Mourning the Loss of My Favorite Commute Spot

[Trek420]

Yeah! Keeping fingers toes and eyes crossed for the fruit trees.

I don't mean any disrespect of anyone's housing style or choice of where to live. What I'm trying to express is that gardeners/farmers make landscape as much as the architect.

Take my condo development. Here's a typical single story end unit. If you ride around the Bay Area you'll find several developments about the same era and look. The architect had a field day designing hundreds of these.

Note the boring landscaping.

[Trek420]

This is the exact same unit. A closer shot and you'd see heirloom tomatoes, artichokes, it's a mix of edible gardening and pure ornament.

I've tried to talk to the family who owns this. Their garden wraps all around the unit. English is not their first language. So I just smile when I see them work on it.

[Mr. Bloom]

Trek, you'd like my condo development at home #2; it is a "Designated Woodlands Community" in a very typical suburban area. Very high density, very natural and heavily wooded, very high privacy, with a lush pond in the middle of the development

kfergos: If I gave the wrong impression that I was offended, I'm not. I understand exactly where you're coming from. I LOVE green space.

[Trek420]

Trek, you'd like my condo development at home #2; it is a "Designated Woodlands Community" in a very typical suburban area. Very high density, very natural and heavily wooded, very high privacy, with a lush pond in the middle of the development

Sounds lovely. When we saw the newly remodeled (well remodeled is an understatement)

http://www.calacademy.org/academy/bu...he_living_roof

Knott and I talked about how gardens can and should grow anywhere and everywhere. But that takes people, people and/or a lot of dough. I imagine your development is heavily landscaped and maintained by the HOA. Mine does not have that kind of cash.

Or they do but I've seen the financials and they waste it on .... oh don't get me started.

But imagine what the 480 unit development I'm in would look like if more of us did what that family does in the evening instead of parked in front of the flat screen TV

[tulip]

Speaking of TVs, it recently occurred to me that I have not watched since everything and everyone went digital except me. I don't miss it a bit! I've read three books since June and have done tons of gardening, sometimes until dark.

Anyhoo, back to the thread, I'd be interested in kfergos' updates on the property.

[Trek420]

Speaking of TVs, it recently occurred to me that I have not watched since everything and everyone went digital except me. I don't miss it a bit! I've read three books since June and have done tons of gardening, sometimes until dark.

At the risk of this turning into Landscape Thread Drift at my work I often have to ask people how many TVs they have in the home and I am shocked, astounded, surprised, mortified .... by how many households have 6, 7 maybe more. I'm not allowed to comment to say "OMG, I can't imagine that"

I suppose they would feel the same asking me "how many bikes do you have?"

Back to the OP. I too want to hear the tale of what's gonna happen down on the farm. Sitting on the edge of my chair, waiting for the next installment, holding the remote.

[Crankin]

What Reesha said makes particular sense for the area that Kfergos is talking about. There's not a lot of land left here for building. Houses are expensive compared to many parts of the country. So, when someone wants to move up or out, they usually are faced with the choice of smaller/older in the close in suburbs, which will cost more than newer/larger (land and house) in the area around where Kfergos lives.
I am not defending ugly developments (I saw enough of those in AZ). I live in a very unusual planned community that was built in the sixties, that is essentially in the woods, but not everyone is going to have a garden surrounding their house. I hate gardening. I am happy to spend my money buying local produce at the farms by me, but I am not willing to spend the time.

[Voodoo Sally]

kfergos, which town is this farm in? I'm a native of Worcester County and in my lifetime I've seen a lot of land disappear there.

[kfergos]

kfergos, which town is this farm in? I'm a native of Worcester County and in my lifetime I've seen a lot of land disappear there.

It is in Shrewsbury in the back neighborhoods between the Westborough commuter rail station and Route 20, just off Route 20.

Update: Nothing to update! They've got a big pile of rocks and a wide patch of flat dirt where the buildings used to be, but nothing has changed that I can tell. The vehicles keep moving around, so they must be doing something, but I can't figure out what yet. I continue to be very curious!

[Voodoo Sally]

I know the area. My mom lives in Shrewsbury just a couple of miles from there. I LOVE the old farms in this area, and it's a shame that as the decades go by, the owners die and the family can't afford to keep the valuable land. Keep us informed. I'd love to see more pretty pics. of this place before it's gone.

[Trek420]

I am very pleased that the mountain we enjoyed, learned to hike and enjoy the outdoors in while growing up on the farm is now being proteted by

www.sonomalandtrust.org

If there's a land trust in your area please support it.

[GLC1968]

I LOVE the old farms in this area, and it's a shame that as the decades go by, the owners die and the family can't afford to keep the valuable land.

This is a bigger problem than most people realize. There are lots of people out there who would love to own these small farms and operate them as farms, but most can't afford them. The land has gotten ridiculously expensive. The current farming generation in this country is aging very rapidly and no one is coming up behind them to take their place. Not because they don't want to...but because they can't afford to. It's a real shame and it's going to be a real problem in the very near future.

That, and the more farms you tear down for development, the more traffic, the more pollution and the less rural roads for us cyclists!

[kfergos]

Lovely photo "memories" kerfogos! Hope you took/will take more different photos since this place will go soon forever

Here are a couple more pictures I took yesterday.






No change in the last week or so: The equipment is just parked, the dirt plots haven't been touched, there's no sign of activity. The only thing I've noticed is that somebody's marked something (utilities?) on the road along the farm, which makes me wonder if they do have plans for it.

[Trek420]

The current farming generation in this country is aging very rapidly and no one is coming up behind them to take their place. Not because they don't want to...but because they can't afford to. It's a real shame and it's going to be a real problem in the very near future.

Spotted today at the local farmers market a blast from my past, a 4H club. I found out that here in busy urban Bay Area there are at least 13 clubs in the East Bay alone. Nationwide, who knows how many.

So while the cost of land and start up costs are one thing, but "the kids are alright"

[smilingcat]

Mr. Silver pointed out something most people miss. High density housing relieves the need for more open space, reduce the urban sprawl. Another thing that would help is if the gas price was to go through the roof.

A lot more incentive to live close to their work instead of commuting 50 or more miles from their work. DOT, NHTSA ... thinks widening the highway is the answer to the rush hour commute. Quite the contrary. If people had more incentive to live closer to their work, there wont be the ugly urban sprawl. And there wont be this gawd awful rush hour commute of 50+ miles.

I for one would like to have a small organic farm. However, as GLC says, the financial picture is all against it (not to mention my age). The average age of family farm owner is 55 is what I heard. And many of them are continuing to work into their late 70's and sometimes even into their 80's.

Some states do have a "matchmaking" program to arrange a partnership between the old/aging farmer and the green horn. The partnership takes on many different forms. The goal of these programs are to eventually transfer the farm to the younger generation witout crushing financial burden. This idea BTW is very popular in Europe. I don't know who started it...

As for the beautiful farm, only time will tell. New owner may be into hobby farm and will maintain the esthetics.