Yah, holy cr#p, zone 2b - I'm not even going to try to talk specific plants! I too was thinking that deciduous shrubs would be your best option, and then you could put perennials under them. But conceptually, we have easements like this in my whole neighbourhood. I think a key question is, what does the city actually do with this property? And on that basis, what are your options? Our house is fairly far forward so our yard without the easement is tiny, plus there are all the disadvantages you mentioned of maintaining the space outside a fence (and our neighbourhood offers worse debris than dog poop). Plus no one has done anything with the easement in 100 years, so all the compromises POs have made could be seen as wasted! So, we built our fence extending out over the easement (kind of a hexagonal arrangement that my husband came up with). We did this, and now garden there, with the understanding that the city could come by any day and bulldoze its way through the whole thing to, say, widen the road. In the interim, and that's been 20 years, we get a larger private yard. The fence has paid for itself in the value we get from it, and the city is welcome to come by and take it out any time :-) Another option I've seen is that people have their proper fence separating off their property, and then another, sometimes smaller, fence boxing off the easement from their yard and the sidewalk, with a little gate that they use to go in and maintain it. In other words, so it's city property. If it's yours to maintain, do what you have to do to make this manageable and to make the space a pleasure for you. When the city needs it, they'll come for it no matter what you do. KarinL

I just thought that some of you unfamiliar with frozen forms of precipitation need a quick crash course. From a previous post: "The freezing rain was pretty solid pellets, bouncing off the car, but they were teeny tiny not hard enough to be called hail" You don't have freezing rain. That occurs when rain falls as a liquid, and freezes on contact with the earth's surface. That only occurs when the temperature of the air higher in the atmosphere is above freezing (hence the rain) but the temperature at the surface is below freezing. Freezing rain is what causes "ice storms", when everything (trees, roads, etc) ends up covered in a sheet of ice. very destructive. You don't ever want that! When Floridians put the sprinklers on during a sub-freezing night to coat plants in ice, that is man-made freezing rain. You don't have hail either. That occurs with strong up drafts during spring and summer thunderstorms. You are probably experiencing some sleet. Those are the really small frozen grains bouncing off your car. Sleet occurs when rain (liquid) falls through a layer of below freezing air and freezes into a small frozen grain before hitting the surface (in contrast to freezing rain which stays liquid until contact with the surface). And even though the temperature at the surface may be a little above freezing (say 35 degrees), it is not enough to melt the sleet particle before contact. Snow occurs when the air above the surface is all below freezing. The snowflake then falls to the surface where the temperature may be slightly above freezing. It may melt on contact or lead to a small slushy accumulation (in your area) or 2 feet (my area-sometimes anyway). Enjoy!

Had a dusting on the cars around 1:00 a.m. Tuesday morning here in East Central AL. Was still flurrying at 10:30 a.m. a little. I'm so happy our main heater has finally been fixed today (hasn't worked for weeks and we've been waiting on parts). This is a good night to have it back up and running again. Brrrr! Danielle

Good Morning and Thank Goodness its raining again! The game was like sitting in the middle of the Artic - 28 degrees with a slight wind and 1 snow flurry that lasted all of about 5 minutes. Did we win you ask? 68 to 0, everyone was rooting for the other team by the end of the game. And the coach had his 2nd string in from the 2nd quart on. The cheerleaders were doing jumping jacks for each touchdown by jumping the number on the score board. 61 times was a tough one but then after the next play they had to do 68. By the time they were done they were no longer together and a couple were laughing so hard they couldn't jump at all. Our DGS stayed over and just went home to get ready for church. We watched movies last night, had pop corn and root beer floats. Hard to believe he is almost 18... Joan...I live in S. W. WA., and this is really early for snow here! The ski resorts don't usually open until after T'day..rarely before, they are now up and running. We live at about the 700' level and are just high enough to be hotter in the summer and colder in the winter. Luvs...My DS and his wife gave me lots of books last year for Christmas. They hit every TS between here and Tacoma to find them, but, and I won't let them know, most are not my style or nothing caught my attention or well you know! And as I don't have a lot of storage space, something moves in something else moves out and I have forgotten the "out" part. Ah! Birthdays for pets...I remember my DD baking mud cakes for our dogs...used twigs for candles and pebbles for M&M's. It was fun reading about your DGD! Such precious times! Anj.....your kindness shows through all the time but after reading your post....you are super! Too many times when people know that someone is dying they "back away," afraid of I don't know what or just not knowing what to say. When my DMIL was in her last weeks, she told us that she was tired of everyone "walking on egg" whenever the subject of her dying had to be addressed. She helped me understand that being forthright was much easier and helped her cope much better. The closeness we shared during her last weeks is something I will never loose and I now think of her fondly which wasn't always the case for as she said "She was the Mother-In-Law from Hell" And yes we to have Gift Tree's, stores and malls won't use the word Christmas... and our fraternal order always gathers food and toys each year. And this year the need is greater than ever. The unemployment rate in our area is at about 15% and rising. Punk....glad you are safe! My DH is so worried about the tires on the van. He calls them city tread so I know that by Friday he will make a trip to town and get some Country Tread. Ah! Well! Better safe than sorry! Today is pretty free so I just might do a canvas type painting of Halloween. Been putting if off because it will be a real challenge but right about know I think I am up to it and can't find anything else I want to paint, sounds like we all have the painting blues! Must be the light deprivations thing! So I'm off to make a cup of mint tea, light my Apple Cinnamon candle and paint! Happy Painting! Belle