"I'm shocked. They WANT the rain water to go to the storm drains? " Yes. "If the rain lands on my roof... shouldn't I be able give some to my plants?" No. It doesn't belong to you. It belongs to somebody downstream from you. I've done some reading on the water rights laws and if you try to get your arms wrapped around things, some of the odd things are really remnants of things that were codified when they were trying to ensure there was enough water for the cattle and sheep. Way back when, if a rancher had a stream and built a dam, he could build up a big reservoir of water and make sure he always had enough water for his cattle. But the people who lived downstream would suddenly find that the stream had dried up and they couldn't get water for their sheep (or themselves). Don't you remember all those old westerns where the mean cattle baron was trying to starve out the hard working settlers and/or sheep farmers in the valley? And then somebody (who used to be a hired killer or something) ends up saving the day for the sheep farmers? Shane, Trinity, Angel and the Badman are examples. So there are all kinds of agreements in place as to who owns water in various places, how much they can dam, how much they can use in a year, how much they can sell to somebody else, and so forth. Technically, I think the way the laws are written, they don't say who owns the water, but who owns the rights to the water. In most cases, unless you own the rights to do so, you can't stop water from flowing to the people downstream from you, who own the right to use it (or part of it) but also probably don't own the rights to stop its flow (so the sheep farmer in the valley can keep his sheep alive). I think there is also language in some of the laws that basically gives precedence to agriculture over cities and towns (probably because it was so important at the time to keep the ranch animals alive). And there's often language giving precedence to the oldest rights (so ranches that have been in the same family for generations ahve more rights that people who have recently acquired rights. There are also some odd laws WRT gray water. In some parts of the country, there are laws against using gray water for plants because the thinking is that there could be hygiene issues. In the west, the laws are in place because you don't buy the water, you buy the right to use the water once. The key is that you buy the right to use it once. After you've used it, it belongs to somebody else. So you can put a bucket in the shower to catch the water while it's warming up (since you haven't used that water yet) but once you step in, you're not supposed to catch the water because you've used it to shower. I think there are a lot of problems with the way the water rights are doled out. One of the biggest is that when they decided how much water each state should be given, they did it in a period of historically high precipitation. Some people say that they made it worse by overestimating how much water was there. The end result is that there is a lot more water "owned" than there is actual water. I'm convinced that it's going to get much worse in the years ahead. I've been replacing my lawn grass with native grasses that use much less water than traditional grasses. I should be able to keep my lawn green without watering until late June or early July and only watering 1-2 times a month. In contrast, most of my neighbors water daily (to make a better comparison, I've been watering once a week except in the hottest part of the summer, when I water about once every 5 days).

Michelle: Don't let the "subdivision" thing fool you. It's not what you and I know from Florida. I looked in the Tobacco Branch subdivision (over by Lake Fontana) and best I could tell, subdivision meant I could see my neighbors roof (if I looked down and over at just the right angle) and there was a HOA that maintained the road. I ended up not in a "subdivision". Road maintenance is important if you are going to be on the mountains. The state maintains our road literally up to the sign that says "State Maintenance Ends". When I mean literally, I mean I have seen them back the snowplow even with the sign to start clearing. Since we are above the sign, we have to clear the road and bridge from the house to the sign. As far as flooding, we have a creek and even with heavy rains it stays in the banks,remember that water flows downhill, so when the lower elevations are flooding we are not because the water moves pretty fast downstream. As far as sun, remember each mountain has different faces. The people that have a summer pace on the evening side of where I live have "hotter" exposure because they get sun in the hotter parts of the day. If you are worried about heat, look for a place that has trees closer to the house for the shade. Maggie Valley is very expensive (in my book)but not everything in a valley has valley in the name. For example the Leatherman Gap area outside of Franklin does't sound like a valley, but it is (and a very pretty one at that). The only plants that I have lost to water are those that I planted too close to the spring and creek, thinking that the ground would dry in the summer (it didn't and now I don't know why I thought it would). We live and learn!

scarleta, the gravel/shards at the bottom of the container to improve drainage is one of those garden myths that has been debunked based on studies of how containerized soils function. The complexities of the actual drainage activity is a bit more than I feel capable of explaining but it is a recognized physical phenomenon. As I do container planting professionally as well as personally, the success of container plantings is critical to me and I've spent a fair amount of time researching. One container gardening resource explains it this way: "ItÂs long been touted that rock, bits of pottery, even oyster shells covering the bottom of a pot improves drainage. However, this method causes an opposite outcome. A shallow container holds more water per unit than a deeper one. Placing gravel or other non-absorbent media in the bottom of a container essentially makes the container shallower, and in return, drainage is compromised. The other problem with this method is that water does not move easily from a soil medium into a coarser material. If drainage is a problem in your containers, switch to high quality potting soils for your flowerpots. If that doesnÂt solve the problem, add more perlite to the medium." Unless container drainage is very sharp and uniform throughout the planting medium, the apparent need for nearly constant watering can lead to moisture accumulating rather than flowing freely. This is the same theory of soil interface issues that has resulted in the widely accepted horticultural practice of no longer amending individual planting holes in a inground planting situation. This leads easily to root rots or other fungal problems. That you haven't yet encountered this may be a tribute to your skill with container gardening but it is no longer a recommended process to add any sort of drainage layer to the bottom of a container. When you think about it, have you ever purchased any sort of containerized plant that did have a coarser drainage layer on the bottom? If this was intended to help container culture, don't you think the commercial growing operations might consider it practical as well?

After a week of 3+inches rain and cool weather; An oldie; 'Northern Halo' They just keep growing! Sprayed twice for slugs, but still killing 50+ big ones a night Francee, Gold Standard, Moonlight and Striptease (front to back) with Candy Dish in the left background Good spot to sit! Candlewood (by my right elbow) just keeping sprouting higher. One of my mother's montana seedlings, so it will grow large. Still one of my favorite plantings.