jo

Sounds like hiring a pro is the way to go! And YOU know enough about plants to avoid the mistake the PO's of THIS house made--like planting a prunus mume 2 feet from a rock retaining wall--no wonder the poor thing is sick and dying. I have the garden plan--that tree is RIGHT where it was "supposed" to be--per the designer. Granted--it looked gorgeous there until it got sick...but culturally it was a PROFOUNDLY dumb thing to do. Roots restricted on one side by the wall, airflow reduced because of the wall--additional mositure from the bed above during our ridiculously wet summer last year--that poor tree was a fungus waiting to happen.

Am waiting to remove it until the fall---maybe. If I can stand to look at it that long--we'll see how it leafs out this spring. The bloom was SIGNIFICANTLY reduced.

melanie

Melanie -

I'm going to rant on behalf of my DH. One of my husband's jobs, beside acting, is that of the "plant geek" for an exclusive florist in Beverly Hills. He goes into private homes/estates and maintains the plants that designers have ordered from this company.

He regularly rants and raves about designer's, mostly of the interior sort, putting large $700-$1000 tropicals in twelve inch pots in the darkest corner of a very dark room. The plants are doomed before he even starts...but when he mentions that a particular plant isn't appropriate for that location he gets a "that's what the designer wanted". Aaagh!

Barbara

Oh, Barbara - how frustrating for him! Does he ever do a rescue? "Hi honey! Look what I liberated tonight!" Think what your garden could look like. :)

Melanie - I feel for you. Having your place 'all tore up' is no fun. And doubly painful when having to, in the process, watch a gorgeous tree be lost due to the PROFOUNDLY dumb practices of a past designer. Are you comforting yourself with Proper Plans for the new Great Wall?

Jo - How ever did you chose your designer? Must have been difficult, given your level of knowledge (in that you have already spent time discovering much about what you do or do not want, what will or will not work/be appropriate. etc), the historic nature of your property, your educated, refined sense of style, etc. And now to have to wait! Ack.

I'm also sitting around, impatient. I've had to stop, due to some serious health problems with my contractor (it's only a two-man operation). Instead, I've spent some energy gathering honkin' huge river rocks (that match my recently completed pillars) from a nearby neighbor's excavation for future use (why pay for them?) and just have to have faith that the rest will come together. If anyone hears of carpentry skills going unused in So CA, I can put 'em to work!

Tessa

oooh-rock collecting--always fun. And you are getting YOURS legally--without trespassing! Years ago I collected rocks when they were re-doing the local by-pass--technically trespassing, but I couldn't STAND the thought of those cool rocks going into a landfill. I'm doing ok--was just feeling a tad whiny this morning. Still distressed about the trees--am thinking I should probably take them down now and spend the summer deciding what to plant instead...

melanie

Found out WHY we still don't have our stone--it's coming from Pennsylvania--and they just got 18" of snow...maybe next week... My contractor says he'll get the first 28" of hte back side of the wall built (that stone is HERE--it's the "pretty" stuff we are waiting on) next week REGARDLESS.

sigh

Maybe I SHOULD have hauled the stone out of the creek behind our house!

melanie

TessaSD-

That's the one huge perk of his job...we get ALL the abused, neglected, and ill rescues including most of the spent orchids. His clients are so wealthy they just toss a $200 orchid without batting an eye once it's stopped blooming - talk about a pet peeve! So, all unwanted and abused plants come home to us - and Michael was the man who once forbade me (good try, as if that would work!) from bringing any more plants into the house....HA! Clients are little less generous about getting rid of a really big Raphus, expecting Michael to "cure" it, but we get plenty of those too.

Barbara

Tessa, you make me blush! I've talked with a number of designers/landscapers, and finally decided to bite the bullet and hire a good designer from out of the area. That's not to say that there aren't any talented ones in my area, but I haven't seen anything so far that isn't more of the same. Meatballs and swooping curves.

So, my 50th birthday (last week) gift is a design to die for. Let's hope I can do it justice. I won't be doing an historically accurate representation, because there are just too many mature plantings and existing features, and I don't want to eliminate everything. But I will try to be sensitive, particularly to the feel of the house. Also will be doing most of the work myself where plantings are concerned.

Will keep folks posted on my progress, if any.
Jo

Melanie - I've been out hauling rocks again this evening. whew. Better to let your contractor handle that 28" back side. Those suckas get HEAVY once they get bigger than a bowling ball! Hope your snowy, cold pretty stone arrives soon and progress may resume.
Barbara - good to know you two do some rescues. Meant to ask - what ARE possibly marked $700-1000 in a 12" pot? Or is it mostly the BevHills mark-up? And a Raphus? He brings those home? I thought that was a dodo bird. Am I being dense? It *is* late. :) Ah, yes - extinct - he brings home the large, nearly expired ones that they are reluctant to let go of. . .
(I feel a parrot sketch coming on)
Jo - Indeed, I am most intrigued to see your birthday present design-to-die-for. Personally, I'm thinking of a sabbatical in Bora Bora for that occasion, but I think you celebrated 50 in fine style. (Happy Happy, BTW!)However, you neglected to say how you manged to find this beyond-meatball designer. And it sounds as though you'll be doing the installation yourself!? I love it! Can you scan it? Sketch it? Describe it?
Springtime's a-coming and there's a lot happening in the gardens!
Tess

Tess, don't have it yet, but will be happy to share details when I do.
I hope it turns out as wonderful as I'm hoping it will.
Jo

Tess--
"It's pining for the fjords..." Hope your back recovers. Jo--we think alike. Though I understand Tess's point as well. For 50 I want either the BACKYARD done--or a trip to Bali...(or perhaps New Zealand) but it won't be both...and how will I decide? Actually--It may need to wait until 51--when BOTH kids are out of college. (Can you tell I'm counting the years? And I've made it plain--none fo this "5 year plan" stuff. I say that now...)

melanie

Jo -- I'm right there with you asking for garden special requests as gifts. For Mother's Day I've requested a sturdy, custom-built trellis from husband & son. So far it has been drawn on paper, drawn on CAD, and now they're in the middle of building a *model* of the house & trellis, just to see how it looks. (Silent scream!!) They have also researched materials (trex vs. redwood, etc.) My tongue hurts from biting it so much... The thunbergia mysorensis awaits patiently in it's pot.

One characteristic of bamboo that hasn't been discussed is it's tendency to flop over. I have several groves of bamboo alongside my driveway that I have to attend to every few weeks. The canes flop over and have to be cut off or shortened so I can get out of my driveway. When used as a privacy screen, is it fair to subject your neighbor to this continual maintenance?

BoTann,
Depends on the species. Phyllostachys nigra is a notorious "flopper" when its culms are young. That what you got?

Catkim...they can't help it. They are guys.

melanie

Tessa -

A parrot sketch would be perfect! "It's not dead...it's ... just sleeping!" The last rescue Michael actually called me to see if he should bring it home, it was in "pretty bad shape". If he says bad it's more likely extinct and thriving about as well as any Dodo bird you'd find today.

Of course, it came home. It's a Ficus religiosa, also known as the bo-tree or Bodhi tree, the one under which Buddha attained enlightenment and sacred to Hindus and Buddhists alike. Poor thing, it's well over 6 feet tall, has multiple trunks, and one pathetic sad solitary leaf. It must have been gorgeous once and may be again, right?? It's still in the ICU and the prognosis is poor but we're waiting to see if it makes a miraculous recovery.

Raphus is that lovely dark green palm with fan shaped fronds and "hairy" bark - one of the more expensive plants he installs. The $1,000.00 price tag is often the wholesale price... these trees are over 8-10 feet tall and not for those who have to watch their purse strings. And no, plants that large don't come in pots that small. Michael is "asked" to plant them in the teeny tiny pots some designer's insisted upon. Makes him completely wild! He'll tactfully mention his concerns to the client but the designer always seems to know best... yeah right. Oh well, if the plants come home to me I refuse to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Barbara

It's hard to kill a Ficus religiosa. Mine has survived indoors and out (with even a touch of frost). with leaves and without for almost thirty years. I've even cut it back almost to the soil and it has resprouted.

Yup, Cady, you guessed it. Phyllostachys nigra! It flops all over the place. One reason, I think, is because it's in very good soil, near a pond, and at the bottom of a slope. It gets rank, huge growth in May. I just gave away seven truckloads of it and you can hardly tell any is missing.

The P.'aurea' doesn't flop near as much in a different grove, but I still have to trim it on a regular basis also. Despite the maintenance, I like them both.

Chickadeedeedee, you just TELL ME who's been sending you these nasty emails and I'll hunt 'em down like a dirty, rabid, dog and give 'em a bath in muriatic acid! :)

Seriously, I try not to let the freaks get to me... I, too was a supporter of European starling and English sparrow eradication (based on books I had read on the subject), but seeing how a veterinarian actually has such a differing opinion on this subject is making me rethink a little, too... I've just about decided to live and let live with anything that doesn't attack me or my pets (which means stray cats are still endangered in my yard, lol), but even they have suffered nothing more than a good hollering at, thus far.

Sorry for your troubles, Chickie!
Jeff

The other day, for the first time in my life, I saw a fruitless mulberry that had been carefully pruned, but never topped. I am amazed, what a beautiful tree! Is there a reasonable explanation for why I have never seen this before? I have seen trees of almost every variety topped, but cannot think of another kind of tree that is almost invariably mutilated.

The reason people top fruitless mulberries is because they get tired of thinning out a third of the tree every year. We have 50+ year old M. albas and if I don't thin them radically every year (every two at the outside) they put down such complete shade the grass dies out. They shade themselves out, even. Four huge twenty-foot long limbs competing for the same spot of sun...

I'm no fan of pollarding/topping (what an ugly habit) but I can kind of understand the impulse.

My biggest pet peeve that comes to mind: people (like my *cough* neighbors) who plant redwoods three feet from a fence. Problem number one: whose yard are they going to shade, before they nudge the fence over? Problem number two: they'll die after seven years anyway because redwoods don't survive to maturity here. Can you say "we don't have a fog belt here, idiots"?

Argh. Sorry about the rant; I'm a regular on the Veggie and Tomato forums, just found this place, and with 1/3 of an acre of suburban property that's suffering from 30 years of neglect, I need to start coming over here. Looks like fun, and a place to get out my frustrations as I chop back the weed trees and try to make something out of this place. :)

--Alison

SPRING RANT--READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
1) Irresponsible dog owners. Yet ANOTHER large pile--there isn't a Great Dane in the neighborhood--WHO OWNS THIS BEAST?

2) Bradford Pears. Sure they are pretty--but they are fragile and they STINK. Was in Cincinnati weekkend before last--white crabs everywhere--and they smell SO good...

3) Japanese stilt grass. Worse than chickweed. Worse than cinqufoil.

4) People who butcher Catalpas. While in Cinci saw a mature catalpa--amazing. I didn't know they could be such interesting trees...

5)Last peeve--people with small children who complain that I am growing "deadly Lantana" in MY YARD. I may just plant some castor plants, too!

I sound a little cranky today, don't I? That's what happens when I am confronted with dog poo while I'm getting the morning paper--BEFORE I"VE EVEN HAD MY COFFEE!

grrr.

melanie

Melanie:
How about dog owners who organize and gang up on those who want to enforce the city's leash and pooper-scooper laws, because as doctors, they have the right to do what they d&mn well please.

I hear ya, John, I hear ya!

melanie

My pet peeve is finding broken glass and old nails in the rock garden I am trying to bring back into shape. I am not sure if it was just a dumping ground or if the glass/nails were to ward off pesky moles, voles and larger furred beasties. any guesses? This is a 1898

hmm- my pet peeve are neighbors who think that anything not done to copy THEIR style is 'bad' simply because they like what they like, and they have been in the area longer, and so should set the style for the rest of the block...

I don't like my trees maicured into topiaries. I don't like garden spikes, 'wishing wells' made out of pressure-treated lumber, patio flags, or 99.4 % of the resin sculptures out there...

ok, I have a cartoon frog, and a cartoon turtle in my yard- but they're peeking out of foliage, not sitting on an pedestal!

I'm not a big fan of people whose whole idea of gardening is the SCOTTS brand of 'paint your lawn by the numbers' but at least my 'golf course lawn' neighbor's ok with my 'backyard meadow' and understands that I'm young, poor, and new to all this house-keeping stuff, so not only do I have clover in my lawn- but I let it get tall enough to flower ;)

but what really bothers me are the hoighty-toits who think that all recycled concrete is bad- of course, when they tear up their patio, you usually find out that the contractor used nasty, cheap, sharp rocks instead of good aggregate, and their concrete is useless for recycling anyway...

a bad wall is almost always the fault of the builder, not the materials- I've seen far too many walls built with so little thought to layout that it's make stunning and expensive stone look cheap...and now that my concrete is stained ochre to match the local red shale, even the snoots in the big corner house think it's lovely- they have totally forgotten sneering at me while I was lugging broken bits to my station wagon three months ago!

Kathy--putting sharp things in the ground WAS an "old -timey" treatment for moles and voles...

melanie

Thanks melanie. After cursing and swearing that the former owners must have been truly stupid to have thrown their bottles in the garden, I had a lightbulb moment and realized it was probably to beat the moles the voles or the cats. :o(
Although I don't like wearing gloves in hot weather, I do for this garden!

Chinacat, I like your post. I know where you are at. We moved to the boonies :o) to avoid these sorts. Who needs that baloney? We are old enough to have lived through the time when being ecologically sound was cool. Now it's all about appearances with little or no substance or thought about the rest of the world, or the generations to come. Blech. :o(
Gardening peeves? Pastic flowers in window boxes in January. ;o)

Actually, the faux flowers in my elderly neighbor's window box don't bother me. She can't keep up with "real" gardening anymore, but doesn't want help (I offered) and she likes something bright and cheery there. As she says, "My sense of smell is almost gone, my vision isn't what it used to be---I can't tell the difference." She thinks of them as "ecofriendly"--they don't need watering, feeding, or pesticides. Except for the out-of-season aspect, you'd never know they WEREN'T real until you got right up close to them. Geraniums in January are a little jarring--but they make me smile.

melanie

Nothing makes my day like the old toilet filled with red plastic geraniums on a front lawn I pass on the way to work...

Cady--

We MUST have a pic of that. Sounds wonderful--and so very NOT the sterotype of MA...

melanie

I have my camera with me. There are several gardens I want to take photos of to share on this thread... Most of the gardens are in the same city as the Toiletbowl Planter.

I'm putting together an album. Stay tuned.

!OH my Goodness.. Was I outright laughing while reading you two Gals chit chat.

Truly, I thank you two for making me laugh. My gosh is it a good thing to laugh at the folly and incredible tacky tastes of others.

Toilet bowl incorporated into garden design!!! HA! Sounds so wrong its right.

Next......I'll keep my eyes open to add my two cents. But remember because it makes me laugh. Never in anger or disgust. A toilet bowl. I cant believe that. HA : )

Can you tell how hard Im laughing? Really I cant stop. Maybe that was the shock treatment needed to bring me out of fairy tale land and snap back into reality. No more philosophy, religion and Japanese Garden Design for me tonight. Forget the Keane Tampa Bank Project in Florida and MsjeeÂs great wall project. I want to sit back and relax.

IÂm removing my powder blue Toilet Bowl soon. I swear if I do use the can for a garden item I will have to plant many Hollyhocks around it. So appropiate. Then add the plant I never dreamed had a place in the historical garden. Poison Ivy! IÂll be obliged to plant this truly shiny bueatifull vine in the bowl. For any touchy feely admirers to thank me later. They like picking my Tree Hydrangeas in the fall. Maybe the fall foliage of Ivy will peek some more curiosity.

IÂll place a sign by the bowl.. "Outhouse flowers" "Weeds and vines for free, U pickÂem"

Good day Ladies. Ta Ta.

Ricky.

Ricky--does your garden have a "water feature?" Perhaps this opportunity knocking....

melanie

Actually I'm kind of feeling bad. The whole toilet bowl idea may be someone elses pride. Even if a whimsical joke. And Im wondering if I could say what I'm typing to that persons face personally. And not feel the hurt I might cause.

But I did get a good laugh : )

To add constructively to the thread one pet peeve of mine?

Neighbors or homeowners in a community hiring Landscapers to do renovations requiring the disposal of old shrubs and perennials. Seeing them chainsawd and chipped, buried by heavy machinery. I mean that is horrible. I never looked at it that way until I started the process of donating a Japanese Garden to a local community business. Here I am wondering why the rootstock cant be shared by community members who are financially unable to afford such plants. Here I am wondering how Im going to pull this off with no money of mine to spare. So I must resort to finding recycled plants. For the first time in my life. Ive always spent other people money. Now I have to come up with ideas so as not to loose face and make the Japanese Garden a reality. I wont accept a penny more from the place Im building it. The whole idea is about community service. Giving something that is a passion for free. I have a passion so its easy. The rest is patience.

I hate evil plant killers :) Let youre fellow citizens have a chance to adopt a plant before you send it to a tragic death.... People!!! Especially at the hand of Monster Landscape Contractors who arent even willing to keep the plant for themselves to use on another project.Sometimes the completion date requires dispossal of ornamentals not in the design rather than re salvaging. Maybe the local town Gardening Committee will use those ornamentals. Making the town plan of beautification financially feasible. Ive never heard of such a thing but sounds like a good idea.

So many homes are stripped of old growth ornamentals that have overgrown the original space. To be lost forever. I sometimes to the embarrassment of myself will stop at such a job and ask for all the root stock still alive.. Many trades men will look at me askance. Like Im crazy and should know better than to ask such a question. Giving that tough guy attitude. Like get the hell off of my job you jackass. I can see it in their eyes. And in truth I hate that feeling. Its hard for me to swallow. I must look like an amatuer doing such things. So in reality I'm doing this rarely.

Driving my dump truck to the sites who are kinder. I might get something. Knowing one particular customer of mine who is low on money would appreciate these plants. Giving that customer back for the opportunity they provided earlier. To work on their property when they had money to spend. Maybe sounds old fashioned but I like my customers to be happy. I want them to have dreams fulfilled just as I want mine. Business sometimes corrupts that process of brotherhood. No one could put the value of driving onto a customers property with a huge Rhody salvaged from being destroyed. Its a priceless moment. And what did it cost me. Maybe 20 dollars in gas. A few hours labor. But what I get in return is priceless. Compassion from the person Im thinking about. We see eachother as equalls. Something money can not buy. And when you get used to this way of thinking you never expect anything in return. The whole idea was just do it. Its the right thing to do. For no real reason but it just feels right. I dont need books to know this. Its the same act as when a baby hands over the food for you to take a bite. Isnt it awesome to see a young child offer food that was almost going into the mouth hesitate. Then look at you and put the food in youre mouth intead! Its human nature to share.

Sometimes I think how cruel it must be to see ornamentals a neighbor could never afford but truly desire and watch that tree discarded like trash. The owner of such ornamentals never asking fellow neighbors if they would like to have it. I guess most people believe in not sharing and rather see material things in the garbage before theyd ever concede to the principle of giving without hesitation.

That was good. I feel better!

Japanese Gardening has made me think differently. To give and help the community you are a member of is the goal. Finding every opportunity to make a community come together with little things. Not on the rare occasion. But on a daily bases. Its easy. I like what Im saying and will try harder to do so. This is what makes me feel like a boulder resisting the rivers current. Finding wieght in my doings. Even if the community is too complex to understand I feel rooted to living out one aspect of being a member. Feeling like you belong. Not just driving to the local store for groceries and back home. But stopping along that daily circle to do one small thing. No matter how little. Like someone you see going to the mailbox every morning while leaving for work. Saying to that person.. "Hey Ill have Peony roots by the end of the day. Only a few. Ill leave you some tomorrow morning." At least its a start. And after a few years you can see that act of giving grow into a smile on each others face every time you cross that persons path leaving for work in the morning. Nobody said this means becoming nosey or involved with strangers. Its just one simple way to say hello. Next time we see each other we can smile and wave hello instead of me driving by like a sardine in a car.

Gardening is probably the easiest way for a community to come together. Every home has something to offer. Dont throw ornamentals away.

Ricky,
When I mentioned that the "toilet bowl garden" made my day, I really meant it. It's been there for as long as I remember. In fact, since I was a kid. It's the same toilet, too. And, I think the house has changed hands at least once in the last 30 years.

So, you could say that the lawn toilet really is a "fixture" there. heh heh

Melanie,
There is a fabulous stretch of road along the beach in Revere, Mass. that I drive everyday commuting to and from work. On that "Miracle Mile" are the following:

- a front garden of blazing-white marble chips, with an enormous cartoon frog ceramic birdbath smack-dab in the middle. Nothing else. Just marble chips and frog.

- a white stucco Mediterranean-style house with white marble chips and two shrubs -- one on either side of the door -- one a vertical 3-meatballer, and the other a spiral-cut juniper that screams "Dr. Seuss."

- another white marble chip front yard with a multi-hued ceramic "garden boy" peaking out from behind a stone wall.

- a cottage garden with a multi-hued ceramic "garden boy" bearing a carrying pole with baskets of flowers on each end.

Alas, my favorite garden, a raised bed bordering the street, has been altered to omit the feature I loved most: a footbridge to nowhere. The raised bed was made of a 3' tall brick wall, with the footbridge plopped in the middle, leading toward the house. But anyone trying to use the footbridge would have to climb from the sidewalk to the top of the 3' wall to get to the footbridge. The owner must finally relented and removed the bridge, after being perplexed that his guests weren't using it.

There are more great gardens on that boulevard, so I'll be stopping as time permits to take photos. Please realize that I am not laughing at these properties; they represent labors of love by the people who own them. But, some are quite inadvertantly comical, and others are quite charming in their homeliness. Really, anyone who takes pride in a home to the point of at least attempting to make a garden, deserves respect for their efforts.

Still... the frog and toilet just crack me up. :)

I quite agree with you, rcky, about sad rhodies or camellias that get dug up because the new owner wants something different. It's terrible when an old plant that has given many years of "service" to the world just gets torn out of the ground at the whim of new owners.

As a caretaker of many large,old and somewhat overgrown plants, particularly along the foundation, it can be a long and hard job keeping up the growth. It's too bad there aren't more people or companies that are willing to dig up old plants to be used elsewhere. I have talked to a company that will dig up large trees for placement elsewhere but are not willing to take plants along a foundation. It's too much effort, not cost effective, could damage the foundation etc.

So instead of removing plants that I don't particularly love, I'll leave them and try to prevent them from taking over the house. After all they were planted with the house which was built in 1911, what could be more authentic to the period?

Sometimes PO's plant something where it oughtn't to be..and the only effective choice is "shovel pruning."

Cady--I'm with you on the appreciation of such efforts--I like 'em myself--though I have NEVER "gotten" the seasonally costumed cement geese...but to each their own! I actually LIKE the idea of recycling a powder blue water closet into a fountain...I think it could be cool if handled right. OF course, I'm the mother of a 15 y/o witha "pimped out" shopping cart. Cart is painted gold, has purple shag carpet, handle iss wrapped in "leopard" skin, A disco ball (miniature) dangles from the basket where a child would sit, and, the piece-de-resistance...purple gtound effects downlighting--achieved with a couple of those flourescent bulb flashlights and some purple saran wrap.

I have NO idea where he gets it...

melanie/will try and post a pic tomorrow

I put these on the Landscape Design forum, but they are part and parcel of this thread.

I saw this and just HAD to comment!

My boyfriend and I bought our first house in June 2002. Our lot is about 1/3 of an acre, with a 24' round above ground pool, a deck, and a shed. There were also 3 large Maples, 1 large Holly, 1 large flowering Crabapple, and 1 HUGE Live Oak that hung DIRECTLY over the POOL!!!! Needless to say, after our first summer in the house all but the Holly and Crabapple were removed. Haha. I don't like having a treeless lot, so I'm slowly adding "small yard" trees.

Unfortunately, our problems don't end with OUR lot... Our next door neighbors are very elderly. Apparently they had issues years back with the original owner of our house. They planted a row of cedar trees all the way down the property line, along with another large Holly and yet another large Maple. The Cedars are way overgrown, and our driveway is on their side of the house so if you back into the driveway you can't get out of the car! Plus the Maple and the Holly also hang over our driveway. Those Maples seem so messy! I've been hit in the head more than once by a falling branch from it. Last Halloween, it actually dropped a HUGE dead limb right onto my boyfriend's truck!!! Luckily it only hit the area above the taillight so it was easy to fix. Yet another limb from ANOTHER one of their maples has grown through the overgrown cedars and hangs over our roof!!

If our neighbors were younger and in better health, I would probably ask them to split the cost of pruning their ill-planted trees. I really don't want to be *that* person though - if you know what I mean. Hahaha.

I have been to oregon and your right those backberries are very invasive, my goodness they are EVERYWHERE!
Petpeeves of mine....

*crappy lanscapeing by unprofessionals that pass themselves off as professionals...ugh we have alot of them here! Planting trees, and bushes so close to the house that in a few years there is a huge mess!!!
*Ditto the lava rock, it belongs on the side of a volcano
*Nurseries selling 1-2 gallon stock, only to find out when you get home and you remove it from the container there is evidence it has just been sized up....pretty $$ dirt!!
*When I go to use our ancient Bobcat and the darn thing wont start!!Somehow all of my projects are done the old fashioned way..shovel,wheelbarrow,gloves and with my Arm-ies.

Our neighbors planted several birch trees around their house and now they are shading our pool and our 20+ year old Austrian pines. Not to mention the fact that the leaves and branches drop almost all season - they manage to get into the koi pond and shaded our vegetable garden to the point I just threw in hostas and ferns. On top of that, their house hasn't been painted in years, so even if they trimed/removed the trees, we'd have to see the eyesore the house is. Our other neighbors, have sick and dilapitated topiary-like trees all over their house and not one flower/perenial other than a neglected geranium. However, their golf course lawn is green. None of the plantings in our neighborhood have any style and if I see another Abrovitae I am going to shoot someone. Everyone always asks me for gardening advice and I think think to myself "You want roses, you can't even keep a geranium alive?"

I need more coffee...kinda getting angry again.