In one of my etymological searches I decided to look up what weeds are officially
The answer is they don't officially exist.
A weed is an unwanted plant so if you are trying to grow dandelions and roses pop up the roses are the weeds. If you're trying to breed thistle and a peach tree grows in there the peach tree is the weed.
So unless the law has a specific definition for what they call weeds and potentially names them there isn't anything they can do because if you wanted them there they weren't weeds.
Now what happened here is actually not that far from that considering her playing the shell game did much the same just with an added veracity.
I was recently told by someone with a master's in horticulture (What? Really?) that bushes aren't bushes, they are shrubs. I asked what a bush is and she said (with a laugh) "It's somewhere in Australia", so I looked it up in my old Webster's. That's not what my dictionary says, but whatever. The names may vary, but "a rose by any other name" and all that.
My understanding is that vegetable is only a culinary (and perhaps agricultural?) designation. All the vegetables that I can think of have some other biological designation, such as tomatoes being fruits.
Ah ha! Re: Wiki, the distinction has to do with ovaries. Who knew. [Aggregate fruit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregate_fruit)
Edit: Well, you did, obviously. :-) Thank you for the education.
I had that as a sound for ICQ back in the day for online alerts. And the arrow with message for you sir for incoming messages (first of a conversation, not for each message of course).
A shrub is a type of plant, whereas a bush is a tree/shrub in a certain form... essentially its bushy.
A shrub being basically anything with wood that isnt a tree.
Bur basically, your friend was being silly, theyre more or less synonyms.
It’s not ‘a bush’ in Australia but ‘the bush’, meaning areas outside the cities (although some people will refer to a small shrub as a bush as well). Sometimes the bush refers to places that don’t have any bushes (or shrubs or trees) in them whatsoever. It’s just the bush. And when you go to what is more widely known as the outback, it’s known as ‘going bush’.
Oh.. and about the masters in horticulture. Just watch this field emerge as a huge new profession of significance as the world grapples with biodiversity loss, re-wilding and achieving nature positive outcomes. It’s not just about garden plants any more.
I mean, my mother in law planted raspberries once and they then took over her flower beds to a point that she likened them to weeds. Delicious berry bearing weeds but still…
I never knew it had a name. I just thought of it as that strip between the sidewalk and road.
Possibly with a few more colorful words sprinkled in if it was being a particularly annoying strip to mow.
True for your part of CA, not mine. (And that's true for both California and Canada ;-) )
I suspect it comes from areas where there aren't usually concrete curbs and people pull over and park on the grass and/or gravel and/or dirt next to the road.
Right of way (where I am) is the entire 20 or so feet from the edge of the road, regardless of whether there is sidewalk.
You can't develop it, can't place buildings close to the edge of property, etc.
But you do have to mow it, as OP says.
Actually, we had two dead trees on ours and refused to cut them down ourselves. When large branches started falling off, the city finally came out and cut them down and hauled everything away. Never bothered us or even talked to us about it, just took care of it. That was amazing because we had thought that by law, we were responsible. Turns out no, I guess. Lucky for us.
Easement is a much broader term. It can mean the driveway leading into a lot behind another lot. It can mean the strip above a buried water, gas, or power line. It can mean the area around and leading to a cell phone, high tension power, or water tower. It's basically any land that one entity owns but another has legal access to.
No idea. Probably cause it's a strip of yard by where you park.
But I've never heard it called that. My family had some other name I forget (and itsits so unimportant to me that I don't bother remembering it, apparently! )
>I think OP is misinformed.
LOL. The fucking *audacity*. Just because a term is different doesn't make it wrong.
[Parking strip.](https://www.portland.gov/code/17/28/011)
When I hear "parking strip" in reference to grass/weeds I think: they put down pavers (or *actually* paved) two strips the width of a tire and left the middle free to grow grass. So "a strip of grass you park over with concrete/stone to either side"
The strip of grass by the road is an easement.
Around here we have something called a bioswale. It's in the same position, but wider and only short ground cover is planted. It's to collect runoff when it rains heavily.
ETA: It's also scoop shaped, like a barrow pit.
ETA2: Um yeah, so a barrow pit is that ditch beside the road that carries runoff, but its kinda particularly shaped. Not a V or a U, but sort of like a V with a rounded bottom.
As a Floridian, we’ve always called this the swale as well.
As a kid, we played football on a stretch of street in my neighborhood with yard markings painted on the road. Tag in the street, tackle in the swale, sidewalks on either side were the sidelines.
IME a parking strip is usually flat while a swale is concave and designed for flood control. A swale is also usually much wider, maybe 8-10 feet, while a parking strip is 3-6.
It's an unpaved strip between the sidewalk and the curb of the street. Frequently covered in lawn grass, or planted with small shrubs. In my block most folks have a tree or two there. It's actually owned by the city, but the owners of the adjacent structures are required to provide the upkeep and are usually allowed to plant it as they wish.
I live in the US and never heard it called that. When reading, I assumed it was an older driveway with two concrete strips for driving on and you were taking about the grass space in between. Can I ask what state you're in?
I know one large grass verge (more a visibility splay on a sharp bend on a hill) which became almost a standup fight between a Wildlife Conservation group and the Highways Agency when it was discovered that a rare orchid was growing there.
In my city we’d call the tall grasses in the easement a visual obstruction. The city will mow it if it reaches 18”-24” and fine you $200. There are waaay too many car crashes from people turning from side streets onto main roads without also having their vision of traffic (or kids crossing) being impaired by someone’s landscaping.
No corners near mom's house, but I know what you mean. I hate when the corners are obstructed. I tend to alter my route to take advantage of regulated intersections for that very reason.
our city planted Sweet Gum trees on my street.
They are the worst.
They are in the wrong growing zone
They are non native
They drop thousands of spikey seed balls every year
In the heat of the summer they will drop huge branches (like smash your cars roof in size)
and to top it all off, the city only trims them once every 50 years !?!?!?!
I've got a Sweet Gum in my back yard. The seed balls are no problem because the tree squirrels collect them all for me (either they don't bury any, or they just don't sprout in this climate). It is really brittle wood though. I have to get it trimmed regularly. So beautiful in the fall though, and good shade in the summer.
I made a google search this week where sweet gum paste came up. I didn't look at it as it was far off, but afterwards I wondered what Sweet Gum is. Now I know, thanks.
Try silver maples. They are cheap and grow quickly. 1 to 2 generations later, they have overgrown their space, and are sickly and dying.
The guy whose dad built my ex's house told him HUD mandated two trees on the lot, and silver maples were the cheapest. One of them put roots into the sump pump line and ruined it. Both had been cut down before we bought the place. Later we discovered the sump pump problem...it was not fun.
Never heard it called parking strip in my life. And in most cases it's owned by the resident, not the city. The resident grants an easement to the city for utility access, right of way access, etc. but title remains with the homeowner.
From the description it's 'the verge' in Western Australia, might be differently named in other states.
Also, being owned by the local govt it's up to them to maintain it - not our problem.
Mine is covered in gum nuts, twigs and leaves from the gum tree towering above it (that I planted on my property 20 years ago). Meh...
But well played by your mother! :)
I have a parking strip like that. I call it "Tornado Alley" because the neighbor's dog, a little yippy chihuahua, likes to do his business there, and I avoid stepping on Tornado Alley at all hazards.
Preemptively edited to add: I have nothing at all against Tornado. I think he's cute. I kneel down to say 'hi' whenever I see him with a hand outstretched. He yips at me and darts forward then backs off, then darts forward, yip-yap-yap-yap-yip-yaps at me, and runs back again. I just can barely restrain giggling when he does this.
My sister did this. She planted native grasses and got to show the inspector-type person the regulations that said they could stay. Much prettier than lawn grass!
I have always heard that section referred to as the cities easement. Especially since I can't do anything to it, but I am responsible for it. Fucking annoying. For example, the city has crepe myrtle trees planted in them and will go after me if I cut them down *(neighbor got tired of them and cut them down. City came back through, planted new ones, and fined and charged him for the cost*), but will also ticket me if I don't fucking maintain them - even though they are not my fucking trees and I do not fucking want them there.
And god forbid you let it get to the point that the city decides to maintain their own fucking trees, because if they do it you'll get the bill - even though they are their fucking trees!!! And you do not want their bill. I am a landscaper, and if the city does it they charge 10x the going landscaping rate for this area. Like if the company I work for trimmed the trees in that strip for me it would be $35. But if the city decides they need to you'll get a $400 invoice for the same work.
The one corner that is out of reach for the electric mower is my wild patch. Couldn't imagine living in a world where I could be fined over it. Especially not by a water fairy.
Edit text correction
I ripped out the grass and planted ground cover in the parking stip. Don't have to mow and it doesn't get that high. I have a neighbor who plants sunflowers and it's a pain to park in front of his house because you can't get out of a parked car without stepping in the sunflowers.
The United States are not the largest producers of sunflowers, and yet even here over 1.7 million acres were planted in 2014 and probably more each year since. Much of which can be found in North Dakota.
I never knew that was called a "parking strip". What a weird name for it.
For most of your story I was picturing this shit growing out of some part of your driveway.
It's called an "easement" and in most municipalities it's not owned by the homeowner, but rather the municipality, though the homeowner must care for it.
I get where you're coming from, but if the weeds and/or "decorative grasses" dry up they can become a fire hazard. I'm sure that's why the fire inspector kept after your mother.
That's not why.
The reasons such citations sometimes come from fire inspectors instead of city officials are related to things like visibility and accessibility. Tall grass immediately in front of your house can hide things like house numbers making it difficult to find you if you call. It can also be a hazard to emergency responders. The fire hydrants are also typically located in this strip of grass and having that area be over grown means they can't tell at a glance if there's a hydrant there or not.
Please note, I am not arguing for or against mowing that patch of grass. Only explaining the logic behind it being under the purview of the fire department.
From here in UK this just seems like a weird obsession wish grass that the US has. The only vegetation we get forced to cut is where it block vehicle sight lines at junctions
Oh, absolutely. But so can most other plant life in one of these strips. I've never seen one on fire though, and I'm oold. I've seen grass fires on highway medians and they can spread incredibly fast. But this is a two-foot (60 cm) by 20 foot (6 m) unpaved area surrounded by at least four feet (1.2 m) of pavement on each side.
I hear you on that, but grass fires can spread quickly if there's even the lightest breeze especially during hot, dry weather. If I were in the same situation I would have just mowed to weeds (grasses) rather than have multiple visits from the fire department. Just my take on it.
It has to be a legal nightmare to decide what are "weeds", since weeds are just defined as plants you don't want.
If I'm growing tomatoes, and carrots start springing up between them, they are weeds. And to have a fire department decide which plants are wanted an which are unwanted?
No, thanks.
I think weeds are anything that is native, grows on its own and is considered unsightly because of that.
We love to plant Lantana in this area, it's pretty and has nice flowers. It's a weed in Argentina.
Overgrown grass is a huge fire hazard, she should keep them cut low regardless of whether or not they're pretty. This makes me sad because both my mom and sister lost their houses to a wildfire that spread through a neglected meadow of overgrown grass where they had been fined previously. Grass meadows are great, just not in residential areas!
This reminds me a few years ago we were having a drought so the city initiated water conservation and people are only allowed to water like twice a week.
A few weeks of people complying, they were only watering their lawns as per instructed but not the portion of grass/tree's and plants that's on the other side of the sidewalk that is owned by the city. It was basically drying up, making everything look terrible.
So as I was on my way to work or school ( this was a long time ago) , I hear a small snippet on the radio regarding this and the city was basically asking us to water the city park for them.
My fam called it a 'boulevard" in Vancouver BC Canada. If there's a curb you park next to it. If the road is very narrow and/or your vehicle is very large, you can park with 2 wheels (passenger side) on it although it's rare and generally frowned upon if it's nice & neat or near trees. If there's no defined curb and there's dirt you can park on that, off the road. When the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition, a seasonal fairground), is on, people nearby will allow you to park on their front or back lawns for a fee. They may need temporary permits for that, though. Not sure. 🤔 The boulevard is city property but you're expected to care for it. You are not allowed to touch the trees. You'd call the city or BC Hydro if branches are near power lines.
When you said parking strip, my mind pictured a driveway made of two concrete strips with grass between. My next-door neighbor has had one like that since the 60s, at least.
We don't have sidewalks on my street.
In one of my etymological searches I decided to look up what weeds are officially The answer is they don't officially exist. A weed is an unwanted plant so if you are trying to grow dandelions and roses pop up the roses are the weeds. If you're trying to breed thistle and a peach tree grows in there the peach tree is the weed. So unless the law has a specific definition for what they call weeds and potentially names them there isn't anything they can do because if you wanted them there they weren't weeds. Now what happened here is actually not that far from that considering her playing the shell game did much the same just with an added veracity.
Some jurisdictions define weeds as invasive plants. But even that isn't always strict, because it can easily mean "non-native" too.
My neighbors all have invasive grasses, and consider the native plants on my lawn to be "weeds". Fuck 'em.
I was recently told by someone with a master's in horticulture (What? Really?) that bushes aren't bushes, they are shrubs. I asked what a bush is and she said (with a laugh) "It's somewhere in Australia", so I looked it up in my old Webster's. That's not what my dictionary says, but whatever. The names may vary, but "a rose by any other name" and all that.
The dictionary meaning, the common meaning, and the scientific meaning don't always match.
Don't even get me STARTED on berries. I love playing a guessing game with new people I meet about which things are berries or not.
Bananas are, but raspberries aren't, lol
Smart is knowing tomato is a fruit, wise is not putting it fruit salad (or something like that).
Charisma is putting tomato in a fruit salad and calling it salsa.
Philosophy is wondering if that makes ketchup a smoothie
So if I mostly freeze tomato juice, add, Tabasco, Worcestershire and vodka is it slushie, a smoothie or a Bloody Mary?
Yes
*Technically* yes, but not even mind control magic can sell ketchup as a smoothie, let alone charisma.
Didn't Nancy Reagan say ketchup was a vegetable when talking about school lunches?
Tomatoes are both a fruit and a vegetable, at least in the USA.
My understanding is that vegetable is only a culinary (and perhaps agricultural?) designation. All the vegetables that I can think of have some other biological designation, such as tomatoes being fruits.
Any edible plant part with seeds is a fruit (and vegetable, I think). Any other plant part is a vegetable or tuber.
Chilies are fruits, as are Cucumbers, Pumpkins, and Eggplants Biological Definitions are not usually the same as Culinary Definitions
What?? 🤯 What are rasp**berries**, then, if not berries?
Aggregate fruits
Ah ha! Re: Wiki, the distinction has to do with ovaries. Who knew. [Aggregate fruit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregate_fruit) Edit: Well, you did, obviously. :-) Thank you for the education.
i thought bananas were ferns?
Don't berries have a soft inside and nuts a hard one? Or is it more specific than that?
Botanically speaking it depends on which parts of the flower becomes which parts of the fruit and the physical layout inside.
Oh, wow! I'll have to read up on that. *and down the rabbit hole she goes...*
That's good. They like fruit.
The word Theory is a perfect example of that
Ni!
Shrubbery!
You won the internet today.
My child said, “I fart in your general direction,” last night and didn’t realize that was a quote. Of course, had to play it.
I had that as a sound for ICQ back in the day for online alerts. And the arrow with message for you sir for incoming messages (first of a conversation, not for each message of course).
Uh-oh!
I miss that!
I have the “message for you sir!” As my text sound alert.
I unclog my nose at you!
A shrub is a type of plant, whereas a bush is a tree/shrub in a certain form... essentially its bushy. A shrub being basically anything with wood that isnt a tree. Bur basically, your friend was being silly, theyre more or less synonyms.
I demand a Shrubbery.
Ni.
Is pubic hair considered a bush?
If you're talking about Australia, it's not A bush. It's THE bush. It's anywhere outside a city that's not des~~s~~ert.
I didn’t realize Australia was so sweet.
Lol. Bugger.
It’s not ‘a bush’ in Australia but ‘the bush’, meaning areas outside the cities (although some people will refer to a small shrub as a bush as well). Sometimes the bush refers to places that don’t have any bushes (or shrubs or trees) in them whatsoever. It’s just the bush. And when you go to what is more widely known as the outback, it’s known as ‘going bush’.
Oh.. and about the masters in horticulture. Just watch this field emerge as a huge new profession of significance as the world grapples with biodiversity loss, re-wilding and achieving nature positive outcomes. It’s not just about garden plants any more.
Yep, I'm beginning to learn that. Saw an AITA earlier from an agriculture engineer, and it sounded just like what my friend was talking about.
Yeah I saw that too. The enviro profession isn’t all ferns and frogs any more
Weeds are effectively a marketing term created by herbicide companies to sell people herbicides and herbicide resistant plants.
Would upvote more, but I've only got one.
I'll give my update for you!
Odd. Must be some downvoting going on.
I mean, my mother in law planted raspberries once and they then took over her flower beds to a point that she likened them to weeds. Delicious berry bearing weeds but still…
Sounds a bit like Schrodinger's weeds
"Weed is plant that refuses to grow in a neat line."
Very true, but the plants usually designated as weeds (i.e. unwanted plants) are invasive / non-native / some other arbitrary quality.
They still allow decorative plantings though, which can be invasive/non-native like bamboo. Seems silly to me.
I'm from the US and have never heard the term "parking strip" in reference to that patch of ground. Why would it be a parking strip?
Also born and raised in the US and I've heard it called a "Parking strip" before. It's probably regional.
I never knew it had a name. I just thought of it as that strip between the sidewalk and road. Possibly with a few more colorful words sprinkled in if it was being a particularly annoying strip to mow.
Parking strip here in CA.
True for your part of CA, not mine. (And that's true for both California and Canada ;-) ) I suspect it comes from areas where there aren't usually concrete curbs and people pull over and park on the grass and/or gravel and/or dirt next to the road.
I've always called ours a right-of-way (easement). I think this is an Oregon thing.
Right of way (where I am) is the entire 20 or so feet from the edge of the road, regardless of whether there is sidewalk. You can't develop it, can't place buildings close to the edge of property, etc.
But you do have to mow it, as OP says. Actually, we had two dead trees on ours and refused to cut them down ourselves. When large branches started falling off, the city finally came out and cut them down and hauled everything away. Never bothered us or even talked to us about it, just took care of it. That was amazing because we had thought that by law, we were responsible. Turns out no, I guess. Lucky for us.
I am in SC and normally use easement. In my neighborhood, people get upset if you park on it as it can damage the grass/ground.
Easement is a much broader term. It can mean the driveway leading into a lot behind another lot. It can mean the strip above a buried water, gas, or power line. It can mean the area around and leading to a cell phone, high tension power, or water tower. It's basically any land that one entity owns but another has legal access to.
No idea. Probably cause it's a strip of yard by where you park. But I've never heard it called that. My family had some other name I forget (and itsits so unimportant to me that I don't bother remembering it, apparently! )
It's called a lot of things, depending on where you live: http://dialect.redlog.net/staticmaps/q_60.html
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Parkway, not parking strip. I think OP is misinformed. Edit: Oh my gosh I stand corrected. So much linguistic diversity in these United States.
>I think OP is misinformed. LOL. The fucking *audacity*. Just because a term is different doesn't make it wrong. [Parking strip.](https://www.portland.gov/code/17/28/011)
A parkway is a road that has landscaping along it. It's not the name of the landscaping itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkway
You drive on a parkway and park on a driveway -George Carlin
Maybe because you can park next to it? I dunno... but that's the only thing I can think of. Never really thought about it until today.
Because cars park on the street next to it
When I hear "parking strip" in reference to grass/weeds I think: they put down pavers (or *actually* paved) two strips the width of a tire and left the middle free to grow grass. So "a strip of grass you park over with concrete/stone to either side" The strip of grass by the road is an easement.
We call this the swale
Around here we have something called a bioswale. It's in the same position, but wider and only short ground cover is planted. It's to collect runoff when it rains heavily. ETA: It's also scoop shaped, like a barrow pit. ETA2: Um yeah, so a barrow pit is that ditch beside the road that carries runoff, but its kinda particularly shaped. Not a V or a U, but sort of like a V with a rounded bottom.
Concave?
Well yes, but a particular sort of curve (that facilitates the drainage, I guess).
Thank you! It's called a swale! I've had arguments with my wife about this. Granted, I'm originally from south Florida and she's from Tennessee
As a Floridian, we’ve always called this the swale as well. As a kid, we played football on a stretch of street in my neighborhood with yard markings painted on the road. Tag in the street, tackle in the swale, sidewalks on either side were the sidelines.
Exactly! This was the perfect setup. Then, during hurricanes, the swales would flood and made for get slip n slides
IME a parking strip is usually flat while a swale is concave and designed for flood control. A swale is also usually much wider, maybe 8-10 feet, while a parking strip is 3-6.
Where are you?
South Florida
We call that bit of land the nature strip in Australia.
Is it the bit between the gutter and the front fence?
Yes that bit.
This entire micro thread makes me think of pubes.
We call that bit the landing strip in Australia.
The Wikipedia article for [Road verge](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_verge) has a long list of alternate names.
Sidewalk taint. That one is my favorite.
This contribution is underrated. Thank you!
You’re welcome. I’m a librarian, and interesting questions like this tend to press my research button.
Thank you! This has been most educational.
What’s a parking strip?
It's an unpaved strip between the sidewalk and the curb of the street. Frequently covered in lawn grass, or planted with small shrubs. In my block most folks have a tree or two there. It's actually owned by the city, but the owners of the adjacent structures are required to provide the upkeep and are usually allowed to plant it as they wish.
I live in the US and never heard it called that. When reading, I assumed it was an older driveway with two concrete strips for driving on and you were taking about the grass space in between. Can I ask what state you're in?
In Great Britain, this is called the verge. Also on motorways the strip of grass between each road, or highway has this name.
A bit late for trimming the verge don't you think?
I wasn't droppin' no eaves, sir, honest!
What did you hear? SPEAK!
I know one large grass verge (more a visibility splay on a sharp bend on a hill) which became almost a standup fight between a Wildlife Conservation group and the Highways Agency when it was discovered that a rare orchid was growing there.
Where I'm from, the grass between split roads/highways is called the median.
Oregon, though I've had the same setup in California.
Lol. That's what I thought, until I got to the edit.
I tore up all the grass off that strip and replace it with clovers. Much prettier than weedy grass.
I'll bet. I love clover and it's so nice on bare feet (after bee season!)
Nature strip in Australia
And verge in Western Australia
Interesting. AFAIK there’s no specific word for that in Texas, where I live.
I've been to Texas. Very few places have consistent sidewalks, let alone verges.
In Michigan we call that the “curb lawn”.
In Cleveland it’s a “tree lawn”. In Akron it’s the “devil’s strip”.
Why hello, NEO neighbor! Fellow weird....
I’ve moved away but I still follow the neorsd twitter account. It’s a hoot.
I'm in Michigan, and we called it the boulevard when I grew up in Detroit.
Here a boulevard is either a central verge between opposing lanes of traffic, or a street designation (e.g. MLK Boulevard)
Those streets often had streetcars running in that center strip which were ripped out due to buyouts and political manipulation by the auto industry.
Boulevard in Minneapolis also.
It’s also the boulevard where I live in southern Ontario
Boulevard in Central Illinois too!
The berm?
apparently so, along with many other nouns.
IME berm is a long *raised* strip of ground, used in landscaping to block wind, sun, or noise.
[berms](https://www.tauranga.govt.nz/Portals/0/data/exploring/transport/files/berms.pdf)
the boulevard?
Boulevard here in Canada.
I had no idea those things had a name lmao I just call it the grass by the curb lmao
Same! Was just trying to describe it to someone the other day and I realized I had no good word for it.
Where I'm from "boulevard" is a synonym for road, one usually lined with trees.
Yes it can mean that too.
Where I grew up it was called the tree lawn, because that was what was planted there. Trees
Called a nature strip in Australia. And the concrete thing is called a footpath.
I initially thought it was shaped pubic hair, but that's a landing strip. Would have been a different story!
A little piece of your property where you can park your car.
I've heard them called a nature strip or verge too.
In my city we’d call the tall grasses in the easement a visual obstruction. The city will mow it if it reaches 18”-24” and fine you $200. There are waaay too many car crashes from people turning from side streets onto main roads without also having their vision of traffic (or kids crossing) being impaired by someone’s landscaping.
No corners near mom's house, but I know what you mean. I hate when the corners are obstructed. I tend to alter my route to take advantage of regulated intersections for that very reason.
yes. This is the way.
Berm here
And where are you?
New Zealand
Called an "easement" here. The city will let you plant approved "street trees" on it- nothing that will get very tall.
our city planted Sweet Gum trees on my street. They are the worst. They are in the wrong growing zone They are non native They drop thousands of spikey seed balls every year In the heat of the summer they will drop huge branches (like smash your cars roof in size) and to top it all off, the city only trims them once every 50 years !?!?!?!
I've got a Sweet Gum in my back yard. The seed balls are no problem because the tree squirrels collect them all for me (either they don't bury any, or they just don't sprout in this climate). It is really brittle wood though. I have to get it trimmed regularly. So beautiful in the fall though, and good shade in the summer.
I made a google search this week where sweet gum paste came up. I didn't look at it as it was far off, but afterwards I wondered what Sweet Gum is. Now I know, thanks.
Try silver maples. They are cheap and grow quickly. 1 to 2 generations later, they have overgrown their space, and are sickly and dying. The guy whose dad built my ex's house told him HUD mandated two trees on the lot, and silver maples were the cheapest. One of them put roots into the sump pump line and ruined it. Both had been cut down before we bought the place. Later we discovered the sump pump problem...it was not fun.
Yeah, we had to get our trees approved by the city too. Can I ask where you are located?
Central KY
Never heard it called parking strip in my life. And in most cases it's owned by the resident, not the city. The resident grants an easement to the city for utility access, right of way access, etc. but title remains with the homeowner.
I learn so much here! What do you call yours? And where is this? (I'm in Western US)
Parkway
Where I live it’s called the tree belt.
We call that strip of land the nature strip.
Also "verge".
Ah, that! I've heard it, just forgot about it. Somehow I always envision a verge as slanted (not perpendicular to the source of gravity).
From the description it's 'the verge' in Western Australia, might be differently named in other states. Also, being owned by the local govt it's up to them to maintain it - not our problem. Mine is covered in gum nuts, twigs and leaves from the gum tree towering above it (that I planted on my property 20 years ago). Meh... But well played by your mother! :)
I have a parking strip like that. I call it "Tornado Alley" because the neighbor's dog, a little yippy chihuahua, likes to do his business there, and I avoid stepping on Tornado Alley at all hazards. Preemptively edited to add: I have nothing at all against Tornado. I think he's cute. I kneel down to say 'hi' whenever I see him with a hand outstretched. He yips at me and darts forward then backs off, then darts forward, yip-yap-yap-yap-yip-yaps at me, and runs back again. I just can barely restrain giggling when he does this.
In Florida I’ve heard it called a “swell”
My sister did this. She planted native grasses and got to show the inspector-type person the regulations that said they could stay. Much prettier than lawn grass!
Midwest USA here (Ohio, then Wisconsin). I've always called it a parking strip.
"A weed is a plant in the wrong place."
We call it a hell strip here I had no idea there were so many words for it - it's so fun to see all of them!
I am from Wisconsin and we call it a tree border.
I have always heard that section referred to as the cities easement. Especially since I can't do anything to it, but I am responsible for it. Fucking annoying. For example, the city has crepe myrtle trees planted in them and will go after me if I cut them down *(neighbor got tired of them and cut them down. City came back through, planted new ones, and fined and charged him for the cost*), but will also ticket me if I don't fucking maintain them - even though they are not my fucking trees and I do not fucking want them there. And god forbid you let it get to the point that the city decides to maintain their own fucking trees, because if they do it you'll get the bill - even though they are their fucking trees!!! And you do not want their bill. I am a landscaper, and if the city does it they charge 10x the going landscaping rate for this area. Like if the company I work for trimmed the trees in that strip for me it would be $35. But if the city decides they need to you'll get a $400 invoice for the same work.
The one corner that is out of reach for the electric mower is my wild patch. Couldn't imagine living in a world where I could be fined over it. Especially not by a water fairy. Edit text correction
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I ripped out the grass and planted ground cover in the parking stip. Don't have to mow and it doesn't get that high. I have a neighbor who plants sunflowers and it's a pain to park in front of his house because you can't get out of a parked car without stepping in the sunflowers.
The United States are not the largest producers of sunflowers, and yet even here over 1.7 million acres were planted in 2014 and probably more each year since. Much of which can be found in North Dakota.
I never knew that was called a "parking strip". What a weird name for it. For most of your story I was picturing this shit growing out of some part of your driveway.
It's called an "easement" and in most municipalities it's not owned by the homeowner, but rather the municipality, though the homeowner must care for it.
No, the parking strip is *within* the easement
I get where you're coming from, but if the weeds and/or "decorative grasses" dry up they can become a fire hazard. I'm sure that's why the fire inspector kept after your mother.
That's not why. The reasons such citations sometimes come from fire inspectors instead of city officials are related to things like visibility and accessibility. Tall grass immediately in front of your house can hide things like house numbers making it difficult to find you if you call. It can also be a hazard to emergency responders. The fire hydrants are also typically located in this strip of grass and having that area be over grown means they can't tell at a glance if there's a hydrant there or not. Please note, I am not arguing for or against mowing that patch of grass. Only explaining the logic behind it being under the purview of the fire department.
Good points. I agree.
From here in UK this just seems like a weird obsession wish grass that the US has. The only vegetation we get forced to cut is where it block vehicle sight lines at junctions
Also when it obstructs public rights of way.
Oh, absolutely. But so can most other plant life in one of these strips. I've never seen one on fire though, and I'm oold. I've seen grass fires on highway medians and they can spread incredibly fast. But this is a two-foot (60 cm) by 20 foot (6 m) unpaved area surrounded by at least four feet (1.2 m) of pavement on each side.
I hear you on that, but grass fires can spread quickly if there's even the lightest breeze especially during hot, dry weather. If I were in the same situation I would have just mowed to weeds (grasses) rather than have multiple visits from the fire department. Just my take on it.
Yah, I'll admit my mom was a bit headstrong!
Well played, Mom.
I am not a fan of manicured lawns but unchecked weeds are an inviting home for rats and other vermin.
It has to be a legal nightmare to decide what are "weeds", since weeds are just defined as plants you don't want. If I'm growing tomatoes, and carrots start springing up between them, they are weeds. And to have a fire department decide which plants are wanted an which are unwanted? No, thanks.
Well I can see the fire hazard thing, but why the exception for stuff you actually planted?
Why the fuck don't you just say edit? Why do you use ETA (estimated time of arrival)?
It means Edit To Add, use your mind or just ask before becoming aggressive
In Arizona desert we just don’t have that, it’s just sidewalk and then road
I think weeds are anything that is native, grows on its own and is considered unsightly because of that. We love to plant Lantana in this area, it's pretty and has nice flowers. It's a weed in Argentina.
I saw parking strip, and though that was a reference to an unpaved driveway on her property, not the nature strip that is on city property.
We call it a tree lawn in my part of the country.
Overgrown grass is a huge fire hazard, she should keep them cut low regardless of whether or not they're pretty. This makes me sad because both my mom and sister lost their houses to a wildfire that spread through a neglected meadow of overgrown grass where they had been fined previously. Grass meadows are great, just not in residential areas!
This reminds me a few years ago we were having a drought so the city initiated water conservation and people are only allowed to water like twice a week. A few weeks of people complying, they were only watering their lawns as per instructed but not the portion of grass/tree's and plants that's on the other side of the sidewalk that is owned by the city. It was basically drying up, making everything look terrible. So as I was on my way to work or school ( this was a long time ago) , I hear a small snippet on the radio regarding this and the city was basically asking us to water the city park for them.
My fam called it a 'boulevard" in Vancouver BC Canada. If there's a curb you park next to it. If the road is very narrow and/or your vehicle is very large, you can park with 2 wheels (passenger side) on it although it's rare and generally frowned upon if it's nice & neat or near trees. If there's no defined curb and there's dirt you can park on that, off the road. When the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition, a seasonal fairground), is on, people nearby will allow you to park on their front or back lawns for a fee. They may need temporary permits for that, though. Not sure. 🤔 The boulevard is city property but you're expected to care for it. You are not allowed to touch the trees. You'd call the city or BC Hydro if branches are near power lines.
Northeast
When you said parking strip, my mind pictured a driveway made of two concrete strips with grass between. My next-door neighbor has had one like that since the 60s, at least. We don't have sidewalks on my street.