Trees and Shrubs and Flowers, Oh, My

Monday, August 18, 2014
A hibiscus, my current favorite
One of things we've learned about the community where our new house is being built is their rules for landscaping. The builder "landscapes" the front and back yard to include river rock borders, a patch of grass, a sprinkler system and one deciduous tree.

This is not sufficient for our new HOA. Depending on the size of the lot, they have very specific requirements as to how many trees you must have, what type, how large they must be at planting, the minimum number of shrubs for both front and back, maximum height at full growth, etc. We're required to submit a "landscaping plan" to the architectural committee for "approval" shortly after we move in, and another plan for every change we make in the landscaping except flower beds.

So I started some research on landscaping firms to see if it would be too costly to hire a service. Surprise, surprise, it IS. I mean, it really is. Especially when we have to hire someone to put up a fence immediately upon moving in, as well.

So one of my projects for the new house is designing the landscaping plan to include all the requirements in the HOA document. Because the sprinkler system won't water these areas, they must be xeriscape. Luckily for me, xeriscaping is a thing in Colorado and the Colorado State University Extension has good information that I can reference.

The only issue is that I have a tendency to kill things on a fairly regular basis. When that happens, I typically rip it up and replace it with something else I hope will survive my neglect. Because of the HOA guidelines, I'll presumably have to submit a "plan" for "approval" every time this happens.

I've been using my home copy of Visio to prepare our initial plan. At least that damnable thing will have some use.


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