ok, I'm trying not to spit fire...I'm just furious.

Yesterday I received a notice from my small rural town (230 residents) that I am in "non-compliance" to town code for "weed violations".

Now I'm in the middle of a huge landscaping project and most of my property is bare, tilled dirt. So I call town hall to ask specifically what is the violation...I kid you not...they are siting me in violation for NOT CUTTING THE WEEDS ON THE TOWN'S PROPERTY ajoining my fence line!

Add to that I'm a single mom with 2 hyperactive, special needs preschoolers who bolt into the busy street and can't obey adult voice commands. Last year I never had more than 15-30 minutes outside at a time because I could not keep them safe. This year a little better at 20-45 minutes. I can barely keep the weeds down on my own property and can't afford to hire much help due to the cost of childcare & kid's therapies that are not covered by insurance which amounts to about 1.75 x my monthly mortgage payment.

Honestly, if any neighbor was offended enough to squeal to town hall, they might have taken the time to talk to me and offer help, or maybe at least to find out it wasn't my property!

Somewhere along the way in time, when our poor town government was only volunteers and had a pathetic budget they made an ordinance that landowners with property ajoining town streets are required to maintain the ajoining town property as "right of way". Then they decided to define weeds so subjectively that any grass taller than 6 inches is a "weed". They never enforced this code before but now we are growing rapidly and it has become a multi-million dollar government beauracracy and they feel powerful. They haven't even put in sidewalks for us. They certainly have better resources than I but are too cheap to pay someone to mow their own weeds or to improve their own property at their own expense!

So, here's where I'm asking for your help. I want to plant the whole darn line with ornamental grasses in protest. I was going to give them all a glimpse over the fence of my beautiful new shade/woodland gardens but not now. 10' tall Pampas grass to quaking grass, what ever. The taller the better. Preferably clumping, not spreading or invasive because I dont' want it to escape under the fence into my woodland garden. It must be zone 5 hardy.

I don't want to spend a lot on it because they could come along and dig a ditch or something at any time. It's about 30' long. I will, however, work out a fair trade, or reimburse for postage, or send sase, etc to....

ANYONE who can DONATE ornamental grass plugs IN PROTEST OF OPPRESSIVE, OVERBEARING GOVERNMENTS AND TATTLE-TAIL NEIGHBORS EVERYWHERE!--- Hey, I think I'll put that on a plack on the fence :)

Thanks for your help, or at least for reading my rant :)

BT4M