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ORIGINAL: littlewonder

I'll be honest I can understand the complaints about the yard.

At my old home in the suburbs that I just moved from, I had a neighbor who had torn up her entire front yard that was nice, green and manicured like the rest of us in the neighborhood and replaced it with a xeric garden...a drought tolerant and less watering type of landscape..basically weeds, bushes and plants of all types throughout.

It was completely ugly and an eyesore and did not fit in with the rest of the neighborhood.

So when I see this woman's front yard with the way it is I would have to say the same thing as about my former neighbor's. It doesn't fit in no matter how useful or pretty you think it is.

Her front yard would be nice as her backyard but as a front yard I think it's just garish and tacky.

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ORIGINAL: Kirata

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ORIGINAL: RapierFugue

You'd think, given the record amount of obesity in America...

Well yanno, our government likes to "help" us...

Scientific American summed up the disturbing state of the evidence in April 2010. The magazine cited a meta-analysis—that is, a combination of data from several large studies—of the dietary habits of 350,000 people worldwide, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which found no association between the consumption of saturated fats and heart disease.

Another recent study noted by Scientific American, by Harvard nutrition and epidemiology professor Meir Stampfer and associates and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, tracked 322 moderately obese people, each following one of three diets: a low-fat, calorie-restricted diet of the sort that the American Heart Association recommends; a so-called Mediterranean diet, rich in vegetables and low in red meat; and a low-carbohydrate diet without any calorie restrictions. Not only did the low-carb dieters lose the most weight, the study found; they also had the healthiest ratio of HDL (so-called good) cholesterol to LDL (bad) cholesterol.

Looking at such evidence, several top medical scientists have concluded that the government’s carb-heavy guidelines may actually have harmed public health... Americans have largely followed the government’s advice... Yet over the same three decades, the fraction of American men who were overweight or obese increased from 53 percent of the population to about 69 percent.

Reference: The Washington Diet - City Journal, Spring 2011

K.

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ORIGINAL: juliaoceania

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according to the article, the bylaw says the landscaping must be "suitable", but no definition of what suitable is, the word is obtuse and inadequate and renders the bylaw usless, imo.

I do not think "suitable" is useless. Lets say all of her neighbors were bothered by her choice of landscaping, would it be considered "suitable"? It probably wouldn't be... which was why I suggested that it would be advantageous to have her neighbors sign a petition in support of her landscaping choices... maybe there is a lot of people who think that it isn't "suitable" after all. I am with HK, it is kinda scraggly and not well planted.

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She is not a hoarder and the beds are neatly done

I never said she was a hoarder... I said that these sorts of standards are set for a community because of people who do not respect others around them, hoarders are an example of such people. To be honest, the fact she has no grass or vegetation between her beds makes her yard unsightly. The bark added no color or brightness to the situation, and I think if she had grass between the beds it would be better accepted... a nice fence would have made it more attractive, and perhaps minimized the view of barren beds. I do not think I would like to live next door to it... it just isn't attractive, and not because it is veggies, but because it was not well done.

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Bylaws should be entirely clear to everyone (so that they can decide to live there or not), not used as a club when one persons standards are on mars.

Who is the person on "mars" in this situation? The person that half assed developed a veggie garden in their front yard, or the people who did not like the way it looked? In my world, when you are the one out of step you are the one from another planet. Perhaps she should get her neighbors that support her position to vocalize it so that the local government knows that she isn't offending her entire block.

I would agree that the wording is ambiguous and as a citizen I would try to make the bylaws more clear.... although that is exactly what leads to 10,000 stupid regulations that no one knows about and no one follows.

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ORIGINAL: GreedyTop

hey!! whats wrong with pink flamingos???

*lol*

(I do actually have one..but I havent put it out yet....)

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ORIGINAL: kalikshama

Vegetables are not tacky!

I find this beautiful:

[image]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/07/08/article-2012640-0CED20D300000578-382_468x363.jpg[/image]

And this homogeneity horrendous:

[image]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/07/08/article-2012640-0CED207800000578-221_468x325.jpg[/image]

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hey!! whats wrong with pink flamingos???
*lol*
(I do actually have one..but I havent put it out yet....)

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ORIGINAL: WyldHrt

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hey!! whats wrong with pink flamingos???
*lol*
(I do actually have one..but I havent put it out yet....)

I have two. It's a running joke I have going with my work partner. I'm pretty sure he's grateful that I couldn't afford the world's creepiest garden gnome to go with them [:D]

ETA- if the garden needs color, the lady in the story could put out one of these. [8D]

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Certainly her garden could be done better which is why i brought up square foot gardening which would improve her garden considerably. Some people try but just dont know enough to do as good a job as others but does that mean they should not try? So you dont like how she has done things between the beds, pick,. pick,.. pick. lol nothing like critiquing every single possible thing. gee, she should paint or stain those ugly beds too (but only in the "right" color) and what else can we find fault with? what about adding pink flamingos and gnomes, wouldnt that perk things up!