Re: [gardeners] Friday in the garden
AMGarden@aol.com (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 8 Jun 1999 07:21:31 EDT
In a message dated 6/7/99 5:44:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time, gshirley@laol.net
writes:
> The windows on the west wall of our house stay closed and with the shades,
> drapes, and sheers drawn all the time. You can still feel the heat of the
> afternoon sun in the kitchen, dining room, and formal living room (now an
> art
> studio). The family room, the one with the patio door facing south, stays
> pretty
> dark in the summer without lights and brightly light by the low-lying sun
in
> the
> winter. It's our preferred room to be in in both seasons.
>
> This house is moderate sized for the area with about 1985 square feet of
> heated/cooled living area. The lot used to be bigger until we moved in,
now
> it's
> mostly flower and veggie beds with paths through them plus the greenhouse
> and
> several fruit trees. If Miz Anne would let me the front yard would become a
> wildflower meadow. We stay here due to good friends, nice neighbors and
> cheap
> living costs. Both of us do things for a living that can be done about
> anywhere.
> Newer homes down the street from us are twice as big on smaller lots and
are
> being built for $250,000.00 plus. Land that doesn't flood is pretty
valuable
> hereabouts. We can grow about anything as long as we can keep the bugs off
> of it.
> ;-)
George,
I understand what you mean by the low-lying sun in the southern sky in
winter. Those big south facing windows become my favorite place to be once
the weather starts to cool. The dog and I fight over who gets to sit in the
sunshine. In summer the eaves are long enough to keep the direct sun from
coming into the house, but the room still heats up if the curtains are open.
One of our future projects is to replace the single pane windows with double
panes. We do enjoy the street scenes as some of our neighbors have now been
bitten by the gardening bug too. ;-)
Our home is about 2000 sq. ft. and comparable homes of that size are selling
for as much whether new or resells. Granted the strong association we have
keeps our home prices up higher than some of the neighboring communities.
Another strong selling point for our neighborhood are the large community
areas that will never be developed. Ours has an 8 acre nature area that the
houses circle around, so about 1/2 of us have backyards that open up onto it.
There is very little new construction in the immediate area as there is
little room left to build. Our 8 acres is the beginning of a development
wide nature area that eventually opens up into a large state park that covers
over 200,000 acres. It is 3 miles to the parks main entrance from our front
door. We have the occasional bear wander out of the woods to keep life
exciting.
Anne in FL
zone 9b I cut back the daisies and planted blanket flower and nicotinia
seed today.