Also known as AIIPNDS. ;)
I've been trying to figure out how to block the view of the renters next door for a while. And I figured it out! Even got to use some metal trellis parts I had laying around (literally).
I buried them in the ground 2' and filled the holes in with stone.
Kinda like how it turned out! I'm going to grow a Texas Star hibiscus in front of the middle two and vines up the outer ones.
Barb
I had that problem too .. but finally they left .. if you want a dense fast growing plant, loofah is what you want. And the best part .. if you want you get loofah sponges in fall.
I like it! I'm all for anything you can grow vines on. I was at the Dallas Botanical Garden a few years ago and they had poles driven in the ground at various angles they grew vines on. I tried to mimic with 8 ft. poles I painted red from Lowe's. Works well, it's cheap, and people always comment on it.
X, I haven't thought of loofah. Don't know if I want something like that though. I'll have to think about it.
Funny part - the neighbor actually spoke to me while I was doing this! First time she'd actually talked to me since they started renting there 4 months ago.
Barb
The Texas Star should cover up quite a bit. Mine get about 10 feet tall and fairly wide.
Entlie
The do have pretty yellow flowers. If you don't want the fruit just deadhead. Just say the word and I'll send you some seed.
This message was edited May 1, 2011 11:11 AM
Oh wow. That is pretty.
D-Mail!
Barb
Uh oh! Got confused here. The "Texas Star" hibiscus is a huge Hibiscus coccineus that can grow 8'-10' tall, and 3'-4' wide. Huge, beautiful, bright red flowers all summer. But that pretty yellow flower AIN"T a Hibiscus. What is it? Looks like a really healthy Jasmine humile "revolutum'...yet another beauty. Help me here, xeramtheum. Please. I'm still trying to learn the taxum on these things, and it's "one step forward, two steps back"...
It's Luffa aka Loofah vine - where loofah sponges come from. Luffa acutangula.
I need some of those seeds for the Luffa that is a beauty.
I just bought some black eye Susie vine seeds and will plant them this afternoon. Its raining right now, so my dirt pot will be ready to just put seeds in pot.
Lavina
Barb did the seeds arrive?
Dear Lord! I grew that thing one year. Thought it a "cool" thing to try. It went everywhere! Took me 3 years to get rid of it! Next time I get the "Louffa urge" it will be confined in a pot!
X,
Yes the seeds did arrive.
Thanks!
Barb
Didn't know loofah came from a plant. Learned something today and that looks fun to grow but Stono's comment makes me think it's not a good idea. The Low Country is a vine fest and anything vine seems to go wild. What exactly was the problem Stono?? This plant just run all over the place or did it send out a bunch of runners something like that??
I have no doubts these can become unruly if you don't give them something to climb .. they really aren't thugs and grow really fast .. as long as they have something to climb they are quite controllable. It's actually a very pretty vine.
Couldn't agree more about it being a pretty vine, Xerantheum---that's why I let it continue to grow. It somehow spanned a 10' height (completely open---nothing for that vine to climb!) and got into a Live Oak that had branches that reached horizontally almost to the garden fence. But still 10' higher than the garden fence I was growing it on)! It got into that Live Oak with a vengeance. But as you note, it's pretty, and I wanted as many Loofah's as I could get, so I let it slide. I realized my mistake when the Live Oak was almost 1/2 covered by Loofah (it's a big ol' Live Oak that I guess is maybe 100-150 yrs old). This is a single, first-year Loofah plant I'm talking about here! Reminded me of some horror movies I've seen. But it WAS real pretty (imagine a Live Oak festooned with bright yellow flowers over 1/2 of it...wish I had taken pictures!). To make a long story short, I had hundreds (literally) of Loofahs at harvest time. Friends wouldn't return phone calls, and ran from me on every encounter screaming "I don't WANT any more Loofahs"! I had Loofah seedlings all over the place the next year, and it took 3 years of constant (weekly) weed-whackings to get rid of them. Very prolific little boogers! Just my experience with the plant...still love it though...but it was a lot of work! Don't know if my experience was a "outlier" or the norm...
Ohhh.... Hmmm.
Yikes! That is scary .. You must have gotten a mutant strain or something!
Mutant loofah. Now there's a thought!
I had a similar thing happen with a gourd. I made the mistake of planting a variety gourd package. For years and I mean years I kept having these little half yellow, half green gourd plants popping up in my vegetable garden.
SO! The defense system worked quite well, but is no longer needed! The neighbors started moving out Thanksgiving day. Now that is something to be thankful for!
I'm keeping the trellis though. Right now two black eyed susan vines are growing up it and still look great.
Happy Barbie
Sometimes time just fixes all things. Hopefully the next renters will be better.
I agree. Most problems like this do fade away...
It took two years for mine to go away and they had lots of help from me.
X - you are so giving....;)
It was a nightmare .. didn't know what I was moving next door too when I bought my house .. they were Section 8, had been there for over 15 years totally rent free, kids grew up to be dog fighters and drug dealers. The poor neighbors were all terrified and only came out of their houses to get into their cars and leave. They even quit calling the police because the dispatchers told them they were the problem and not the neighbors .. dispatchers tried that crap with me just once as I reminded them I just happen to be their boss since my taxes covered their paychecks. It was a learning experience but finally had them lose their Section 8 status and two went to jail for drug dealing and dog fighting. Their front yard was a 24/7 parking lot with people who did not belong in the neighborhood wandering around night and day. Trash was always blowing from their yard into mine. You didn't dare leave anything in your yard, front or back because it would disappear. I kept diaries with pictures, wrote letter after letter to Codes Enforcement, Animal Control and Housing Authority. I started conspicuously photographing every car and person in the cars that came over there and made a point to get license plate numbers .. At the time I was working for Charleston County Sheriff's Department and they knew it and discovered really quickly that intimidation just makes me mad and I will always win a verbal war.
Once they were gone and the neighbors realized they were gone the whole tone of the street changed .. people came out of their homes, kids began playing in their yards and riding their bikes up and down the street - and actually got to know each other. It was amazing! I write a thank you letter every year to the guy who made the ultimate decision to kicking them out.
I've helped other people get rid of toxic neighbors using the methods I used. It's a lot of work but you do get results in the end.
The picture is what their front yard looked like 24/7 except for the days when the housing authority came by to inspect the place .. then everything was cleaned up. Once that was over the yard turned back into a junk yard/trash heap again and the dogs brought back.
Wow. That was horrible. Glad you had the guts to be so persistent.
We didn't have anything that bad. Just one crazy woman. Ends up they left because they hadn't picked their 7 y/o daughter from the bus stop three times, which meant she wasn't allowed on the bus anymore, so they had to move to a new school district. We liked the daughter and the husband, the wife was just a nut job. She didn't work, so how she managed to not pick up her daughter from a bus stop one block away is a bit of a mystery.
My husband can be intimidating and knows the law, as you do. There were a few nefarious people in the area a few years ago and the reason we didn't have any trouble was because of him.
Here's to good neighbors!
Barb
