Large Scale Central

May shots around the garden

Starting off with the last harrah of my ‘New Dawn’ rose arbor. It will be torn down (along with my sheds and workshop) for a new highway because evil developers dumped a ton of money to get their corrupt political candidates into office so that they can build a bunch of freakin’ townhouses no one can afford to buy. I am getting an equivalent piece of adjacent property and a big check for a bigger and better workshop/sheds.

The dogwood bed is looking great with the foot and half of rain we have had this May :angry: ! Walking around the yard is like walking on wet sponges but the turf does look like a green shag carpet. Here is a Cornus kousa ‘Milkway’ flanked by two taller Cornus kousa chinesis surrounding a stone bench. A partially hidden Cornus alba ‘Ivory Halo’ sits to the right of the bench.

Another 'Ivory Halo" sits around the other side. On the right side is a Franklinia alatamaha, a small native tree that has big beautiful white blooms in the late summer. It was named for Ben Franklin and is now thought to be extinct in the wild.

At one end of the layout (you can see a bridge on the left) these ‘Knockout’ roses are going strong. Two months ago they were seven feet tall and got shorn down with hedge clipper. In the background is a hardy, medium sized southern magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty’. A ‘Gold Princess’ spirea sits at the left end of the bed.

-Brian

At least you are being well compensated.
The use of eminent domain to support private development needs to be stopped.
A flagrant abuse of landowner rights.

BTW- Nice looking yard.
Ralph

Looks great Brian. I work for developer, but I agree with Ralph. Did the government force you to sell under E.D. or did the developer just make you an offer you couldn’t refuse? We often do the later to buy adjacent properties. Most often we do it to clean up derelict buildings or neglected properties to help maintain the value of the new development.

In any case, let’s get back to gardening least this become yet another political thread…

There used to be several flowering trees in my back yard when I was renting this house. They were all lost when the septic system needed replacement. The contractor convinced the landlord they were in the way. In reality, it was just easier for him if they were out of the way. We bought the house a year later in 2000 and I’m still finding places this contractor ripped off my landlord.

All I have left is a Dogwood. The neighbors have several nice flowering trees that we can enjoy from our back porch.

Its the government. Its highway project that has been on the books for 60 years. We knew it was a very slim possibility when we bought the property but the original plans left my property untouched. A former county council came close to turning all the land for it to park land. Enter the evil developer, Kunterra (oops, did i misspell that?), who dumps a ton of money into getting enough of their boys on the council (most voted out the next time round), combined with a very pro-business county executive (no longer in office), and a one term republican governor (bad hair cut Bob) and it created a perfect storm to resurrect this monster.
Now we are going to have a six lane toll highway that will cost $6 to ride 10 miles, that will do nothing to help the 495 beltway traffic (by the State Highway Administration own reports) instead of having a light rail line (there is both light and heavy rail at each end of this project).
The worst part of this whole mess has been dealing with the StHiwayAdmin. We have been dealing with these SHA incompetent idiots for two years to accomplish what would take a week to do in the business world. They have yet to formalize and finalize everything. Though we have signed a contract with them which is meaningless if they change their minds.
Alright, rant off.

-Brian

OK. I missed the highway part, but saw townhouses.

Still nice looking stuff!