What is it with recycling broken cement into those hideous "rockeries" or retaining walls? They are ugly without exception and beyond redemption by even the most lush and overgrown fall of aubrieta or bellflower...

Rocks under trees -- the 1/3 acre in-city garden I'm renovating has many mature trees. A previous gardener stored rocks -- hid rocks? -- incorporated rocks? -- in the landscape by piling them around the tree trunks.

The trees are now old, some died, and removing the rootstocks must be done by hand because (of course) they are much too close to the house to bring in a backhoe. I can't get my pitchfork around the roots because of the number of rocks that are now intergrown with them -- so I must use my hand trowel to loosen the soil, removing rocks and roots one by one... ugh!

Arborvitaes... how I hate those trees! They are planted en masse by suburbanites, in "hedge" formation along property lines, and they look neat and tidy for the first two or three years -- but then they begin to get huge, ungainly, bare-trunked, lopsided... and the bigger they get, the uglier they get!

They are often planted near foundations, and when they get too large they are cut down, leaving a rootstock (see above) that must be removed by hand. Their roots don't rot quickly, so they're strong for years after the trees have been cut (or have died, as they seem to do wantonly, without rhyme or reason).

Gravel or lava rock "mulch" -- There are literally tons of this crap in the soil in my gardens. It's so dense that it prevents amending the soil for perennials, but the weeds love the protection it offers! It's difficult to weed in gravel-infested soil because the weeds' roots cling to the gravel and break rather than coming up cleanly -- so of course they resprout a few weeks later.

I'm removing the gravel by sifting it in a flat that has 1/2" holes for the soil to fall through. Last year I sifted about 10 cubic feet out of the soil -- hardly a dent, but it did allow me to plant a few more perennials on the north side of the house. The job is so tedious, though, that I expect it will take me the next decade to remove all of the gravel... And then what do I do with it???

I'll probably pave the parking strip with it, and fill the ditch for my irrigation pipe with it (to prevent myself and others from digging up the pipe accidently later on.)

Lava rock and gravel DO NOT make a mulch! All they're good for is to prevent digging... which is not appropriate anywhere in garden beds, or in pathways that have any possibility of being moved in the future. And since gravel and lava rock are hard to sweep, and become overgrown with weeds so easily, it doesn't make sense to use them in a permanent path, either -- not when there are so many better, more easily swept, pathway materials available.

Invasive natives -- Our state flower is the Oregon grape (Mahonia repens). I'm quite certain that it was voted the state flower not for any virtue, but by default: the state fathers, resigned to its ineradicable presence, hoped to appease its lust for land by giving it an official status.

Cut it off -- it comes back. Break it off -- it comes back. Uproot it -- it comes back.

Yes, its leaves are shiny -- and prickly as holly, even when it's a young sprout. Gloves and a pickaxe are needed to remove it -- and woe to the gardener who finds it growing among the roots of an established tree! Its own cordlike roots will have worked themselves under the tree's trunk, and it will resprout from any fragment left in the soil.

In the last two years, I've removed at least a dozen tree stumps and over 2,000 square feet of English ivy and wild blackberries -- but I'd rather do that all over again than have to face the mere 60 or 70 square feet of Mahonia repens that refuses to leave my yard!

*sigh*

Well, I guess it's time to get back to it. Thanks for hearing my rant. I feel better now...

Love,

Claudia

I also have to say that although I've grown one for over ten years, its canes aren't longer than 12 feet.

Perhaps your rose really is an "Audrey", not a Zephirine?

Thanks for the welcome!

Saypoint, your peeve reminded me of another one of my own:

Laurel hedges! I've hated Laurel ever since I was a young child, because I always saw it trimmed beyond recognition, its glossy leaves chopped to pieces in an effort to make it grow unrealistically square.

Two years ago, however, I learned that Laurels can be beautiful, fragrant, and elegant. I learned this completely by accident, when we bought our house.

There was a Laurel planted on the property line -- probably by birds sitting on the fence -- and the neighbors on both sides had spent the last decade or so lopping off any branches that reached into their yards. It sounds awful, doesn't it? But because that was all anybody lopped, the Laurel had grown very tall and almost two-dimensional, in an elegant fan shape to either side.

In the spring its flowers fill the air with their rich (but not overpowering) perfume. Its branches wave gracefully in the wind but they are strong enough to withstand it without breaking off, and its glossy leaves provide a lovely privacy screen.

I like it so well that I've kept up the tradition of only cutting branches that reach into my yard, and I've encouraged our new neighbors (charming young women who have really whipped their garden into shape in a short time!) to do the same.

Love,

Claudia

I cringe any time anyone recommends bamboo, not because all bamboo is bad, but because the everyday person just does not distinguish between clumping and running bamboo.

On the gardening radio program, I hear a caller say, "I want a screen between myself and my neighbor. I was thinking about bamboo. Does it do well here?"

The gardening expert answers, "Yes, bamboo would make a nice screen. There are several kinds of clumping bamboo you could try." Now if the caller doesn't pick up on the word "clumping," the game is lost, and the expert never mentions what a pain in the a&& running bamboo can be for those who don't want it.

NOW--how do I tell the difference? ;~)

melanie

How about the running bamboo your naive neighbors plant that runs your way?

Guilty as charged. :-/

However, my neighbors know that it's running bamboo, they like it, and they are looking forward to the day when it wanders into their yard. The "yard" in question is a shady patch surrounded by cement on three sides, sandwiched between a parking strip and an apartment patio.

My in-city neighborhood has large lots, so it's been zoned "high-density". This means that there is a two-story apartment building just ten feet from my 1/3 acre lot, and I am very eager to blot it out!

I am going to plant more running bamboo to do the trick. The variety I've chosen for along the fence is "Henon", one of the largest and most potentially invasive. I'll confine it to a strip along the fence by using a barrier -- but even if it does get away, there are only two places for it to go: into the already tiny and unusuable patio areas behind each apartment, or into my yard (where I know how to deal with it.)

Claudia

Please don't be alarmed, Cady. I've availed myself of all the resources of GW in making this decision, and I also have a neighbor across the street who has a very well-behaved clump of Henon.

Bamboo in the wrong hands -- i.e., lazy or ignorant hands -- can be an ineradicable disaster. However, bamboo in the hands of someone who is educated in the proper containment techniques (both initial and ongoing control) can be a joy and delight.

I'm willing to accept the necessity for extra, ongoing maintenance as a fair trade for the fast growth and vertical screen. However, if we ever sell this house, I'll make darn sure the new owners know what they're in for!

Love,

Claudia

I've recieved the additional advice, both from neighbor and GW's boo-freaks, to plant bamboo on a mound and mulch well to encourage shoots near the surface (where they can be steered or sheared) rather than deep underground. I will use this method in concert with impermeable barriers.

Love,

Claudia

Mike

Thank you, Claudia, for again alerting us to this 'popular' menace. I want to place huge WARNING labels on the bags at the big box stores.
So far, I have restrained myself.

Tessa

I don't have the problem with clay caliche, but in some ways my problem with lava rock is even worse than yours. For one thing, I haven't had fifteen years to work on it yet; but for another thing, the nincompoop who strewed this lava rock so generously everywhere never bothered to lay any plastic sheeting below it -- and the soil itself is so fertile and rich that I cannot possibly bring myself to simply scoop it up, rock and all, and dump it.

And why is the soil so rich? Because there are both coniferous evergreens and deciduous trees everywhere overhanging what were once lava-rock paths! So the needles and leaves have fallen for years, sifting among the rock, decaying in thick, loamy layers above it...

Consequently, I don't find the rocks until my pitchfork comes to a dead stop over yet another bed of them.

It's truly nightmarish.

Fortunately, much of the yard was left to go wild, without lava rock of any kind.

The really heartbreaking thing, though, is that the cool, shady, tree-lined areas where I hope to plant hardy orchids and other delicate woodland things are peppered with this rock. Ugh.

So I'm going to sift through more of it later in the year, when it's warm enough to do a fairly sedentary but tedious task, and really too warm to do any heavy lifting, digging, or planting. I'll be on hands and knees, scraping and sifting and dumping rock, for at least several weeks before I give up on it for another year...

Thank you, Tessa! Misery really DOES love company!!!

Claudia

melanie

No, lava rock isn't small -- most of it is 1" - 2" wide. It also very irregular, with many concave pits and surfaces to catch the points of a pitchfork and lodge between the tines. It isn't at all garden-friendly...

Love,

Claudia

melanie

Noticed this line in your "rant" which caught my eye.
** fill the ditch for my irrigation pipe**

I do have a lis pf peeves as long as the equator bu I have wnted to dig an irrigation 'thing' and don't really know how to go about it. You seem to have done such a thing & I would love to pick your brain.
Ta (ie Thanks) in advance

No, I haven't done it yet. But my DH and I have done the research, found out that we only need to bury the power for our yard lighting 6" deep if it's in a conduit, and the water needs to be buried 1' deep just to be sure the pipes don't freeze.

Since you're in Ontario, you'll have to determine how deep the ground freezes in your area -- it's the single most important consideration when putting in irrigation pipes. You may also need to put in electric conduit, too, if only to attach some low-wattage resistance heaters to prevent your yard faucets from freezing in the winter. (I'm pretty sure you can find such things at a garden or home store in Ontario -- but if not, send me email, and I'll tell you how to make them. It's not hard.)

So here's how we're going to put in our water and electric conduits:

First, I'll lay out the copper pipe for the water, make sure I have the proper joints and angles for the line, and keep the path as far away from my surface-rooted trees as possible. Then I'll dig a ditch 1' deep.

I'll solder the pipe (requires a propane or mapp-gas torch, available for about $60Can at SEARS or other tool outlets) next to the ditch, and with the help of my DH and his dad, we'll lay the pipe in place (carefully, because copper tubing only flexes a little) as we go. We'll check it for leaks when it's all hooked up and in place; if it does leak, we'll turn off the water to the house, open the faucet in the basement to drain the water out of the pipes, and resolder the leaky joint(s). (Since copper transmits heat quickly, it shouldn't be a problem to do this while the pipe is in the ground: heating the top of the leaky joint will also heat the bottom of it.)

When everything checks out, I'll cover the pipe with about 6" of soil, then we'll lay the electric conduit over that. It's plastic, so we'll use conduit sealant to prevent water from seeping in.

When that's all done, we'll cover the whole thing with several inches of that stupid lava rock to prevent anyone from accidentally digging it up, then pile soil on top of that.

I hope that helps you.

Good luck with your own project!

Love,

Claudia

As I built my plant inventory list with the gracious help of so many here and from the conifer forum, I added the e-mail me option to my page again.

I had removed that option after getting not so nice comments sent to me about my actually liking sparrows and starlings rather than loathing them as the blight they are, (in some forum member's opinions).

Now people have been contacting me and asking questions about the plants on the list and I answer as best I can. Immediately following this contact I am being innundated by e-mails concerning pornography and/or vulgar language.

WHY?

I admit I am stupid. I assume if a forum member asks a gardening question and actually think I could answer it then I do my best to give as much information about the vegetation as possible. I do look to see if the forum member with the question has been a member for a while and have looked up past posts and such in order to answer people who seem legit.

So once again the Chicka3Ds will go into hiding and remove the e-mail me option from my page. To the beloved people here I am sorry but I need to reduce the trash being sent here.

To the person / people who are not nice, kindly go back under the sludge you live in and leave benign people alone. I am sure I was not your only prey.

Be careful who you write to.

Bye.

Melanie

(I never got any nasty emails about the sparrow incident -- my spam blocker must be working.)

For instance, if it's a particular sender who's harassing you, you can set up a message "rule" to block them. Most email programs also allow you to make your own message rules to block any email with certain key words in it.

I still have my "send email" up on my profile. If you need any more advice on damage control, please feel free to send me a message. (I have several email accounts, myself, so that I can delete my public email account if necessary and still have my private account for family and friends...)

Love,

Claudia

We now return control of this thread to garden restoration pet peeves.....

Thank you one and all for your help in this matter.

,,,>^..^<,,,

melanie
,,,>^..^<,,,

just practicing

I have 6 cats, among other animals, so lots of practice. LOL.

I thought some of you may want to check out the latest addition to the family. It still hurts thinking about my bud Spectre, but this little guy has helped filled the void and has, in his own way, become a part of our family.

So without further ado, and for your entertainment and edification, here's Mystery's first pic on the WWW and GW.

spectre

Mystery certainly looks content, and in charge of the household already as only cats can be. I believe that as long as you understand this, you will be allowed to stay in Mystery's home.

Hey John, my cats are indoors only though they do enjoy a bit of kitty LSD namely catnip. It grows as a weed now everywhere in my garden. I brought most of my kitties home from work. Hmmmm. Same thing happened with most of the birds I have too. Maybe I better stop going to work?

This is my Giovanni.

(Sorry this is OT. I don't think Giovanni is the type of pet referred to in this thread.)

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?

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

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

;-)

Love,

Claudia

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

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

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

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

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

melanie

sigh

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

melanie

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

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

melanie

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

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.

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

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

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

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!

melanie

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)

melanie

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

melanie

I'm putting together an album. Stay tuned.

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 I’m 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 Msjee’s great wall project. I want to sit back and relax.

I’m 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! I’ll 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.

I’ll place a sign by the bowl.. "Outhouse flowers" "Weeds and vines for free, U pick’em"

Good day Ladies. Ta Ta.

Ricky.

melanie

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 I’m 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. I’ve 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 I’m 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 you’re 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 aren’t 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. I’ve 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 I’m 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. It’s 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 I’m 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. It’s 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 they’d 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 I’m 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 I’ll have Peony roots by the end of the day. Only a few. I’ll leave you some tomorrow morning." At least it’s 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. Don’t throw ornamentals away.

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. :)

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?

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

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.

*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.

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