Re: [gardeners] Friday in the garden

George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 08 Jun 1999 07:21:05 -0500 

AMGarden@aol.com wrote:

> 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.

Ahh, nicotiania (sp?), went out last evening just to get a whiff of the delightful
odors coming off the front flower bed where that stuff is planted. It always
amazes me how hardy some flowers are, many are blooming despite our high heat and
humidity of the moment. The crepe myrtle have been particularly spectacular this
year as have the southern magnolias and the Rose of Sharon trees/shrubs.

Your home sounds really nice Anne. It must be nice to have the nature area backing
up to your yard. Don't know if I would want a bear wandering around the back
though, the neighbors cat is bad enough about agitating the dog. ;-)

George