I’m not touching this one with a 10-foot pole. 
Some of the worst humans find a way to creep their way into HOAs and turn them into instruments of terror. I’m glad when laws put checks on HOA powers.
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I bought creeping thyme seed last year to sow in a few places. We’ll see how it goes.
Do you know what species your micro clover is? Or a variety name would help too?
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You really missed what I said. All service contracts come with stipulations, that’s normal. Could you show me the part where Netflix can sell your home from under you for non compliance?
I cant. The lawyer bill to defend yourself is likely where that would come into play… or if you are found guilty will face 1-10yrs in prison. After that you will have a felony on your record. So sharing a password could end up in you selling your own home in theory. I would rather just pay the $3 extra per month that they tack on for sharing passwords myself.
I yearn for one of those once-a-week gutter cleanings
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No more so than if we were talking about your property in your person instead of your real property, i.e. no more so than if we were asking whether denying you the right to sell yourself into slavery on terms agreed to by the buyer is a violation of your rights.
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In a very very very far fetched theory, as opposed to a real life threat that has been deployed many times.
Trifolium repens var. Pipolina
I do American Meadows because it’s neonic-free, has an excellent website, lots of native plants, and everything I get there grows well. (Since there was a recent thread of dubiousness about them, sharing my experience.)
Here’s the link: https://www.americanmeadows.com/grass-and-groundcover-seeds/clover-seeds/microclover-seed-pelleted
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I love this article. Here’s another one I really grooved on. It talks about people who revolted and turned their lawn biological deadspaces into gorgeous life-sustaining ecosystems.
Here’s a snippet that I liked from this article:
Lawns, still, somehow.
The planet has accelerated its revolt against us and still we tend our lawns, one part of Earth we can control. Society falters, resources dwindle and, still, lawns.
Lawns: burned out, blond and dead, in the air fryer of August. Lawns: emerald green — no, alien green — and kept that way by maniacal vigilance and an elaborate system of pipes and potions, organic and otherwise, in defiance of ecology. And for what? To have, in this chaos, dominion over something? (Lawn and order?) To drape a veil of verdancy over a world gone to seed? To feel equal or superior to Ron, across the street, whose lawn always looks like the 18th at Pebble Beach?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/08/24/lawns-and-replacement/
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I have no lawn, my tiny front yard is covered with plants. But HOAs don’t do the front yard at all, not where I am unless they are condos/townhome kind of homes which is where my sister is.
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I just pulled out all of my creeping thyme in the backyard. Same with yarrows in the front yard. They can take over my garden if I’m not careful.
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This reminds me of an article by David Quammen who use to write for Outside Magazine. My dad grew up with David and took care of his parent’s lawn at one point when they were on vacation for a couple of weeks. Being a kid, he waited until the last minute to mow before they came home and ended up burning the lawn badly. He was so embarrassed by his irresponsibility that he never asked to be paid. To this day, he claims that this incident is why he always does what he says he’ll do, and does it well.
I found a copy of the article for anyone interested.
RETHINKING THE LAWN: Turf Warfare in the American Suburbs
https://www.oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=7282
I mentioned on the hellstrip thread that my creeping thyme decidedly doesn’t creep. I’m guessing the New England weather doesn’t agree with it.
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I got rid of my lawn almost 15 years ago. Started planting natives, lots of perennials, put in walking paths and a place to sit and look at it all. My neighbors came by each day as I dug out grass and junipers, thinking I had lost my mind. Then when things started blooming and I gained some privacy from the shrubs that grew higher, they became a bit envious, and compliments started coming my way. This last year with water rationing I got to sit back and watch as they started ripping out their lawns. I was ahead of the game having converted to drip when I removed my lawn. I have not had to store a lawn mower or seed spreader or buy weed n feed for many years now.
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Almost everyone I know thinks I have lost my mind.
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They’ll come around eventually when they see what you end up with.
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My father was a revolutionary. When he was a low paid professor at ASU in Scottsdale Ariz from the late '50s into the early ‘60’s he planted a cactus garden in the front yard- the only non-lawn in the neighborhood. There was no community protest. In Topanga in S. CA we had succulents and some kind of flowering perennial that required no supplementary irrigation. There was a very tiny lawn immediately behind the home’s kitchen where we used to eat outdoors, maybe 25 by 15’. The rest of our 3 acres were either left natural or planted to stop erosion without the need for irrigation.
I never knew a man who loved nature and wilderness more. Born in the Bronx, he wandered its parks with a pair of binoculars looking for new birds as a young teenager and dreamed of becoming a park ranger. Strange, he became a psychologist instead. Most of us partly enjoy wilderness to be away from people and he chose a profession that required constant intimate interaction with them. .
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What a wonderful description, it feels like a window into a delightful person.
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No, because you would likely lose such a lawsuit. But perhaps there are other people living there who also want to have chickens and cows and never thought to challenge the rules. And your arrival becomes a catalyst to change the status quo. Or, perhaps, the HOA changes the rules on the residents who have lived there a long time and decide to forbid chickens even though they had allowed them for many years previously. This actually happens quite often, and just occurred to some people I know in a local HOA. This year the board finally had enough new members who didn’t want chickens, and they were able to change the rule and prohibit any egg laying fowl. So you see, HOA are not static, but fluid entities much like government. They ebb and flow, changing as the values of the residents change. It isn’t at all a crappy thing to challenge the status quo of an HOA. In fact, this is clearly stated when you buy into an HOA home. Residents need to be aware that the norms can change and that won’t always suit everyone. That’s the blessing and curse of living under the governance of a Democratic institution.
By the way, this isn’t just my opinion. The courts in the United States have been quite clear that HOA’s are quasi government institutions and function as proxies of municipalities.
I know this is an older discussion, but it popped up when I looked at threads, and it has a special significance for me.
This year some of you might have read that I had a good apple harvest, and I decided to open up my orchard area for neighbors to walk through and enjoy, ask questions, etc. The walk throughs were a good success and spawned many good discussions, including a request to have a spring grafting session.
I also dropped off small bags of apples for neighbors to sample varieties, including three different varieties of apples in each bag. It seems to have been a big hit, and many asked me to sell apples.
Ok long story coming to an end. I discovered because I live on the dividing line between R1 residential and A2 agricultural, (I’m R1) I can’t sell produce at all from my home. The zoning guy recommended that I rezone to agricultural and that is my plan as I am surrounded by farms on two sides and roads on the other two. My neighborhood is however deeply divided between those who want the ability to modify their yards and those who want the status quo lovely manicured areas. Our community association is not an HOA but seems to think they are.
I was struck by the comment regarding folks ending up living next to a farm when they paid not to. I feel pretty strongly that I should be entitled to rezone to agricultural. My neighborhood is a little different in that it is a historical district in the middle of the country. I read about many of you changing to no mow yards and more natural surroundings. I applaud those efforts and am trying to do the same in my own small progressing way.
I am risk and conflict adverse by nature but I’m in this for the fight. I would like to have the ability to sell fruit out of my orchard whether or not I choose to do so. The zoning guy said the community might reject the idea of allowing farm animals which is a part of agricultural zoning but I don’t think I should back out of that request (with a proffer or restriction). I have just shy of 3 acres.
Do any of you have any recommendations or suggestions for me as I forge down this path. I want to be able to have a business orchard and greenhouse if that is what is in my heart to do, even though my two nearest neighbors (across the streets) will be bitterly against it.
I was on the verge of selling apples, then backed out at the last second when I learned I couldn’t do so. I ended up donating them to neighbors. This is just a fraction of what I offered to others, including a discussion of the history and attributes of each variety.
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