Reader Beware...

Caution - crazy lady ranting - dead ahead:

 

My neighbor chopped down the lady banks rose that rambled so attractively over to my side of the fence. Bye-bye weeks of glorious May beauty.

While I had been trying to root a branch of it in a pot on my side of the fence for months, I got nothing. No roots. So now I have a bunch of dead branches stuck through the cinderblock wall on my side of the fence, which I will have to cut out to clean up, and a dying stick stuck in a pot in the shade on my patio.

I may get lucky, but it's a looooooooong shot. I wouldn't bet on those odds. 

- Bah, it's July, who am I kidding. That stick has a snowball's chance in hell. But. I potted it up. Nothing else I can do, really.

I an stuck in a rental, owned by non-gardeners.  They graciously gave me permission to plant things under the porch roof in front of the house, where everything will LEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAANNNNNN constantly to the west, where the only light comes in.  They just don't have a clue.  Their yard, this yard that I rent, is gravel with a small, neat square of grass in the middle, bordered by pavers, watered to 1/2 inch three times a week, and still withering in the Phoenix heat. 

If I owned this place, I would plant a veritable desert forest in the front yard, screen my house and my view away from all the barren gravel wastelands, live my life surrounded by hummingbirds and lizards and quail and spring flowers and summer seeds and all that nature provides if we don't destroy it all because it needs occasional pruning.

I hate this valley, I hate this climate, I hate the crazy people who chop up their trees and then complain when they fall over, remove all their trees and then complain about the heat and dust, cover everything with gravel shipped in from god knows where and proceed to coat the ground with herbicides every month like clockwork to keep ANY DAMN LIVING THING AT A FORCED ARM'S LENGTH from their living rooms.

GAH.

Comments

[Mo]

Oh Jenn my friend, I know exactly how you feel! My neighbourhood is the same way and I spent years feeling devoid of all the beauty and comfort that nature brings for me. I so hope you will soon be living somewhere that you can make your own because I understand totally how it feels to be living somewhere that makes your soul shrivel up inside. Sending hugs and lots of nature your way. x

[Renee]

We moved to the Atlanta suburbs a year ago. I grew up in the country where nature was free to take over the front yard. Now, we're lucky if we see a rabbit in the back yard and the only thing that grows are pine trees.

[Benjamin Vogt]

Praise be sister! Shout it from the rooftops! No plants jack s**t in my neihborhood, but they mow, blow, and water 24/7 anyway.

[true dirt]

I feel your pain. I call those people "chainsaw gardeners". They give me nightmares. Jenn, thanks for dropping by true dirt. I forget that sometimes somebody reads it! Still in Oakland, and still wondering if I can keep the blog rolling...perhaps when the rain comes I'll know.