This is the blossom of a Dragon Fruit plant. Bob and I live in a 55+ older community. 25 years ago, the first developers of our community decided it'd be great to own a golf course. The golf course in intertwined with the houses, and the developers charged more for homes with a golf course view. (We don't golf, and the view wasn't worth the extra $$, to us.) About 8 years ago, our community was built out, and the original developers decided to get out of Dodge. It took awhile but they finally found a buyer for the 18 hole golf course. The new owner is a woman, and she immediately planned to make the golf course 9 holes and build retirement apartments and "care" units on the other land. The City of Murrieta said no; the land is zoned for recreation and it needs to stay recreation.
At that point the owner turned off the water on about 1/3 of her property. The land that wasn't directly used by golfers became weed infested lots. She did have her crew mow it 2-3 times a year.
Later, she had Dragon Fruit planted on a lot of that non-irrigated area. Dragon Fruit requires a lot of water, but she didn't turn on the water, the crew hand waters the plants. When the plants die, they are immediately replaced.
The next step was planting wine grapes. They all died, all of them, so they were replaced, too. Now, half the replacements have died and not been replaced. She also has planted lots of roses to border the grapes and Dragon Fruit. When the roses die, it's the same drill, they're replaced.
All this agriculture is watered and tended by hand. Here's the real kicker, the land is still zoned for recreation, so no Dragon Fruit or wine grapes can legally be sold. It's not an immediate problem, mainly because of the golf course owners' methods. Does this sound a tad crazy to you?
Our homeowners association is in a legal battle with the golf course owner, as you can imagine. The attorneys may be the only winners in this battle.
Go take more photos,
What a nightmare! We too live in same type of "active adult community". The golf course is independent from the homeowners association of homes. Our community just celebrated their 50th birthday and perhaps originally the golf course homes were higher priced. Years later they are priced accordingly to the current market and maybe having that open space may garner a higher value I don't know. When we were looking 4 years ago we noticed no noticeable price increase for a golf course home. We bought a house at the 15th tee mainly because of the open space on three sides of our house. We don't play golf but the golfers provide us with unlimited entertainment. Why would anyone play a game that caused them so much grief and anger is beyond me. Ask us 5 years ago if we would ever consider living here - no way! Now we consider ourselves very fortunate and still marvel at the fact that we live in such a wonderful peaceful environment. With all the wildlife the comes through here each day, it's like living in a Walt Disney movie. Good luck with your situation.
ReplyDeleteCrazy doesn't come close, you'd think she would have done a little more research before making that investment. I feel bad for the beautiful plants that are treated so poorly.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't sound well thought out. :(
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