Gardening in Arizona

[jbeegoode]

Keep us posted. We're just a three or four hours away. DF will be in in the Caribbean mid-June. Pretty clear so, far, unless that trip up north pops up, or we run off to New Mexico, for something that i have planned for a full moon.
JBee

[kensunwalker]

You are welcome to visit our improved trail, and I have also created a trail in the Mingus Mountains just 20 minutes away.  It's private (no need to carry a cover-up) and beautiful with wonderful evergreen forest.  I've created a nice picnic area near the top.  We could include a visit to an old mining town.  Be glad to share these.

[eyesup]

Ken, I seem to remember some campsites up near Mingus when I was preparing to visit you last October. At only a 20 min. drive that would be closer than the site Jbee and I used last year.

How busy is the Mingus area? We would be into the summer season and likely to see more campers.

Duane

[kensunwalker]

There are many places to camp.  Some improved and some not.  I've never seen things full up.  The trail is totally private and unimproved camping is available there.

[jbeegoode]

No lush edible gardens this year, just maintenance (thousands of dried out mustard plants) and flower pots. We had what felt like in the end, a very good day.

Our WNGD is documented here:
https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2019/05/06/wngd-2019/

Jbee

[nuduke]

I have 2 things to respond
Firstly:  America has space to build and live.  Therefore as far a s the pictures show, all the buildings around are 1 storey and you can have a fence as high as you like (that one looks about 7ft) - in the UK you can't go above 2 metres, 6 ft.  Therefore you naturally have privacy in the backyard (garden) to be naked.  In the UK, we are all squished together and a standard residential house is 2 stories with bungalows (1 story) being in a much smaller minority.  With the fence height problem and the 2 storeys of neighbours almost anywhere you live, there is always a view into your garden.  The house we live in now I was enthusiastic about particularly as it was built in a development of houses that was about 30 years old, when the planning regulations specified the number of houses per hectare at a much lower level than today.   Therefore the neighbouring houses are built with greater separation than the norm and the developer very cleverly positioned the houses to minimise windows from each house looking into the neighbours' back garden.  Thus we are fairly unusual in having a very secluded garden.  That's not to say that a substantial part of it is not within the view of some neighbours windows but it's better than most houses we looked at, at the time of moving.  I can be naked and garden naked for most of the area of the back yard hampered only by the tedious and repetitive complaints of Mrs N if she comes out to join me.


Second, stray pet birds:  In the South of England around Heathrow airport there is a huge flock of parakeets that originated quite some years ago it is thought from and escape of imported birds under inspection at the airport.  Despite the fact that they are a southern hemisphere bird, I believe, this flock was thought to be from Australia, they have made their home and bred in the UK.  Occasionally in our garden in Surrey about 30-40 miles as the parakeet flies from Heathrow, we used to get a few stopping off in the trees around our property.  A very colourful green and pleasant but surprising sight amongst all the predominantly black, brown, blueish and grey birds of the normal british garden.


John

[jbeegoode]

The lack of space and two story residences would drive me goofy. The newer subdivisions here are like that. It is cheaper to build up a second story. The fences in Tucson have limits. Tucson 6 ft., County 6.5 feet. But there are ways around that. Like making them 6.5 when nobody is looking. building up the land under them that they will sit on top of. A bambo, or latices topping. A big enough lot where a second much taller fence can be built inside the property line a few feet, because fencing restrictions are about property lines. And putting a building in the way instead of a fence like gazebo, tool shed, guest house. FAke buildings or skinny ones that function like a military castle wall. Also trees on the property line, or strategic spots. Buying on the higher hillside, if ya got em'.

It helps of it is an owner built project to orient the house strategically. CCR&R's.
Jbee

[nuduke]

Haha!  What a mindless rule that restricts fence heights at the perimeter but not inside the perimeter.  I wonder if the UK laws are similarly short sighted?  I'll have to have a look and see.  I guess they might be - you would get permission to build a 7 or 8 foot single story extension which may itself act as a barrier between properties so it may be possible to create screens of greater height.  There doesn't seem to be any restriction on the height of hedges.
John
Stop press - simple google query revealed lots of hedge height restricting legislation!

[HillwalkerDundee]

Hi John.

Agree with most of the comments but, as ex Warlingham / Woldingham resident we both know that there is plenty of land but designated green belt and Heaven help any politician who says the green belt should be built on. Indeed, the NIMBY brigade would be out in force.

You know what they are like, obsessed with green but they import oil and gas from all over the world rather than use the Portland and Kimmeridge stuff that your house is sitting on. There is 40 years of conventional oil and gas right there, right now but the NIMBYs and Swampies are out in force at any hint of development. Building decent properties, especially affordable properties, is difficult

[jbeegoode]

Sounds like your politicians are not bought off and the Nimby's still have a say about their lives. Corporations, even foreign corporations run our governments, that is the governments that override our local government and public opinion, here in Baja Arizona.

Your coin seems to have two sides. You are lucky that power is still in the hands of the people, but at a price.

So, are these green belts good for nude walking? What is their size and nature? I thought all of the large spaces were in the hands of the wealthy, an old tradition of estates. The green belts that I know are defined by California law. They are swaths along the coast of mostly green grass ecosystems a few miles wide. Please, inform. Are these green belts a Scottish thing?
Jbee

[Peter S]

Green belts are UK wide and are not developed natural zones in any way, merely designated buffer zones around or between towns where building development is banned. Usually green belt is farm land, often simply rough grazing, and can be quite unattractive. It is as good or bad for nude walking as any other bit of countryside depending how open/wooded it is, how closely farmed or otherwise. I live near the edge of town, and the green belt between us and the next village is mostly occupied by a very attractive (horse) racecourse, the presence of which long predates planning laws.

[BlueTrain]

Planning laws started in the country in 1607, later in other places. The place I live was once an English colony and at one time part of the "Northern Neck Proprietary" owned by an English lord (Lord Fairfax, a Scottish Peer) who actually lived here. In this county there are numerous patches of land, mostly wooded, that are either county park lands or so-called "flood zones," on which nothing is supposed to be built. They make excellent places for hiking and one such place is just outside my back door. Alas, they are not good for nudity, being too close to neighborhoods as well as being popular with more people than just me. But at least none of it is privately owned and is wide open for public use, at least in the daytime. Aside from the parks, none of would be called buffer zones, I think, but merely places that are unsuitable for building. Much of the county is surprisingly hilly. There is also a fairly well developed trail system, mostly paved, which I appreciate. The flood zones are not called that for nothing and the places where I go most often are rather muddy these days, what with all the rain we've had this year and last.