SFGate

Garden cops patrol for weeds; write citations

Saturday, August 4, 2001 Breaking News Sections

(08-04) 00:04 PDT MISSION VIEJO, Calif. (AP) --

This 81-year-old garden cop patrols for weeds and overgrown bushes and he's not afraid to hand out citations.

"That's not right," said Bill Stolarik, spotting a sunflower exceeding the six-foot height limit and a zucchini too big to be edible. "That's just plain old neglect."

Every few weeks, Stolarik and three others patrol a community garden at the Casta del Sol retirement community. Sloppy gardeners are not tolerated, according to the garden club's two-inch thick rule book.

If citations fail to correct the problem, the offending gardener will be called before the club's nine-member board of directors.

"And if he has a bad attitude about it, we may just ask him to resign his membership," said Stolarik, the club's president. "We run a tight ship here."

The club has collected more than $100 in cleanup fines this year, mostly from members who left the group without clearing away dead plants and weeds.

Most of the club's 148 members take gardening just as seriously as Stolarik and his squad. They spend hours watering, weeding and fertilizing.

Annual dues of about $14 pay for speakers at monthly meetings and outings to botanical gardens. Club members also pay a $40 cleanup deposit.

Earlier this year, the club spent $23,000 to install decomposed granite walkways that meander through their 2.8-acre garden. Club members lobbied the Casta del Sol homeowners group for money every year for five years and came up with $13,000. They covered the rest themselves.

The gardeners say the benefits of their labors go beyond the vegetables they harvest.

"Everyone thinks I'm 10 years younger than I am," said Thelma Cullings, a 20-year-resident who will only admit being older than 70. "I have no health problems, and I attribute it to the garden."

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2001

Answers

When I'm dictator, noone will be allowed to plant yellow tulips so that they're visible from the street. Yellow forsythia is great, and terrific too are the yellow jonquils that follow. But by the time tulips are blooming the neighborhood deserves something else. So, keep your yellow tulips in the back, or I'll be visiting you!

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2001

You would not believe how tall the weeds are in my raised garden. I didn't plant veggies this year, so the weeds are thriving.

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2001

This story is about a retirement community. A place that has some rules written down (and agreed to either directly or by implication) about how their neighborhood will be kept and cared for. No broken down refrigerators in the yards, derelict cars, or weeds I guess. I really don't have a problem with that. People know, going into such a place, that there will "agreed upon" rules of behavior to follow.

There is a Levitt community about 30 minutes from where I live. It's one of those totally planned out deals with schools, police, public playgrounds, etc. *And* a requirement to keep your lawn cut, or they will do it for you and charge you for the expense. And the expense is more like a fine, and not something a neighbor kid would get to do it.

Personally, I live on small farm in a very rural setting. We don't have many rules out here, and I like it that way. But if I made the decision to move into a retirement community I know I would have to live in a way that was more or less acceptable to everyone else. Fine.

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2001

I think I was fixating on this guy going around with a measuring tape, seeing how high the sunflowers were and then checking the grass!

Yep, the weeds have been awful this year; we've had an unusual amount of rain and are due for some more. I'm also seeing a couple of weeds I haven't seen before. Anyone else? Maybe it's just that before this year I pulled them up before they got big--or they just didn't get enough rain and lay dormant waiting for the right moment to pop up.

The tomatoes are growing so tall I have to run them horizontally, adding extra cages to rest them on.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001

I know people like that! There is a small group of elderly men and women who wander around in the evenings from house to house in our neighborhood, shaking their heads over the condition of some yards. Now, the average price for homes around here is in the 250+ range (don't get excited, I live in one of the tiny retirement houses the designers sneaked in to use space well), so our yards are not piled high with junk cars, old appliances, or other in-your-face eyesores.

Still, there are several of us on the street of more modest means and even less time who don't maintain our lawns as well as the local golf course, which seems to be their standard. We keep them cut and replace brown spots larger than a bread box, but we don't water, apply fertilizer, or even weed. That, of course, leads to the head shaking.

I don't care. It's just a riot to watch, though.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001

PS -- OG, I'm seeing tons and tons of thistle! I think the birds are bringing in the seeds. I've seen more small yellow birds around this summer. Tangers? Flickers? They're shy and fast.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001

We don't have many junk cars around here, I think all the cars run, they just look like sh-t. And it seems that many of the neighbors have four or more cars. With only 75' in front of the house to park in, and trees in that area as well, it is beginning to look like Little Havana.

We are beginning to feel left out, having only two cars, which fit nicely in the driveway away from the road, and screened by bushes too. You have to look close to see if there are any cars at our house.

With all the rain we have been having lately [remember we are in a drought?] all the lawns are green as can be. Luckily ours was cut just before that Barry wetness came thru.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001

I think the yellow birds are goldfinches--they love thistle seeds. You could say you're growing the thistles as food for the birds :)

I love the idea of the old gits walking around and shaking their heads over the state of your lawn. I think I would have to say, very sweetly, I'm so sorry you have Parkinson's but they're doing wonderful things these days.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001

I chose this community to a large extent cuz I figured I could grow just about whatever I wanted in the front yard, that it wouldn't have to be lawn.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001