What changes are you making?

[jesvetmed]

Trek: Very true!
Hey.. just wanted to let you know I PURCHASED 3 tomato plants and tended them nicely, and you almost did as well as I did with your "accidental" production! I got 4 red ones before the frost hit. Shows how great your compost probably is...and what a 'brown' thumb I really have.
Next year I'll shoot for 8. Small strides

I do, however, have an entire bag full of my neighbors' tomatoes and cucumbers. If I can use them up before they go bad I'll be lucky! I have dreams of canning some day -- definitely will need a better/bigger kitchen and even one storage cabinet. But this would be a huge help vs. buying canned tomatoes and sauce, and pesto, etc, through the winter.

[Eden]

Jes- don't feel bad, tomatoes are *very* difficult to grow around here.... it doesn't really get warm enough - and especially this year it was so cold all of the way through June. Unless you get starts and cloche (cover with plastic) your plants or have a green house its hard to get any to ripen before they rot. If you plant varieties that have smaller fruit - cherry tomatoes, some romas, its more likely you'll get to eat some.

Snow peas, radishes, lettuce -stuff that doesn't mind cool weather does great in this climate.

[Tuckervill]

I have an acre and a half of lot, on which there are 7 pecan trees, a 40x30' vegetable garden, grapevines on all the fences and a smokehouse. Butterflies and hummingbirds visit my vines and flowers across the front fence, and squirrels live in abundance on stolen pecans. I never put weedkiller or fertilizer or anything else on the plants in my yard.

But, I still have to burn gasoline on my riding mower to mow the grass!

Karen

[Aggie_Ama]

I am required to have freaking bermuda grass in my yard as part of my deed!! But there was nothing to say we couldn't dig up half that crud from the front yard in favor of tastefull landscaping. We now have a large mulched (water wise you know) landscape beds that will soon house: dwarf Japanese barberry (water sipper), native Texas Yucca, native Texas Skullcap, Native Texas Dwarf Katie Ruellia and water sipping society garlic. Best part is all the native stuff is a butterfly and hummingbird dream landscape. I cannot wait to have it all in place.

The trees are native oaks mulched out while most the neighbood hood did not put in permanent tree rings and re-mulch allowing the water hogging grass to crawl in the tree rings the builder constructed with mulch and drain life from the trees. Now they complain the trees are dead. They put chemicals on the yard without reasing about them. We boil water to kill fire ants (in a sick way it is fun) and use organic products made for our area. I leave lizards and toads where others run them off. I allow birds to build nests and have enjoyed a mosquito free porch even though I must wash off the bird poo.

The backyard will eventually be converted to majority xeriscaping as well. We will spend less than 1 hour to mow. I do not have a desire to grow vegetables on the limestone 1" under my yard but I do have a desire to put buffalo or native grass in the back yard where the HOA won't be back there to check what happened to the bermuda.

The rest of my neighboorhood plants unique looking exotic plants that require tons of water to grow here. Instead of going to a local nursery that could help with plant selection they go to Lowe's where the plants are picked by a buyer who has no lnadscaping background. I know I did a lot of time in Lowe's working. So while some people are interested and care about a water wise yard like us most will just pick something that looks "neat" and not care about drought tolerance, water requirements, etc... They will water the yard daily even though ours looks the same watering 1 hour 2x a week as allowed by the water restrictions (unenforced). People think it is unconvenient to be interested in learning what is best for our personal environment. Well at least I will have a nice yard that works here.

[Flur]

DH and I rent, and we really haven't made much in the way of changes even though I'm not working. We were already putting most of our money into savings and paying down the debt we both accrued living young and poor in NYC. We already take the bus or ride bikes everywhere. The only change we've made is that we were going to buy a house and didn't. I don't consider us vultures, but we are looking forward to the cheaper home prices for when I've got a secure job and we're ready to buy something.

We live above our landlord and have no say about how he treats the lawn and grounds, but I would love to have a garden. I'm happy to see that, in our neighborhood at least, it's become trendy to grow the grass a bit longer, and to use the old push mowers with the revolving blade that leaves the grass with a bit of an uneven shagginess to it. All the best looking homes have this kind of lawn. Hopefully it will catch on with the others.

[ACG]

I live in Pasadena, a burb of Los Angeles. I have a fantastic vegetable garden. Tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, chilis of all kinds, herbs too. It is sunny here and I water the vegies, they love it!

On my changes. I am trying to pay off all my debt except the house in the next 90 days. Can't pay off the house, cuz I just bought it! Turning off lights wherever I can. Not using the air or the heat. Being careful what I buy. I need a new fridge, so I'm gonna save up and pay cash. I am going to go back to school and I will attend the local junior college first, instead of a university. The JC is cheaper and closer. Eventually I'll have to hit the university, so I'll take the bus or train as I live very close to the commuter lines. This whole thing scares me, but I'm trying not to panic too much and I've decided not to watch any of it on TV anymore.