I seem to NEVER respond to you guys individually, but here goes: Niecy-I grew up a very shy, timid person...thank God He has used many extremely tough trials over the past 25 years to help me become an overcomer and more confident. I know that we all have our own personal issues, so I really feel I'd rather extend mercy, as I've always got to have it myself for my own failures! Thanks so much for your kind words Niecy! :0) Sammy-I know what you mean about differences in locales. We've been in our house for 11 years, and our street has been very "quiet." Nobody really interacts with one another. So Gary and I have been trying to invite different couples over (from our street) for a BBQ in the garden, so they can get to know eachother a little and people won't feel so isolated. This summer we will do the same thing and invite even more, just to get this neighborhood more friendly. Wendy-I'm sorry you lost your Golden Retriever. I know that it will be hard to lose my "baby"-Abbi (very lovable tuxedo cat we've had since we moved here). I didn't really realize that our neighbor Cindy had such deep feelings for her dog Greta, because she yelled at her all the time. We always felt sorry for the poor dog. Of course, we don't know-Greta could have gotten a lot of affection behind the scenes. :0) Kathy-Wow, that was a kind of huge thing to have to go through! Glad your story had a nice ending! That was sweet. Amberroses-thanks! Yes, me too...I hope Cindy warms up to us some. I did tell her husband Jerry that I didn't expect for her to become my best friend or anything....but just wanted neighborliness. :0) Cindi-that's too bad about your neighbors. We have a very nice retired neighbor who grows mostly the J & P boxed roses that his wife sells at a small local nursery. He calls them "tea" roses, and he uses a lot of chemicals and is always offering to spray our roses to kill JBs. He had cancer a few years ago. He thinks of the Ortho products as very innocuous and safe. He means well. :0) Redsox & Hoovb-LOL Nobody has ever called me THAT (Emotionally Mature) before! Thanks!! My husband does tell me that I'm the most honest person he has ever known, "without guile". Yeah, right. LOL That is the utmost compliment, though I know I have plenty of failings!! Nancy-We must be very similar-better at written communication than 1:1? I don't know about you, but I tend to freeze up & get tongue-tied when facing confrontation, etc. It's a good skill though...being able to just talk things out. Kate-We must have had the same mom! :0) That was such a nice thing you did for your neighbor. I would love to give Cindy some roses someday...but I don't want to push her out of her comfort zone. M-(Michaelalreadytaken)-No more apologies necessary, Michael. Cindy had really intimidated Gary to the point where he didn't want me to give her the letter...but I got bold with him and told him that I NEEDED to...that communication was too important. Thank you so much for your kind words though. Terry-what a nice thing to say! I wish I had you as a neighbor too! :0) Berndoodle-thanks...I don't know what to say really, except for thank you. :0) Florence-Thanks! I'm hoping things warm up around here too! Solskjaer-Me too. I know we all learn so much from eachother on this forum! It's great to have all of you. Kittymoonbeam-so sorry you tried so hard to no avail. Don't give up doing what you know is right. :0) Ingrid-We have some wonderful German friends in Texas. My mom also came from the German heritage. She was the most wonderful person in the world, as was her mom. Thanks for the encouraging words. :0) Carla-Thank you! Yes, I'm sure most German people are very friendly. Germany must have been gorgeous! I'd love to visit someday! Thanks, everyone!! :0) Phyl

All of which goes to show....do what it takes not to fight with your neighbors. They may be unreasonable (one of ours called the cops to report an abandoned car parked in front of our house....that belonged to my daughter who was on vacation). They may be dead wrong (one of ours thought that, because their property is subject to an easement for use by their adjoining neighbors, they had an easement to use my property). They may even be right (when we were first married more than 30 years ago, another of ours objected that our dog, who we had trained to retrieve the newspaper, was taking their paper. She was.). We have learned to be considerate. When their wishes infringe on our right to live as we please, we set down boundaries, explaining why and what we are doing, accommodating what we can. Neighbor doesn't like cars parked in our driveway? Too bad. We have friends. Neighbor likes to spray the property line with Roundup? Fine, so long as not one drop gets on my plants planted along the fence line. Neighbor doesn't like the view of my yard from their living room window? Fair enough. We do what we can, planting screening to soften infrastructure installed by the developer. Of course I wonder why they didn't do the same on their own property. But I screen nonetheless. It's all part of being a good neighbor. Funny how barking dogs and trash containers get people nuts. We have neighbors who seems to think that leaving the emptied trash containers up on the street for an hour past trash pickup is a sign of poor breeding. Oh well. The green can is so heavy that I cannot wrangle it up the driveway. I get half way up, and it rolls me right back down. So when my gardener fills it, he also does the service of putting the green can up by the street. Neighborhoods used to be organized with those wonderful alleyways at the back of the property. We don't live in that world any more. As for dogs, there's a big difference between a young dog learning to enjoy staying in the yard alone for the first time and a dog that barks all day, every work day while its owner is at work. But not to my neighbors.

I would like to see anything grown in pure nitrogen. You would be growing in Nitrate, Ammonia-Nitrate, Urea or a combination of. I've been to a friends house nearby that has an elderly Asian (Chinese) couple as neighbors. Their garden abuts his property line. Two years ago while we sat on his patio, he was telling me a story about their gardening practices. As I visited, I soon witnessed what he was talking about. With my own eyes I saw them carrying a stock pot containing urine to their veggie garden. One may ask how can you tell it is urine? By the distinct color and I'm sure it wasn't chicken broth. My friend told me when the days are hot and the wind is just right, he can smell that awful odor. His neighbors still do this today. Every now and then my friend jokingly throws it into our conversations about gardening. How do you tell a neighbor that speaks little to no English about this dilemma? I guess that's where hands signs come into play. :) Compared to this, I think he would welcome a few leaves rather than deal w/ the stench. Paul B.

I'm surprised Jeff hasn't chimed in on this post. I saw several things there that appear to be lifted from the MTPS site.