[lodwick]

yes - the only downside to the home garden is ALL that produce ripening at the same time. But you make new friends by giving it away to the neighbors and trading receipes on how to use it all.

Some of our best friends are those we made in the old neighborhood, when we were just starting out, and had to borrow things from the neighbors.

In this hood, everyone can afford to have at least one of everything, and there's not the same sense of neighborliness - everyone's great, but you just don't shout over the fence, "Hey there, can I borrow your weedeater when you're done?"

[andysandmikesmom]

There is much to be said, for neighborhoods, where everyone knows you and your kids, and your gadgets....

We also had three plum trees in the backyard in North Carolina, and they would be loaded...I would always let all the neighborhood kids take as many plums as they wished, to eat at our house and take home with them...

It seemed like during those lazy summer days in North Carolina, I used to wind up with all the neighborhood kids at my house, in my yard....they were all good kids, by and large, and they listened to me, and behaved...I enjoyed having them all over, and got a kick out of it....

I always used to bake a cake a day, most of it being consumed by the kids, and having enough left over for our desert at dinner time...I actually think that the kids behaved, in order to get some cake...nothing like food bribery to keep a herd of rowdy boys in line...but it worked...