What do you do for intense heat?

[Cajunrider]

In some cases, neighbors spy and snitch on each other.

The HOA has a rep that practically circles the neighborhood. He's very responsive in fixing problems but he can be overzealous sometimes.

 

[BrianBay9]

I bought 2 automatic waterer set up couple years ago but never installed them , it seemed to be more complicated because of the many zones I have the trees in. You are correct , most people love watering their trees, even my next door neighbor love watering my trees when I am on vacation lol. Stay cool !

Sounds like you could do a "Tom Sawyer painting the fence" thing with the right approach.

 

[Paradox]

The HOA has a rep that practically circles the neighborhood. He's very responsive in fixing problems but he can be overzealous sometimes.

lol does he get paid to be hall monitor?

 

[Cajunrider]

lol does he get paid to be hall monitor?

He's a handyman so many people in violation comes to him for resolution. His prices are reasonable, so people use him.

 

[vp999]

Sounds like you could do a "Tom Sawyer painting the fence" thing with the right approach.

Had to look up the reference since I've never read the book...He's very clever

 

[namnhi]

He's a handyman so many people in violation comes to him for resolution. His prices are reasonable, so people use him.

Uncle, That's funny. Sounds like conflict of interest to me. Does he also get some sort of compensation from HOA?

 

[Jrmcmich]

Because we have unforseen highs. A heatwave.

I'm watering three times a day...I'm hosing down around the area as well to take the heat off the surface around my trees. Also a tray of water under my Ryusen. Which Bill Valavanis suggested years back during these unforseen highs.

My normal weather doesn't call for shade cloth. Nor do I wish to look at it.


I actually did an Instagram post on it.

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

Do you water all your trees 3 times per day or only maples? What’s your soil mix?

 

[Cadillactaste]

Do you water all your trees 3 times per day or only maples? What’s your soil mix?

Only when I've got Temps near 100F

Aoki for deciduous, Clay King for my ginkgo... kanuma for my satsuki. Trident clump is in 100 % akadama hard baked.

I've hard scape and stone... it is a sponge to the heat. I hose down the area near the trees and watch the steam come from it.

 

[leatherback]

I cannot erect a shade cloth (HOA)

I keep being amazed at all these stories of HOA. You have neighbours telling neighbours what they are not allowed to do in their own yards, making up rules that nobody agrees with..? I really sometimes wonder why people in the USA think they live in the land of freedom.

 

[leatherback]

My current bonsai soil mix is calling for watering three times a day (maybe four yesterday).

I am really curious to
1) Your bonsai mix & pot size
2) Your watering strategy

Normally when it does get hot, I water trees twice in one cycle. So I water till water pours out and when I reach my last tree, all the pots get a quick top-up. I find this massively increases water retention. I do live in a lot cooler climate (but the dry hot summers the last two years were competing with central spanish summers; months with hot dry winds; and also no need to water more.)

 

[Wood]

I keep being amazed at all these stories of HOA. You have neighbours telling neighbours what they are not allowed to do in their own yards, making up rules that nobody agrees with..? I really sometimes wonder why people in the USA think they live in the land of freedom.

The idea started out with good intentions. Stuff like raising funds for a community pool and maintaining it. But it starts to go off the rails when people try to maintain “the value of the neighborhood”

The thing that super charges it is, of course, capitalism. HOA management companies make money for every fine they issue. Small town governments don’t have the funds to maintain new roads, because nobody likes voting for tax increases, so when a developer builds a new subdivision, they create an HOA to do that. It’s been going on for a couple decades now, so it’s almost impossible to find a neighborhood without an HOA

 

[Jrmcmich]

The idea started out with good intentions. Stuff like raising funds for a community pool and maintaining it. But it starts to go off the rails when people try to maintain “the value of the neighborhood”

The thing that super charges it is, of course, capitalism. HOA management companies make money for every fine they issue. Small town governments don’t have the funds to maintain new roads, because nobody likes voting for tax increases, so when a developer builds a new subdivision, they create an HOA to do that. It’s been going on for a couple decades now, so it’s almost impossible to find a neighborhood without an HOA

I have told myself I will not do another HOA as last one I never heard from them until I started to build a shed and then they promptly came to stop work as I hadnt “Applied” and my plan was to make it nice and match my house in color and added windows etc. talked to neighbor who used to be on committee and he said when you apply call it a “play house” and had to submit plans. Got it done but had to stop for like 3 weeks. Current neighborhood had building restrictions for some things on house construction but nothing past that and no official HOA to regulate things thankfully

 

[99 Mile Creek]

I am really curious to
1) Your bonsai mix & pot size
2) Your watering strategy

Normally when it does get hot, I water trees twice in one cycle. So I water till water pours out and when I reach my last tree, all the pots get a quick top-up. I find this massively increases water retention. I do live in a lot cooler climate (but the dry hot summers the last two years were competing with central spanish summers; months with hot dry winds; and also no need to water more.)

Your first question is on the money. I shouldn’t need to water that many times a day. It’s my soil mix (various pot sizes), which is failing to retain the water I want it too. I think the last successful batch of mix I had had peat moss in in. Perhaps I need more of that, I’m not sure. The mix I have can’t be measured off hand, as I measure based how it looks and how it allows water to pass for a water test. But, it has calculated clay and fullers earth, lava rock black/red, pumice, pine bark (and orchid potting mix bark) and then I added sand for a bit more grit. So, no peat moss or coco coir.


The trees are happy in it, but require —especially the larger pots — more water.

I’ve since dressed the top of all trees in this mix with sphagnum moss and then a mesh screen to hold the moss into place. It’s not easy on the eyes, but it’s reduced watering to once or twice a day.

Photos attached I used sphagnum on everything. Since, I’ve removed the moss from pots that retained water better . . . so, now all the pots with my newest substrate mix are still dressed with it.

I’m not certain if this would call for an urgent repotting once I get a better mix down, but I plan to hold out till next spring to transplant these into the better mix.

 

[99 Mile Creek]

As for my watering strategy, if I'm home, I'm able to thoroughly water by hand. I use creek water I have stored in a 60-gallon tank. So, 2/3 of the time it gets creek water. If the pot is small enough to allow for water to build up and flow over, I let it and then stop. I let the water drain out of the bottom, and then I do it once more.

If I'm not home, I simply water for two minutes on the automated watering system. Two minutes was chosen because this is more than enough time for all pots that retain water to the point of spilling over. Since this is when I stop watering manually, I figure this is roughly about the same water they get when watered by hand. After the two-minute watering cycle for all zones, I do another two-minute watering cycle.

 

[rockm]

The idea started out with good intentions. Stuff like raising funds for a community pool and maintaining it. But it starts to go off the rails when people try to maintain “the value of the neighborhood”

The thing that super charges it is, of course, capitalism. HOA management companies make money for every fine they issue. Small town governments don’t have the funds to maintain new roads, because nobody likes voting for tax increases, so when a developer builds a new subdivision, they create an HOA to do that. It’s been going on for a couple decades now, so it’s almost impossible to find a neighborhood without an HOA

I get sooooo weary of "the damned HOA" stories. And FWIW, most states have limited the power of HOAs. In Va. (like many other states) HOAs can't issue direct fines (or it takes a very long legal process todo so--they can put a lien on you property, which can come due when you sell the house, but there aren't any immediate fine fees). The extent of the power of our HOA is to withhold parking passes.

Like everything there are two or three sides to every story. I used to serve on an HOA. You would not believe some of the idiocy we dealt with-- from the dipshit who literally wanted to make her townhouse backyard into a mud wallow for her pot bellied pig (which wasn't a pot belly, since it was 300 lbs of pork) to the nitwits who insisted on lighting fireworks on the community tennis courts, setting fire to the epoxy surface and causing $10,000 in damage (which the community had to pay for), to the people who refuse to clean junkpiles out of their backyards when asked to because of a growing rat problem. And little things can matter as well, Know how much dog shit can accumulate on sidewalks in a community on 45 acres with 300 dogs in it? Let's just say A LOT, until the HOA installed "dog stations" with free bags, a container to drop them in and service to haul it away

I've also seen fistfights arise when someone is asked to simply pay their dues (which covers trash collection, landscape maintenance, etc) They'd rather OTHER community members carry them and get by free. We have one resident who is $10,000 deep in non-payment for basic services. He refuses because of the idiot conspiracy theory that the HOA is somehow a government tool to get him and he doesn't like being told what to do--even though he knew exactly what was up when he bought his house 25 years ago. He's also cost his neighbors through the HOA, $20,000 in legal fees for all the silly nuisance suits he's filed against the community.

Any fuck you if you think these limit freedom. The vast majority of them simply try to make others less likely to infringe on their neighbors' rights. Would YOU want to live butt up against someone's backyard that drains pig shit onto your patio, or wade through knee deep dog shit to get to your front door, or live with rats because one single neighbor is a drunken lay about who refuses to clean things up?

Yeah, some HOAs are full of control freaks (and assholes), most are not. Most are made up of your neighbors who are trying to help, for no pay and a lot of BS from others. FWIW, screaming and yelling at HOA members because of some perceived slight hardly makes them more willing to go that extra mile for you (but they will anyway, if it's the right thing to do). Next time you have a problem, instead of cursing and blaming the HOA for something you can't do, why not attend an actual community meeting or sign up to serve? I know meetings are always sparsely attended, but I also know if you go, you can greatly influence what the HOA does and how it does it. So, stop the bitching if you don't want to participate in making things better.

 

[99 Mile Creek]

I get sooooo weary of "the damned HOA" stories. And FWIW, most states have limited the power of HOAs. In Va. (like many other states) HOAs can't issue direct fines (or it takes a very long legal process todo so--they can put a lien on you property, which can come due when you sell the house, but there aren't any immediate fine fees). The extent of the power of our HOA is to withhold parking passes.

Like everything there are two or three sides to every story. I used to serve on an HOA. You would not believe some of the idiocy we dealt with-- from the dipshit who literally wanted to make her townhouse backyard into a mud wallow for her pot bellied pig (which wasn't a pot belly, since it was 300 lbs of pork) to the nitwits who insisted on lighting fireworks on the community tennis courts, setting fire to the epoxy surface and causing $10,000 in damage (which the community had to pay for), to the people who refuse to clean junkpiles out of their backyards when asked to because of a growing rat problem. And little things can matter as well, Know how much dog shit can accumulate on sidewalks in a community on 45 acres with 300 dogs in it? Let's just say A LOT, until the HOA installed "dog stations" with free bags, a container to drop them in and service to haul it away

I've also seen fistfights arise when someone is asked to simply pay their dues (which covers trash collection, landscape maintenance, etc) They'd rather OTHER community members carry them and get by free. We have one resident who is $10,000 deep in non-payment for basic services. He refuses because of the idiot conspiracy theory that the HOA is somehow a government tool to get him and he doesn't like being told what to do--even though he knew exactly what was up when he bought his house 25 years ago. He's also cost his neighbors through the HOA, $20,000 in legal fees for all the silly nuisance suits he's filed against the community.

Any fuck you if you think these limit freedom. The vast majority of them simply try to make others less likely to infringe on their neighbors' rights. Would YOU want to live butt up against someone's backyard that drains pig shit onto your patio, or wade through knee deep dog shit to get to your front door, or live with rats because one single neighbor is a drunken lay about who refuses to clean things up?

Yeah, some HOAs are full of control freaks (and assholes), most are not. Most are made up of your neighbors who are trying to help, for no pay and a lot of BS from others. FWIW, screaming and yelling at HOA members because of some perceived slight hardly makes them more willing to go that extra mile for you (but they will anyway, if it's the right thing to do). Next time you have a problem, instead of cursing and blaming the HOA for something you can't do, why not attend an actual community meeting or sign up to serve? I know meetings are always sparsely attended, but I also know if you go, you can greatly influence what the HOA does and how it does it. So, stop the bitching if you don't want to participate in making things better.

I think, as you say, there are two sides to every story. Those anecdotes you mentioned would have most rational people, I think, siding with the HOA.

There are terrible homeowners within great HOAs and terrible HOAs over great communities. I happen to fit in with the latter. I also happen to be in a state where HOAs have a lot more power than they should.

But if they threaten to put a lien on my home because I didn’t fill out a form and pay a fee to erect a pole in order to fly the American flag . . . that’s limiting freedom, and it’s a petty power trip.

And that’s my specific HOA, not yours I’m speaking of. Two sides, as you say.

 

[Wood]

Did anyone see John Oliver’s episode about HOAs? He starts off talking about how one was fining and removing a 90-year-old’s bench from the front yard because it was against the rules, and that was basically the only thing that elderly guy did all day

That one HOA might be a little crazy, but I went over to the subreddit for HOA members and the first comment about the video was basically “sure leave the bench for the old guy, but if he gets one everyone else will want to get one”. Color me skeptical that HOAs don’t attract people hungry for just a little power

 

[rockm]

I think, as you say, there are two sides to every story. Those anecdotes you mentioned would have most rational people, I think, siding with the HOA.

There are terrible homeowners within great HOAs and terrible HOAs over great communities. I happen to fit in with the latter. I also happen to be in a state where HOAs have a lot more power than they should.

But if they threaten to put a lien on my home because I didn’t fill out a form and pay a fee to erect a pole in order to fly the American flag . . . that’s limiting freedom, and it’s a petty power trip.

And that’s my specific HOA, not yours I’m speaking of. Two sides, as you say.

Here's the thing. It's not worth the time to put a lien on your house over a form or one-time fee. Won't happen, even with assholes on the HOA, Legal fees and extra work for the management company are probably more than the fees you owe (or the time it takes to pursue). And the "limiting freedom" part is a little over-the-top don't ya think? YOU bought the house and the HOA. Don't like that sort of thing?--, find a house that doesn't have an HOA, OR, better yet, volunteer for the HOA and get things changed. GO to meetings. PARTICIPATE...being passive and bitching about "what the HOA is doing to me" doesn't get you anywhere.

 

[BrianBay9]

"What to do for intense heat?" Didn't realize that was referring to friction with one's HOA

 

[99 Mile Creek]

Here's the thing. It's not worth the time to put a lien on your house over a form or one-time fee. Won't happen, even with assholes on the HOA, Legal fees and extra work for the management company are probably more than the fees you owe (or the time it takes to pursue). And the "limiting freedom" part is a little over-the-top don't ya think? YOU bought the house and the HOA. Don't like that sort of thing?--, find a house that doesn't have an HOA, OR, better yet, volunteer for the HOA and get things changed. GO to meetings. PARTICIPATE...being passive and bitching about "what the HOA is doing to me" doesn't get you anywhere.

As mentioned above, I was looking for constructive feedback for the heat, not an argument.

We can go into the advantages and pitfalls of the HOA all day. In the end, it will not change what I can or cannot do to accommodate my hobby. Thanks anyway.