Drying clothes outdoors, front yard gardens, survival

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Permalink Reply by Jessica Soulliere on July 7, 2008 at 6:28pm

Here here! I scoff at such practices and hear of them quite often, but laws are budging and people are regaining their senses little by little. I say pop your tent and throw up a few clothes lines - then go to court to get the law changed or at least to bring the public's attention toward such ridiculousness. The moderately well off are now being affected by the cost of energy and will soon wonder why they can't hang a clothes line and then of course, the laws will change more rapidly. Just be sure to read your homeowners association rules BEFORE signing the mortgage contract.

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on July 7, 2008 at 6:46pm

I'm from the era when such associations were designed to keep blacks and Jews out of some neighborhoods, so I find them archaic and absurd and infringe on all sorts of freedoms I prefer to take for granted.

The older I get, the grumpier, or maybe it's the heat. Anyone wanna arm wrestle?

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Permalink Reply by Mara Riley on July 9, 2008 at 10:56am

"Just be sure to read your homeowners association rules BEFORE signing the mortgage contract."

That's easy to say, but in my area, it's hard to find a place to live that isn't part of a neighborhood with a Homeowner's Association. It's the law: any new development of 20 houses or more -- i.e., most of them -- has to have one. In 1998 we tried to find an independent lot to build on, but developers had bought up all available land. (I suspect there might be more lots available now, given the bad housing market.)

I was on our HOA board before we moved to our new house; I volunteered out of concern that we NOT have a HOA that was overly strict. I found that the rules were established by the developer or by local ordinances. We could change them, but it would require a majority of homeowners to change them -- and we could never get enough owners to show up to meetings to have a simple quorum of 10 people, let alone enough to change the rules to allow, say, more types of fencing. This means that the neighborhood is stuck with the rules established when the development was built.

On the other hand, some states (like Maryland) have laws that overturn HOA rules against, say, satellite dishes or solar panels. So if momentum grows for allowing vegetable gardens in the front yard (mine's in my back yard) or clotheslines, then state laws can be written to override HOA ordinances.

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Permalink Reply by Tony on November 8, 2008 at 10:08am

Hi. My subdivision isn't finished and plenty of the people here seem to be ignoring one or more of the rules--i.e., political signs, lawn ornaments, an RV parked longer than allowed. So, I'm not sure how stringently such rules are usually enforced--I suppose it's how hoity-toity one's neighborhood is. But a close look at some of the "rules" often shows that you might have some flexibility in what is permitted. My HOA rules prohibit "mass plantings," but there is no definition of what constitutes a "mass planting." There are arguably other crucial ambiguities, too. Generally speaking, I believe that if you keep your front and back yard relatively neat, nobody complains. And if they do, my feeling is that I have an inherent right not to starve--and to grow my own food in a reasonable manner in my yard so that I don't. If that's true, overly restrictive covenants would be void as contrary to public policy. Who knows! Bring on that litigation!

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Permalink Reply by Letti on July 18, 2008 at 5:58am

I refused to buy a dryer because I had a back yard. I went to Home Depot got my stuff and my husband set up the close line for me. It has been almost two years that I have been drying my close outside. I love it. Growing up in the Caribbean it was a given to dry your clothes outside. I love the smell of the dried clothes. I am very happy that I can grow my food at home, without having to deal
with homeowners association. Never want to belong to one. Hopefully more people will want to grow vegetable gardens in their front or back yards. With that need to grow your food they will want to buy or rent a house where they can freely grow food at home and have a clothes line outside.

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Permalink Reply by Barbara on July 21, 2008 at 6:36pm

Luckily, these are isolated cases, but I have friends who give me their reports on the Associations. I am so happy that I didn't move into such a neighborhood. Living in my own home, I am able to dry my clothes outside, with no complaints from others. Of course, it isn't in the front yard, because I don't know that I want to display my underwear to everyone. But if I did, the neighbors aren't so anal that they would complain. We tolerate each other, which some areas don't seem to do. We also turned our back yard into a garden, and are presently planning to do our front yard into a vegetable, flower garden, with minimal water usage. In all of my years, I've come across people who find fault with anything just to display their control/power over others. Just today, I waited at the doctor's while a man yelled at an employee for 10 minutes just because she hadn't called him about his medicine. He had 100 pills but needed her phone call to feel important. She left, went in the back, shed a few tears, and came back to escort me into the doctor. She stayed professional, Mr. Anal proved how childlike he is...and these are the personalities that protest tents for kids, clotheslines, etc. Sadly, we spend our government money on things after the fact and not on free mental health for such angry people. have a good day, and my prayer is that you find happy people in your circle today.
As one reply said, READ The associations's rules before moving in. Anal people sit on those boards, also.

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Permalink Reply by L. J. Snyder on July 21, 2008 at 7:07pm

Amen! I have voiced this rant so many times, but you said it beautifully. And I am one of the lonely!

I insited when we moved that I had to live in a place where I could hang my laundry out. And having a garden was a given. It's one of my fondest childhood memories seeing my mom hang the sheets on the line. I imagined they were the sails of ships. Now my kids can too. Everyone in my neighborhood had a garden and clothes lines when I was a kid. But now, even out in a rural area where I live, I am the only one who hangs her clothes out. Too many have bought into the idea it is "proper" to use only the dryer, even when it's 90'F in the summertime. I'm pretty sure they think I'm strange!

But I will stand alone in my neighborhood with my laundry flapping in the breeze, sheep are my mowers, and the grass is full of dandilions - at least before the geese snatch them up, and my garden growing; all where it can be seen from the front street if one takes the time to look, as my kids make tents and climb trees. And no cell phone for me. But, alas, even rural it is loney at times indeed.

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Permalink Reply by Gardener's Daughter on July 21, 2008 at 8:28pm

My son and daughter-in-law have been growing veggies in pots on the deck of their rented apartment in Southern California. Recently the manager made them tear out their tomato and corn plants because they didn't fit with the look of the complex. Given the current economic/environmental situation, you think they might be more forgiving, but at this point appearances still trump practicality. My guess is that as things get worse, they may think twice about restricting people from growing food. Granted, the corn was tall, but I can't quite see how a tomato plant--even a big one--would be objectionable.

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on July 22, 2008 at 9:06am

If the plants were bamboo or some variety of palm, would they have been ok? Is it the fact that they're food that makes them "unslightly"?

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Connelly on July 21, 2008 at 10:32pm

I live in a rural community with many Amish who all take advantage of the free fresh smellig air. No need for artificial smells when you experience the freshness of sun dried sheets on your bed. Nothing compares. I am one person in a town of 2400 who hangs out on the line.

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Permalink Reply by Valerie on July 22, 2008 at 7:15am

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! What have we become?? I'm getting ready to hang a clothes line in my backyard... all I can say is bring it on!! I will go to court!! It is so absurd to allow these HOA to exist for the few that simply wish to live these robotic lives. I want to live in a neighborhood that actually looks like there are real families living in houses... not a row of model homes! I want character, and comfort, and the ability to do with my property what I want. Doesn't the constitution protect that right?

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Permalink Reply by Kitty on July 25, 2008 at 7:18pm

I am reading a fascinating book by a favorite author of mine, Michael Pollan. It's called "Second Nature, A Gardener's Education." It's about just what you are speaking of. He talks about the history of the American Lawn and our affectation with it since the World War Two. The beginning of the Surburban Sublime & the end of the Clothesline.

Well, darn the torpedoes I say. Every day I dote on the ever growing "weeds" I grow for food, like Purslane, and most of the time mow (with a reel mower, i.e. push mower) only when the seed heads form on the grasses. If I didn't have so many squirrels, chipmunks & birds I'd probably hang a clothesline too!

Kitty

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