>That's terrible! Actually, I can understand the city possibly cleaning up on the street side of the sidewalk ... but on the other side of the sidewalk is her property. That doesn't belong to the city at all. I'm amazed that they did this! That poor woman ... 10 years down the drain! I would be devastated! I think the city owes her an apology and a work crew to re-plant everything.

She figures it's aboiut $10,000 worth of plants and she's trying to get compensation. Following the letters to the newspapers, there appears to be nobody who is backing the city on this one. As usual though, it's a big hew and cry which the city is studiously ignoring. I think what it all comes down to is that the city didn't get it's pound of flesh. Apparently if one wants to grow a 'natural garden', one must apply for a permit, and she didn't. Can you imagine such a thing?

>
>Luckily, our "weeds" are in our backyard where no one sees them but us. <g>
>
>~~Bonnie
>
>
>>It's a good thing you don't live in Toronto. I know this says 'Scarborough', but since amalgamation, there really is no Scarborough any longer (unfortunately). Also, the article doesn't seem to mention it, but Dale is a person who has, for years, been giving seminars on growing natural gardens with native species.
>>
>>http://communities.canada.com/nationalpost/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/08/27/are-her-growings-in-scarborough-unfair.aspx
>>
>>>I *love* those cute marmots (or rockchucks, as you call them) ... of course, I'm not trying to grow a garden either. <g>
>>>
>>>We're trying to get our backyard planted with mostly native plants ... we *want* to attract wildlife, marmots being some of the wildlife we want. Behind our property is a huge pasture where our neighbor occasionally has goats or sheep grazing. In the middle of this pasture is a pile of rocks that criss-cross most of the pasture (he says that way-back-when, someone who owned the "ranch" before he did, cleared the pasture of all those rocks and piled them there). Anyway, right now, that's where several marmot families live. We'd love it if they'd set up house-keeping in our backyard (we even have rock piles that I'm sure they'd like). So far, they only come over to eat our weeds (which is fine with me too! <g>)
>>>
>>>We *do* get lots of different kinds of birds, which is a great start.
>>>
>>>~~Bonnie
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hi Dragan,
>>>>
>>>>I feel your pain. I lost half of my garden to Rockchucks. The good news is they didn't bother the tomatoes.
>>>>
>>>>http://www.toynutz.com/nature.html
>>>>
>>>>Scroll down a ways.
>>>>
>>>>>Our attempts to grow real tomatoes in the patio were largely disappointing for two reasons. One is the neighbor's tree, roots of which suck all the water and nutrients from the soil, and the other is that something was eating whatever grew. In the end it turned out to be rats, but we didn't know that until we bought a squirrel trap. We did see squirrels coming often - they even had a nest in our attic for a while - but never saw any rats until the squirrel trap caught one.
>>>>>
>>>>>While we are in a process of getting rid of both the rats and the tomatoes (and cucumbers) altogether, I got a very interesting link about squirrels while trying to learn about them:
>>>>>
>>>>>http://www.maniacworld.com/squirrel-obstacle-course.html
>>>>>
>>>>>I still think the squirrels are rats de luxe, the only difference being the fuzzy tail and warm and fuzzy tales about them in Disney production (until the most recent one, but that's still about 100 to 1 in favorable coverage).