Re: [gardeners] The Neighbor
Jane Burdekin (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 10 Jun 1998 15:29:53 -0600
Catharine,
I feel your pain. LOL. I'm so sorry about the neighbor, try to control
yourself. Maybe best to stay inside and not make eye contact else you will
bust out laughing. Good luck. Jane
>Some of you may remember my "flamingo war" with my one unpleasant neighbor
>(not the one that died in the kitchen; the one that told me if I wanted to
>be a farmer I should move out of town and quit offending his sensibilities
>by having the temerity to grow tomatoes [in chic yuppie bamboo teepees, no
>less]).
>
>Well, yesterday the Tomato-Trashing Neighbor reached the pinnacle of
>suburban achievement in Atlanta, Georgia. He won the highly coveted (by
>some) Yard of the Month award.
>
>The ever so tasteful sign appeared on his clipped-to-within-a-
>millimeter-of-its-life Zoysia lawn yesterday morning. My Nice Neighbor
>across the street called me in a dither...a snit...a sputtering Southron
>tizzy.
>
>"Catharine! Go look out your window at Meader's front lawn!!! You just
>won't believe it. I'm seeing it but I still don't believe it. I can't
>believe it. I am going to call the Design Committee and tell them I am
>ashamed to live in this neighborhood if *that*'s held up as an example."
>
>(15 second pause while I am still fumbling to get the phone placed on my
>shoulder....it is 6:00 a.m., you see, and I wasn't out of bed yet.)
>Finally, I find a voice. "Er, Gloria? Is that you? What are you talking
>about? Do you know what time it is? Did somebody Gnome Meaders?"
>
>"Get out of bed, Catharine. Meaders won Yard of the Month!! And he hasn't
>even edged along the curb in the last two years. I know it's been two
>years. I keep track of these things. Somebody has to."
>
>After asking Gloria to hang on, I roll out of bed, peek out the window and
>sure enough, there it is: Yard of the Month. It must have been bestowed in
>the night. Like night soil.
>
>Since this neighbor has not planted a tree, a bush, a shrub, a perennial,
>an annual, a biennial...not even a six pack of impatiens in the 5 years I
>have lived next door I told Gloria that I can only surmise that The Lawn
>does indeed reign supreme in Atlanta. Followed by The Annual Pansy
>Display, of course.
>
>Gloria promises all out war. She said she was going to protest to the
>Design Committee (that such a committee actually exists and runs around
>granting such awards is, intself, mind boggling). She said she would bring
>me an update tonight. I'm on pins and needles waiting the news....
>
>Catharine, who has a fundamental mistrust of lawns and suburbia
>