Free Republic

What began as a dispute between neighbors about yard work ended when one of them was arrested and physically subdued by Lakeland police officers. Joe Florence, 57, 620 Chatham Drive, was stunned with a Taser on Tuesday night and left with a bloody face, broken nose and possibly a broken jaw, he said Thursday. He disputes the police reports of the struggle, which said Florence became very agitated, was told he was being placed under arrest and then fought an officer. Police said Officers Nicholas Ivancevich and Heather Freeman received minor injuries in the scuffle, a portion of which was...

A former Marine who neighbors say obsessed over his University Park lawn is being held on $3 million bail, accused of gunning down a neighbor whose puppy urinated on the man's well-manicured grass. Charles J. Clements, 69, had won the south suburb's beautification and lawn upkeep award but also was known for threatening people who dared to set foot in his yard, neighbors said. Joshua Funches, a 23-year-old father of two, was walking his fox terrier Gucci in the 500 block of Landau Road on Sunday night when the dog lifted its leg and went on Clements' lawn, said Funches'...

ORANGE, Calif. – A California man who tried to save water and money by removing his front lawn is being taken to court. Quan Ha pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to a misdemeanor count for violating Orange city code. He faces up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Ha and his wife replaced their grass with wood chips in 2008. They said they'd just had a baby and began to think about her future....

LYNNWOOD — Lawns with grass taller than 8 inches are now illegal in this city. Placing the restriction on unsightly yards was one of several steps the City Council took on Monday to tighten up its nuisance ordinance. Provisions also were added to rules governing overnight parking of trucks in residential areas and “mother-in-law” apartments. “It is unfortunate that this ordinance has been tagged as the ‘grass ordinance,’ since there is only a couple of lines in the whole ordinance addressing lawns,” Councilman Loren Simmonds said. “This is not government weighing in on little people. We are simply trying to...

SEIU Shows Softer Side With Lawn Signs in Sacramento Area By Jon Ortiz Sep. 19, 2009 California's biggest state employee union has tried the fist. Now it's extending the hand. Service Employees International Union Local 1000 has planted nearly 15,000 lawn signs in the Sacramento region aimed at building public support for the 95,000 state workers it represents. The campaign is a courteous counterpoint to the angry rallies, aggressive ad campaigns and strike threats the union has employed in the last few months as it unsuccessfully pushed Republican legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to ratify the local's stalled labor contract....

It's not only what you do to your lawn, but when you do it. The first day of Spring is August 15th. What you do in the fall will affect your lawn, since that's when plants go through their major growth spurt. Killing Weeds Autumn is the best time to kill weeds, just as the weather starts to cool down. Weeds grow best during bright, sunny days between 1:PM and 3:PM. In order to get the maximum benefit from your weed killer, spray a weak solution of children's shampoo on the lawn. Believe it or not, this washes the grime...

Indianapolis - A call to the city's SWAT team was the final move against one property owner who let his grass grow higher than a foot. Specially trained officers were called out to the 9000 block of Harrison Run Drive as city crews tried to groom one unruly yard on the northeast side.Harrison Run is a neighborhood well cared for. At home after home in this subdivision near 71st and Fall Creek Road, neighbors tend to their yards. That's why one in particular stood out - or in this case, stood up."We're talking about a foot and half tall," said...

Nettled by neighbors who clutter up their front yards with parked vehicles? You could work to outlaw this practice in your Houston neighborhood if the City Council approves a yard-parking ordinance on Wednesday's agenda. The proposed law would allow civic associations to apply for the prohibition, or for 60 percent of residents to apply by petition. City officials developed this “opt-in” process after efforts to enact a citywide ban failed in 2007. “I’m really excited that it’s finally come to council,” said Councilman James Rodriguez of District I, on the East Side. Rodriguez said that after crime, the problem of...

The modernized America we know today is largely dominated by suburbs, the perfect mix of city and ranch, commonly on the outskirts of cities. Its not the stacked to Timbuktu apartments like in New York, Kansas City, and Chicago, but its not the "home on the range" sort of thing. We know the modern suburb as nicely assorted houses, separated by lush, thick, dark green lawns, that are neatly cut every weekend. We know them with the smell of barbeque every Sunday after the residents have come home from Church. Its these modern American paradises that house the factory-workers, the...

Truck driver Kjell Fundin has done what no man has ever done before by traveling almost the entire length of Sweden on a lawnmower. On Thursday morning the intrepid 59-year-old from Sundsvall made history as he drove his trusty machine into Ystad town centre. Covering a distance of 1,700 kilometres (1,060 miles), the lawnmower man took 46 days to complete the journey from Haparanda to the southern town. The idea for the journey came about after a well-known radio show host travelled the same route on a motorcycle during the summer. Distinctly unimpressed, Fundin decided to pop off an e-mail...

Hello Hank Hill, propane and propane accessories. Not really. I would like to have a discussion about my lawn, though. Maybe just lawn mower talk in general. I have recently moved into a new house. The yard is very well groomed...moreso than I am used to. I am used to mowing patches of grass and weedeating a little and being done. This new yard is one of those "yard of the week" type yards. The people that owned it before me took pride in their gardening and obviously just enjoyed doing it. The grass is very lush and thick, although...

Police: Man Killed Teen for Walking on Lawn By LISA CORNWELL ASSOCIATED PRESS BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) - 0321dv-lawn-shooting A man who neighbors say was devoted to his meticulously kept lawn was charged with murder in the shooting of a 15-year-old boy who apparently walked across his yard. Charles Martin called 911 on Sunday afternoon, saying calmly: "I just killed a kid." Police, who released the call's contents, said Martin also told the dispatcher: "I've been harassed by him and his parents for five years. Today just blew it up." Larry Mugrage, whose family lived next door, was shot in the...

I need some advice, and this group may be able to help. A flock of geese (Canada) has landed on the water next to our house and has apparently decided that water and my lawn are where they would like to winter over. We had this happen a few years ago, and they tore the daylights out of my lawn and left enough "fertilizer" to last a lifetime. My two labs are pretty good at dispersing them (the younger is nicknamed "Goosechaser"), but this bunch is persistent and keeps coming back. I am thinking of taking it to the next...

NASA Earth Observatory has this neat graph of the lawn area in the United States. It's a very close match to the "night light" image made a couple of years ago. I linked the little picture below to the bigger one (which is only 380 K). Click on the link for the accompanying article. Yann-Arthus Bertrand took this impressive photograph of the "crater lake" inside the caldera from the Pinatubo eruption of 1991:

This came to me today via email. I thought it was very interesting. (The text of the email follows.) A friend of mine was raising Wheat Grass and decided to try an experiment that anyone can duplicate with relative ease. She had three trays of Wheat Grass. Tray A: She prayed for and sang to and had nothing but good things to say about. Tray B: She spoke to in the same manner that her grandmother addressed her as a child. This amounted to incessant criticism, shame and blame. To make it even more realistic she had to curse the...

Most political lawn signs come down right after an election. But this year a few die-hard partisans in the east metro area still have signs in their yards. Almost all the remaining signs belong to supporters of the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards. And the vast majority of those posters can be found in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Political posters are now a rarity in the suburbs. The election is over, so why can't those Kerry-Edwards supporters acknowledge their candidates lost and move on? "I'm protesting the election and George Bush's presidency for the next four years,"...

NEW YORK - The city's decision to deny a permit to protesters for a rally on Central Park's Great Lawn on the weekend before the Republican National Convention is about preserving the lawn, not suppressing speech, lawyers for the city said in federal court Friday. The lawn would be ruined if 75,000 people gathered there for a rally on Aug. 28 and then 250,000 people used the lawn for another rally the next day, said Gail Donoghue, representing the city. "I think two is too many back to back. The lawn would have no time to recover," Donoghue told U.S....