Organics in the city brings us very simple treasures. Tonight as I made it in after dark, I sat on the back porch with Tropical Mom ( who is now living with us ) and my Ms. Daisy. We were serenaded by both Tree Frogs AND my wonderful toads. These are the pleasures of my organic garden and all natural water garden.

PLEASE share YOUR stories here for all of us to enjoy what you have exprienced in your own back yard!!!

All we have is a bare flat of sand and clay as they have scraped 40,000 years of biology off the surface of this new development to build houses. No trees, No bugs, No birds. Only wind and scorching full sun. Awsome.

I can only say that you can make your own paradise. We have lots of trees, very little sun so we put a few fish ponds in various locations where we hoped they'd do well & they have! So by using only organic products and no poisons we now have frogs (tree & pond), toads, lightning bugs, snakes, beautiful flowers that do sometimes struggle with the heat, several stray cats, as well as our own indoor cats, and of course the beautiful Koi which draw a few raccoons who had to be relocated. We relocated from St Louis 16 years ago & love this place. So, Dirt Face, while I understand your frustration with what has gone on in your area, you CAN change it - while you can't replace 40,000 yrs of topsoil you can add the organic products as well as native trees. It's worth it! Plus, water gardening has a very cooling effect in the yard - especially when you "swim with the fishes"!

Ya I was thinking about native prarie grasses, because that's what was here before humans. Would be nice to bring back the ground birds instead of bringing the wood animals in like most developments in north Texas have done.