April 30, 2018. April brings beautiful wildflowers to Central Texas. My favorite is the pink evening primrose, Oenothera. My first April here (1987) the median strip between walk and street proved to be primrose territory. A bonus the realtor never mentioned. Thereafter, I was careful not to mow until after the blooming! Until … in 2011 a new neighbor on the block (from out of state) created a stink about my “weeds” and sent a cop out to read me the rules. I had multiple cats and zero doubts that no rats lived in my median strip. But: rules are rules and fury is fury. I made sure I’d never be asked to mow that strip again – paved it with sandstone slabs and spite.
Now, every April, I wish I hadn’t. This year, I offer a poem to honor the missing pink and a collage to convey imagined petals – petals much larger in proportion to walkway than any Texan’s bragging might suggest; but hey, my imagination knows no limits!
Sounds like the threat of rats in the neighborhood had little to do with primroses… Gawd.
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People who send cops for stuff like that need to get a life! Someone who has an aquarium plant business that i support was recently visited by the cops because his neighbor didn’t like his greenhouse. The greenhouse was there before the complaining neighbor had moved in! 🙂
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People! Hope the greenhouse stays put. An aside – our yard is a “certified wildlife habitat” which the City of Austin supports. The cop who came out declared the yard thus exempt from the tall weeds ordinance; but not the median strip.
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I love those primroses! People are weird about lawns. I think they’re an ecological nightmare and a waste of time and money, especially here in Texas, where water is a scarce resource.
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A yard is only so big … so MANY things we want to grow … grass isn’t one!
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I much prefer dandelions and primroses to grass, but I may be in a minority. 🙂
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