Re: Lawns
- To: m*@worldnet.att.net, j*@earthlink.net
- Subject: Re: Lawns
- From: "* N* <t*@picknowl.com.au>
- Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 17:39:22 +0000
- Comments: Authenticated sender is <tnottle@mail.picknowl.com.au>
- Priority: normal
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 19:30:36 -0800
From: Janet Smithen <jansmithen@earthlink.net>
Reply-to: jansmithen@earthlink.net
To: mikemace@worldnet.att.net
Cc: Mediterranean Climate Gardening e-mail forum <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
Subject: Re: Lawns
Michael Mace wrote:
> Hmmm.
>
> We complain bitterly when homeowner associations and
> neighborhood yard vigilantes try to stop us from gardening
> with drought-tolerant plants. We say they should mind their
> own business and respect our right to landscape the way we
> want to.
>
> Then we turn around and try to eliminate their lawns.
>
> Two sides of the same coin. If we try to force our tastes
> on 'them,' they are sure to impose theirs on us.
>
> I think we should do this through persuasion and gentle
> education, not regulation. If water and fertilizer are
> precious, let's tax them directly and let people make their
> own decisions about how to spend their money.
>
> Mike
> San Jose, CA (zone 9, min temp 20F)
I agree Mike;
That's why I really knock myself out to keep the small front garden I
spoke of, cleaner and neater than any of the other properties in my
association. All the rest are grass and bedding begonias. But sometimes
I really feel embattled!
Jan
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jan Smithen, gardening teacher
California Arboretum Foundation
jansmithen@earthlink.net
Sunset zone : 19
USDA zone : 10
Visit the California Arboretum homepage at :
http://www.arboretum.org/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dear Mike,
I agree that people cannot be made to get rid of lawns but I'm not so
sure about the slow, gentle educative process. We have been educating
folks about racism for about 200 years, and about 100 years for
disability discrimination - and it still goes on and on and on, even
at Govt. level and in our parliaments and congresses among
politicians and snr public servants (now often couched as economic
rationalism) Can the water supply last such a long time? Can urban
sprawl stretch that far into the future? What productive land will be
left? (One continuous city from Medocino to San Diego in 100 yrs?)
Think you tax option is a better one with some cut off so none are
deprived of a little patch for the kids or the banana lounge.
trevor n
-----------------
Trevor Nottle
Garden Writer, Historian,
Lecturer and Comsultant
'Walnut Hill'
5 Walker St
Crafers SA 5152
AUSTRALIA
Phone: +618 83394210
Fax: +618 83394210
