Law of the landscaping

Here's where I have to issue the standard disclaimer about me not being a legal expert and all that jazz, but when I spied the Chronicle article titled "Texas homeowners may have drought-resistant lawns", I had to look into it. 

This watershed bill (pun intended) was authored by Senator Kirk Watson.  You can track the progress of the thing here, and this is a screen-shot of what I think it looks like in its current incarnation:

Short, sweet, and to the point - in contrast to common bureaucratic paradigm.  Reportedly, all that remains is for the Gov to sign it, and we're off to the races.  Screengrabbed from this site on March 24, 2013.

For all its intentional brevity, this is a far-reaching bill.  It basically guarantees that people like me will be able to continue doing stuff like this:

My beloved Earth Machine, from a post titled "Successful composting in the suburbs".  Since the publication date of that post, high-quality compost has risen from about $12 per bag to about $16 per bag.  There's about $30 worth of home-made compost just in this one wheelbarrow. 

It also guarantees that I'll be able to continue doing some other stuff that I haven't even showcased on this blog because I'm endeavoring to position that content in a more far-reaching social forum. 

And it also seals the deal on my front-yard plans.  Remember back in this post, I was complaining about having to chinch-proof my nasty St. Augustine front lawn, despite my imminent plans to rip out that lawn almost in its entirety and replace it with a design that makes far better use of both water and space resources.  Well, it's now nine months later and I still haven't got that job done yet.  Our POA has been entirely reasonable and approved my original design plans even without being compelled to do so by this new state law, but I'm hampered by the fact that my current design has simply never been done before - not even on any of those endless home improvement shows that I keep watching.  It's so unique that I can't simply hire a landscape contractor and tell them to build it - I will have to micromanage both the sourcing and the execution, because the contractor will be flummoxed by the scope of work for lack of precedent.  And that kind of micromanagement takes time - time I don't have right now.  It's easy for me to sit down every morning with my pot of green tea and write blog posts as my favorite pooch-screwing hobby.  It's another thing entirely to keep a major construction project from running off the rails.

And I can't fail to knock it out of the park, eh?  I can't be one of the first homeowners in north Galveston County to rip out my front lawn almost entirely and not have the result be a hands-down winner.  It has to be done right.

Anyway, Senate Bill 198 has even further emboldened me.  So I think I'll revert and expand my design yet again.