I’m from the great smoky mountains of southern Appalachia and McMansions are destroying the southern Appalachian mountains at a terrifying rate, being Cherokee my whole family has lived here forever pretty much, a few people lived here but everyone was very poor and everyone had the same as everyone else, then almost overnight the McMansions started popping up, now the mountains are covered in ridiculously big houses, houses are growing faster than trees and it’s crazy because nobody used to want to live in Appalachia they left it to mountain people and Indians but now it’s quickly being densely populated by the rich and affluent city people who all move here and become self taught real estate agents and go to raping this place for every penny they can squeeze out of this area, you should botanize the carnivores bogs or the alpine high elevation habitats or the rich diversity of spring ephemerals here in southern Appalachia because the human tumor is alive and well here and it’s swallowing this once wild and rugged place that I love dearly, keep up the good work man and never be afraid to tell it like you see it
Same. NE Tennessee is f*cked right now. Locals can’t afford anything that goes on the market. Farms are being decimated and hacked into lots everywhere you look. A huge percentage don’t respect or appreciate the native plants and wildlife. Sad, man…
Mc Mansion Hell is an amazing blog, done by an architecture student, who studied the Mc Mansions the way classical architecture would be studied. I found out about it from an article about how Zillow had sent her a "cease and desist" letter. She had to take down her site, but if you do an image search you can still find some gems.
Her site is still up. She just doesn't update as often anymore since she's mostly a cycling journalist now but there is a new post as of just yesterday. And its a house in Texas! And its one of the ugliest fucking things I've ever seen!
I grew up in Florida, and it was always bulldoze everything and then plant your new landscaping in such an unnatural way. Each tree is exactly 8 feet apart from the others in the line. Inevitably, one tree dies or does poorly and then it looks even dumber because visually one of the trees doesn't fit in with the others.
@@Violet-qf8dr that's everywhere sadly. I'll never understand why people like an area enough to move there & then systematically remove what was there to install crap native to another country that will only look "good" with constant fertilizer & care. Absolute insanity!
@@katiekane5247 I live on the coastal plain of the east coast where “native “ would be coastal grasses with very little ornamental value. No trees. No shrubs for the most part. Just grasses . The reason to incorporate non native species is because those plants can adapt to my environment and bring a more diverse ecosystem to my land. A study done in Great Britain analyzing the most productive ecosystem determined that a mixed system of both native and non native species was the best for the environment. A lot of natives require exact environment conditions to exist. Such as orchids and some of the wetlands grasses here. In terms of time management natives are no direct than non natives. All plants have similar nutrient requirements. As long as a plant isn’t invasive or in some way harmful there is absolutely nothing wrong with planting non native plants. One benefit of finding useful plants is extending the nectar and pollen availability for bees and insects. While some may disagree iMO having more available food sources for birds and insects is very important. While we do have numerous native perennials shrubs and tress I could not live without my Japanese maples or umbrella pines
I've been saying this for many years before I saw it on this channel (maybe this channel said it before me without me knowing - idk) - but the suburbanites live in denial. One of them said suburbs are great (when I said the education and lack of jobs are the issue) - but when I asked what happens when you grow up - they said most moved out and went on welfare (after she realized she moved away and went on welfare). It's because they don't teach people skills they can use nor give opportunities. Sorry for the ramble rant - needed to get that out. I'm just so glad this channel and others bring it to light.
Having a ruler tattooed on your finger might be the most practical and genius tattoo in history. What a time saver working construction and contracting.
As a Marine Scientist who worked for a Florida long-term monitoring program we collected then measured a subset of all the fishes and select invert's. Joey's tattoo should be mandatory for Field Biologists. Fewer worries in the field with fading, illegible Fisher Scientific plastic rulers.
Same, people think that you hate other peoples “good fortune” but people never realize they move to a place because it’s beautiful and then after several people move there the area starts to get ugly and be ruined from then on
It really tells me something about a person if they think the reason I loathe this kind of culture is because of envy. You couldn't PAY me to live in a depressing place like this, with no sidewalks, no culture, no taste, no intellect, no passion, no personality - but ample money.
As someone with a natural yard, it's sometimes a struggle to keep it from being taken over by invasives. Wish you'd do a video specifically on how to keep, or return, your yard to nature!
I have the same problem, I struggle a bit with weeds all of which happen to be non native. Every year I pull them up as much as possible and every year, less come back. But I have some more fun solutions. Maybe try adding some new species that you think might thrive in your conditions if the problem is really that your natives aren't thriving. Another fun option is grow some native trees and as they get to 8 feet or so, they will shade the ground and many of the weeds will have a tougher time. Then you can plant some of the shade loving native understory plants.
The other commenter is on the right track for letting it grow fallow to pull out the non-natives .plant native plants - it's like taking probiotics - fill up with good microbes to fight the bad. Educating your neighbors is key to keeping out invasives. Make sure you follow law enforcement code. Eat what's edible - as that's financial motivation! Lobby for better - avoiding urban sprawl, suburbs, etc. Encourage wildlife to live - when native insects come in, then larger animals, like birds, come in. All this life carries life with them - like seeds.
@@lemongauche I watch eat the weeds to know what's native and what's not - then I read the website on the internet. Knowing the difference is definitely the first step!
"Don't it always seem to go, we don't know what we've got 'til it's gone/ they paved paradise and put up a parking lot." Joni Mitchell was right. Edited to add: I love how you speak with the enthusiasm many men have for cars, but about plants. You warm my heart so much, good Sir!
I love Tillandsia also, and when I lived in Florida I had taken a large piece of driftwood and over the years I attached various species to it. My goal was to collect one of each of the native species, some of which are quite hard to find (they are being wiped out by human sprawl and the Mexican Bromeliad Weevil). I promise you, I only ever collected plants from the ground, which is why despite knowing the locations of a couple more species, I never managed to acquire any...because I never managed to find any of that species on the ground! Some of my plants were single specimens and so pollination was tricky, but most were in duplicate or even triplicate and I did manage to get a few to seed, which I tried to disperse in the proper habitats. I only made it to ten species though (FL has 16) when someone stole the whole thing right off my screened-in lanai. I still harbor a ton of resentment over this, even 15 years later. Thank you for the introduction to this one for me.
This is why I just don’t like people, because they suck. I am sorry for your loss. That was such a nice thing to do. My grandmother has a similar piece of bark in her yard. I hope no one ever takes it.
This video hits home for me because it IS home im a resident of South Texas and man it is so hard to convince people around here that we have a beautiful ecosystem. They're so used to seeing cleared plots of lands they just assume the RGV has no interesting ecology or wildlife and its so sad because we're so beautiful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for covering us and I hope you don't mind I send this to assholes who say we don't have wildlife worth saving.
I live in the Wabanaki Acadian forest, so each of your videos on the sub-tropics/ tropics are like a tiny, educational vacation for me. Thanks brother. I was shocked at how that ox box had been turned into a concrete sluiceway! So tough for the riparian plant communities!
I'm an ISA Certified Arborist with TRAQ and I love your videos. I just found your channel the other day when I stumbled across your unapproved planting video. You're such an entertaining mind to listen to, I really appreciate your frustration over societies cultural norms towards trees and nature in general! Definitely one of my favorite channels currently!
Hi there Buddy I only just found your footage on UA-cam a couple of weeks ago but your extensive knowledge on such a wide range of plant species and other subjects is astounding and impressive and your sense of humour is marvelous and always good for a laugh. The excitement you express for plants and everything that makes up those plants is literally the way I feel when I look at different plant species and varieties but I'm not as eloquent at expressing there beauty as you are. It's been a pleasure catching up with your previous posts and as a proud Aussie I especially like you're Australian footage but really its all impressive. All the best mate and I wish you all the success in the future with all your endeavours.👍✌️
Thank you for raising awareness about all the habitat destruction that’s happening in this great state. It breaks my heart seeing so many ecologically important areas being destroyed.
God everything you’re saying as you are going through that neighborhood resonates with me so much. It’s so heart shattering working in consulting botany sometimes :’(
Another banging video, Joey. Fking hilarious intro/skill share ad by Al. Stunning spiraled trunk on that Taxodium! May they all outlive the McMansion Olive Garden breadstick homes. Cheers!
Lived off the grid in a small one bedroom cabin me and my wife built ourselves--One of the happiest and most productive times of my life. People don't realize how little they really need.
People can't be bored anymore, Most people are addicted to dopamine without knowing it and crave new stimulation. That usually being from social media , consuming useless shit and consuming trash as food.
My nieces cousin is on the prozack and it really helped her be nice to her cat after it developed restless leg syndrome, so I really don’t appreciate you insulting people on the prozacks.
So true, I love the flora in my state of Texas, but I see so much old growth being bulldozed over at an incredible rate 😡 so much respect for our trees and plants here thriving despite the harsh conditions of our hot dry climate.
I’m in East Texas. They cut down over 2000 acres of prime swamp land filled with God knows how many endangered species. You make way for McMansions for all the Californians flooding the damn place. I saved what I could but I know for a fact about 1 acre of rare native orchids Got bulldozed and buried
So sad. What species did they bulldoze? I wish I had the money to buy up land that hasn't been turned into pine plantations here in east Texas. Sure it's been logged in the past but the modern practice of bulldozing the land before replanting a monoculture is so much worse than just cutting and leaving. If people are going to build McMansions, I wish they would do it where the natives have already been decimated. As soon as Hwy 287 is widened the land prices (and property taxes) are going to skyrocket.
A builder looks at a lot & sees a future home. I see a current home that's superior to any slapped up crap box that could be put there. How TF people are still building is a mystery. Love you Joey & Al, you make me smile, not an easy task. Gfyselves! Edit: found a Lilium michauxii blooming in the ditch on my dirt road, amazing it's persisted.
Glad to have you in Texas, keep these videos coming! I'd love to see you head to the eastern edge of Edwards Plateau sometime, near the Balconnes Escarpment. Mish-mash of climate between arid west and more humid east makes for a unique location, ranging from dry limestone flats to rolling hill country, with plenty of unique and endemic species like _Asclepias texana_ , _Buddleja racemosa_ , and _Passiflora affinis_ . There are also scattered populations of the (possibly) relictual species _Cotinus obovatus_ , a tree that was almost wiped out during the Civil War because of its valued yellow dye... would be a banger species to go over. _Edited b/c idk how youtube italics work lol_
Thanks for putting that Cotinus on my radar. Had no idea there was a native North American species in that genus, I'm only familiar with the annoying one that's overused in Midwestern horticulture.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt Not at all! It's the least I could do. It's quite a shame. the North American species is so underrated, I don't understand why they don't use it instead of the European one. It really should be planted more.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt You know my buddy Justin Parr. Love to show off some of the Cibolo Canyon lands area North of San Antonio. If you are ever thru here, and inclined to go check out some cool areas.
Joey, after listening to your countless rants against driving this country off of a fuckin cliff, I found myself wandering through a neighborhood, and was appalled at the cookie-cutter nature of it. Every fuckin house was exactly the same, EVEN DOWN TO THE “LANDSCAPING” (which, actually could be better described as a Home Depot truck flipping over on I-5 and scattering that stupid shit all over). At 20, I would have been dying to live there, not knowing I would be condemning myself to a life of McCormick taco seasoning, Nike Air Monarchs, an overall beige existence, and a lifetime of indentured servitude, because I paid way too much and got a variable rate mortgage. At 30, I know it’s cool to be a nerd and learn, a house is only a place that you sleep and take shits in, and that the world is really fuckin big and our lives are really short, so you’d better get out there and experience it before you’re 45. Healthy people drop dead as fuck every day at 45 so, if you just plan on being dead by then, you’ll have no regrets when you actually die (hopefully at a much later age). Always keep the “social and political commentary” (rants). They are necessary for the advancement of our culture through whatever the fuck this is right now. I mean that wholeheartedly. The things you say, and the way you say it appeal to blue-collar people (me) and academics (also me). You have a truly unique, amazing fucking gift in that, you serve as a bridge between “the two sides”. A blue-collar guy can, and will, listen because Tony says simpleton shit and cusses a lot. Academics will listen because you truly know what the fuck you’re talking about. Those two aspects together are how we come to recognize our similarities, and stop with the constant division. You’re in a truly unique position to bring people together by doing exactly what you’ve been doing. You’re really doing some good shit Joe. Much love to you and the family. Btw, the CPBBD and Kill Your Lawn stickers get laughs and confused stares everywhere I go. My plant reproductive bio professor now tells people to kill their lawns. GFY Bye
I'm confused. I'm new here. Just stumbled across this dude. So I'm not sure if there's an inside joke in not privy to yet or what. But is this dude's name Joey or Tony?!
@Turd Ferguson That's what I was getting from it. But I wasn't sure. I can not get enough of this man. All my plans for the day were shot all because of his lawn video. Because now I can't stop.
And you knoq they're all just 2x4 vaguely stacked on top of one another and held together by spray-in insulation, and then covered with PU/PIR foam insulation for good measure. Also what with macmansions always looking like a dozen garden huts stuck together and covered in roughcast? Is that because they're all based on modular designs that owners can mix and match to suit their (awful) tastes? There are just so many different walls and roofing surfaces, why??
I am probably wrong, but my best guess is that is more cost effective to build the modules offsite, truck them in, and then slap them together. For me the sad part is that I think they are not being built for people to live in. They are being built for real estate investors, housing authorities, and lawn care companies.
I love that old tree !! And the way that you describe the raping of our land by the developers. Keep up the good work documenting these plants and trees
As someone currently on antidepressants I would like you to know that your content makes life a little less depressing! Please keep being so snarky and I genuinely hope that your actual accent!
I do hate my local culture, I hate when they tare down nature in my area. they destroyed a whole ecosystem surrounding a long stretch of resaca. I grew up here, I saw trees I'd grown up with since 4th grade cut and that hurt. felt like treebeard. love you came by.
I dunno if I would even recognize right away that the tillandsae weren't just some twisted detritus of the tree. Hearing of tillandsae groeing down the face of a cliff is mind blowing. If I was as good at storage and recall as I used to be, I'd put these montezuma and tillandsia ecologies right up there with arguably my top favorite, the banyan.
Fascinating how those Mimosa inflorescences also turn into the classic bean pod fruits, very similar to many species that have the typical Faboid flowers...
I'll never understand these people's obsession with living in huge interior spaces. Just more to clean and repair. Also the front lawns they'll never use but have to mow and water. What a time and resource suck. A whole lot of pointless activity to maintain the image of being "successful" I guess. Subdivisions of middle managers all LARPing as 19th century aristocrats. What a goofy lifestyle.
I won't blame anyone for liking big indoor spaces, but these houses are barely more than a single floor. You could have much more floor area on less land, but these McMansions are so shoddily built that's impossible. I like living high and dry, makes it much easier to see the sunset.
In Minnesota, I've seen so many mcmansions and town houses taking up more and more land, destroying so many biomes. they are a plague, it's terrifying to behold, just hoping there's enough left to avoid the loss or destruction of entire ecosystems
I would love to become rich enough to buy lots of homes like this and rip 70% out and reforest the land. Also all 100% of homes would be destroyed but I will go up not out so affordable apartments with lots of native trees and lots of green space shade you no mother nature.
Thank You for doing this. I learn so much because of you and like you say see the bigger picture of this whole world we are in. I think there were maybe just a few teachers in my schooltime that made me motivate to learn stuff like you do. Thank You for showing me that learning is awesome.
Holy shit, dude. I just found your channel and I love everything about it. This get’s me thinking about a guerrilla redo of my dog-park here in Baltimore. Fuck the grass, let’s get some wood mulch and some American Chestnuts and gum trees.
Those mimosas are replacing the crab grass (augustine) they planted at our house. Augustine is a blight across Texas as lawn turf, but a lawn full of mowable little pink balls is cute as hell.
I think you dunked on the McMansions exactly the right amount. Thanks for all the botany porn, and the potty-humor commentary! Also that was the funniest SkillShare in-video ad I've ever seen, congrats...
I’m moving back from the PNW after seasoning on Whidbey Island for 4 years. McAllen, TX I come home! I’ve been watching your show since before you started the Texas modules. It gave me such pride as it was something I glanced over. The Texas brush and heat … I’ll be making attempts to regrow some forest on my acreage! You keep on teaching boss, hopefully I can help keep El Valle alive!
We got an Air plant in the garden, put it on an old tree stump and it's growing fine. Its an average condition area of New Zealand's north Island. Might reposition up in a tree. Thanks for the knowledge.
I am in wonder at the way i share the hate of all that suburbia represents, to just suburbia but even big cities on the edge of wilderness that continue to ignore the worth of what they tear out, while i have not been able to have humor about it. I kind of get an anxious depression. I go out in the outside, and each time I do I see more destruction. It is literally every day, here. I like these bits you do. I think it weird that you live in Texas.
McMansion Cultural Death... No adobe/stucco clay tile roof haciendas with tile cement floors vents in the roofs natural ventilation... No solar driven air conditioning or high efficiency air conditioning.
Incredible adaptation. Plants that live in or on other plants fascinate me. It shows so clearly how built these ecosystems are on one another. It also highlights how fragile they are - if you cut down these trees to pave a quarter mile driveway, you have destroyed at least two populations of plants. We grow ever further each day from nature, and as we draw from that place we ironically grow further from our humanity.
Man I love these videos. I'd like to see you come up to the riparian woodlands of the northern Rio Grande, what's left of it anyways. Everything is getting eaten up by Eleagnus and Tamarix, but there are a few spots without, and they are achingly beautiful. It sucks seeing it everywhere, because the more the invasives pile up, the hotter it burns. I'd like to be able to get rid of some if I could. Thanks again for your work!
My childhood hometown has quickly become overrun with McMansions over the past couple of years. All of the farmland, the little forests, and the backroads are being absolutely overrun with these monstrosities and all the new neighborhoods are so densely packed; they neighborhoods don’t even really have yard space to allow breathing room between houses. To be fair, my hometown was never the best to begin with, but now it’s all just getting worse.
Did you know that if the company bulldozes that endangered plant and ecosystem, it would be against the law? Also if they do not have a permit they must stop their construction.
So unbelievably surreal seeing thriving native flora right next to those fancy houses. We have plenty of urban sprawl in the Northeast, but what it replaces is usually just land that was already disturbed repeatedly and now hosts the "typical" native and non-native weedy plants. We have some more "exotic" flora if you go certain places, but even there it is far from untouched. The western parts of this country benefit from huge expanses with relatively little historic disturbance compared to the east coast.
Man just yesterday I was going off about these new builds and I couldn't find a better way to describe them than you did. The ugly oversized copy-paste garbage houses people overpay for with no inspiration.
I am getting the Texas Parks and Wildlife Division to investigate this matter, I hope they can help to save these endangered species from certain death...
Get your ass out of Texas and come down to Florida, dude! It's a jungle down here with tons of tillandsia. And orchids. And invasives. God, lots of invasives.
Hello Tony. I found your channel in July on Facebook. I'm kicking myself that i didn't find it sooner. One question- Do you have any book recommendations? I'm old but still willing to learn a thing or 2! Your channel is fantastic but please don't ever apologize for saying the truth! People need some honesty badly right now. -C.
Astro Van Exhaust Manifold Texas Ebony NODULES McMansion taxonium Tillandsia trichomes termites tacky lions. Welcome to the Anthropocene! [Excellent addition of fart sounds] Love you bastards. GFYS!
Don't forget the floor space required for the home theatre compete with surround sound, a cabana next to the pool as much concrete that the site can hold, triple garage and a shitty designer dog *proceeds to put gun in mouth
"You spent half a million to live in a house that looks like an Olive Garden"
- I swear to god I hurt myself laughing at that
I did too!
he was reading my mind when he said that line...i laughed enough to pause the video.
Here in north Carolina we still have much wild afes. A green stateots of greed and rivers. Farm land is very widespread.
@@Silverhand57 shit im only at the skillshare ad at the start
I’m from the great smoky mountains of southern Appalachia and McMansions are destroying the southern Appalachian mountains at a terrifying rate, being Cherokee my whole family has lived here forever pretty much, a few people lived here but everyone was very poor and everyone had the same as everyone else, then almost overnight the McMansions started popping up, now the mountains are covered in ridiculously big houses, houses are growing faster than trees and it’s crazy because nobody used to want to live in Appalachia they left it to mountain people and Indians but now it’s quickly being densely populated by the rich and affluent city people who all move here and become self taught real estate agents and go to raping this place for every penny they can squeeze out of this area, you should botanize the carnivores bogs or the alpine high elevation habitats or the rich diversity of spring ephemerals here in southern Appalachia because the human tumor is alive and well here and it’s swallowing this once wild and rugged place that I love dearly, keep up the good work man and never be afraid to tell it like you see it
I feel your sorrow fellow human.
Here from the Cayman Islands, feeling it here too. Sorry that you have to go through that💔
Our destructive nature, greed and ignorance will kill us all. I'm sorry about your mountains.
Mirrored here in the rural Pacific Northwest.
Same. NE Tennessee is f*cked right now. Locals can’t afford anything that goes on the market. Farms are being decimated and hacked into lots everywhere you look. A huge percentage don’t respect or appreciate the native plants and wildlife. Sad, man…
Mc Mansion Hell is an amazing blog, done by an architecture student, who studied the Mc Mansions the way classical architecture would be studied.
I found out about it from an article about how Zillow had sent her a "cease and desist" letter. She had to take down her site, but if you do an image search you can still find some gems.
Would love to read it!
So much for "freedom of speech"
Zillow is a parasite. I really enjoyed her analyses and learned how to recognize good design and construction.
Her site is still up for me (in Australia).
Her site is still up. She just doesn't update as often anymore since she's mostly a cycling journalist now but there is a new post as of just yesterday. And its a house in Texas! And its one of the ugliest fucking things I've ever seen!
It is amazing how little native plants are used in Florida and South Texas. Strange because there are many with high ornamental quality
I grew up in Florida, and it was always bulldoze everything and then plant your new landscaping in such an unnatural way. Each tree is exactly 8 feet apart from the others in the line. Inevitably, one tree dies or does poorly and then it looks even dumber because visually one of the trees doesn't fit in with the others.
@@Violet-qf8dr that's everywhere sadly. I'll never understand why people like an area enough to move there & then systematically remove what was there to install crap native to another country that will only look "good" with constant fertilizer & care. Absolute insanity!
@@katiekane5247 I live on the coastal plain of the east coast where “native “ would be coastal grasses with very little ornamental value. No trees. No shrubs for the most part. Just grasses .
The reason to incorporate non native species is because those plants can adapt to my environment and bring a more diverse ecosystem to my land.
A study done in Great Britain analyzing the most productive ecosystem determined that a mixed system of both native and non native species was the best for the environment.
A lot of natives require exact environment conditions to exist. Such as orchids and some of the wetlands grasses here. In terms of time management natives are no direct than non natives. All plants have similar nutrient requirements.
As long as a plant isn’t invasive or in some way harmful there is absolutely nothing wrong with planting non native plants. One benefit of finding useful plants is extending the nectar and pollen availability for bees and insects. While some may disagree iMO having more available food sources for birds and insects is very important.
While we do have numerous native perennials shrubs and tress I could not live without my Japanese maples or umbrella pines
Suburban sprawl is disgusting and incredibly wasteful. Incredible and frustrating video. Keep em coming
It's ok. It's not going to last very long as a lifestyle choice or model of infrastructure. I don't see how it possibly could.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt I'm really hoping it isn't too late by then.
I really appreciative your positivity.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt reality asserts itself...
Good Luck to Us All
Peace
@@metafuel it was too late when it began.
I've been saying this for many years before I saw it on this channel (maybe this channel said it before me without me knowing - idk) - but the suburbanites live in denial. One of them said suburbs are great (when I said the education and lack of jobs are the issue) - but when I asked what happens when you grow up - they said most moved out and went on welfare (after she realized she moved away and went on welfare). It's because they don't teach people skills they can use nor give opportunities. Sorry for the ramble rant - needed to get that out. I'm just so glad this channel and others bring it to light.
Having a ruler tattooed on your finger might be the most practical and genius tattoo in history. What a time saver working construction and contracting.
Adam Savage has one, too! And also a full-size ruler tat on his arm with inches, centimeters, millimeters, and a few other measures.
The only thing that bothers me is wondering how accurate it is especially after several years... I guess its still handy, pun intended
@@Farimira On the plus side, you can check exactly how much your skin stretched
As a Marine Scientist who worked for a Florida long-term monitoring program we collected then measured a subset of all the fishes and select invert's.
Joey's tattoo should be mandatory for Field Biologists. Fewer worries in the field with fading, illegible Fisher Scientific plastic rulers.
The fact that you hate McMansions is why I love this channel
Same, people think that you hate other peoples “good fortune” but people never realize they move to a place because it’s beautiful and then after several people move there the area starts to get ugly and be ruined from then on
It really tells me something about a person if they think the reason I loathe this kind of culture is because of envy. You couldn't PAY me to live in a depressing place like this, with no sidewalks, no culture, no taste, no intellect, no passion, no personality - but ample money.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt and worst of all, no nature.
@@geelee1977 No life!
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt What money does, is amplify the worst of our character flaws.
I would normally skip any SkillShare ad... but not when they're this entertaining. Watched *both* of them, all the way through.
As someone with a natural yard, it's sometimes a struggle to keep it from being taken over by invasives. Wish you'd do a video specifically on how to keep, or return, your yard to nature!
I have the same problem, I struggle a bit with weeds all of which happen to be non native. Every year I pull them up as much as possible and every year, less come back. But I have some more fun solutions. Maybe try adding some new species that you think might thrive in your conditions if the problem is really that your natives aren't thriving. Another fun option is grow some native trees and as they get to 8 feet or so, they will shade the ground and many of the weeds will have a tougher time. Then you can plant some of the shade loving native understory plants.
The other commenter is on the right track for letting it grow fallow to pull out the non-natives .plant native plants - it's like taking probiotics - fill up with good microbes to fight the bad.
Educating your neighbors is key to keeping out invasives. Make sure you follow law enforcement code. Eat what's edible - as that's financial motivation! Lobby for better - avoiding urban sprawl, suburbs, etc.
Encourage wildlife to live - when native insects come in, then larger animals, like birds, come in. All this life carries life with them - like seeds.
Parkrose Permaculture has a good video on this called Reducing Weeds in the Garden.
@@lemongauche I watch eat the weeds to know what's native and what's not - then I read the website on the internet. Knowing the difference is definitely the first step!
"Don't it always seem to go, we don't know what we've got 'til it's gone/ they paved paradise and put up a parking lot." Joni Mitchell was right. Edited to add: I love how you speak with the enthusiasm many men have for cars, but about plants. You warm my heart so much, good Sir!
100% agreed!!
I love Tillandsia also, and when I lived in Florida I had taken a large piece of driftwood and over the years I attached various species to it. My goal was to collect one of each of the native species, some of which are quite hard to find (they are being wiped out by human sprawl and the Mexican Bromeliad Weevil). I promise you, I only ever collected plants from the ground, which is why despite knowing the locations of a couple more species, I never managed to acquire any...because I never managed to find any of that species on the ground! Some of my plants were single specimens and so pollination was tricky, but most were in duplicate or even triplicate and I did manage to get a few to seed, which I tried to disperse in the proper habitats. I only made it to ten species though (FL has 16) when someone stole the whole thing right off my screened-in lanai. I still harbor a ton of resentment over this, even 15 years later. Thank you for the introduction to this one for me.
God humans suck
Im upset by this story as well and now will never forget it either
This is why I just don’t like people, because they suck. I am sorry for your loss. That was such a nice thing to do. My grandmother has a similar piece of bark in her yard. I hope no one ever takes it.
Why would someone take time out of their day to steal a rotting tree right outta someone else's yard? I just don't get it
I thank you for your effort to educate the collective. I appreciate your humor. In the times we live in, I find it overwhelming and the humor helps.
This video hits home for me because it IS home im a resident of South Texas and man it is so hard to convince people around here that we have a beautiful ecosystem. They're so used to seeing cleared plots of lands they just assume the RGV has no interesting ecology or wildlife and its so sad because we're so beautiful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for covering us and I hope you don't mind I send this to assholes who say we don't have wildlife worth saving.
I live in the Wabanaki Acadian forest, so each of your videos on the sub-tropics/ tropics are like a tiny, educational vacation for me. Thanks brother. I was shocked at how that ox box had been turned into a concrete sluiceway! So tough for the riparian plant communities!
Maine or Quebec?
I'm an ISA Certified Arborist with TRAQ and I love your videos. I just found your channel the other day when I stumbled across your unapproved planting video. You're such an entertaining mind to listen to, I really appreciate your frustration over societies cultural norms towards trees and nature in general! Definitely one of my favorite channels currently!
Hi there Buddy I only just found your footage on UA-cam a couple of weeks ago but your extensive knowledge on such a wide range of plant species and other subjects is astounding and impressive and your sense of humour is marvelous and always good for a laugh. The excitement you express for plants and everything that makes up those plants is literally the way I feel when I look at different plant species and varieties but I'm not as eloquent at expressing there beauty as you are. It's been a pleasure catching up with your previous posts and as a proud Aussie I especially like you're Australian footage but really its all impressive. All the best mate and I wish you all the success in the future with all your endeavours.👍✌️
They don't even have the decency to put sidewalks on the sprawl of green nothingness in front of their houses.
Nah, cause nobody fucking walks anywhere. This is Texas.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt walking as a form of transportation is seen as a suspicious activity in Texas, police will be called.
Thank you for raising awareness about all the habitat destruction that’s happening in this great state. It breaks my heart seeing so many ecologically important areas being destroyed.
God everything you’re saying as you are going through that neighborhood resonates with me so much. It’s so heart shattering working in consulting botany sometimes :’(
Another banging video, Joey. Fking hilarious intro/skill share ad by Al. Stunning spiraled trunk on that Taxodium! May they all outlive the McMansion Olive Garden breadstick homes. Cheers!
Lived off the grid in a small one bedroom cabin me and my wife built ourselves--One of the happiest and most productive times of my life. People don't realize how little they really need.
People can't be bored anymore, Most people are addicted to dopamine without knowing it and crave new stimulation. That usually being from social media , consuming useless shit and consuming trash as food.
Just curious, how are you living off the grid if you're using UA-cam?
@@IQWalkthroughsandpig it was "LIVED" not "LIVE"
Sounds like heaven. I would love to be off grid. Why did you come back to civilization?
@@mishmosh Work died up...rural poor area.
My nieces cousin is on the prozack and it really helped her be nice to her cat after it developed restless leg syndrome, so I really don’t appreciate you insulting people on the prozacks.
So true, I love the flora in my state of Texas, but I see so much old growth being bulldozed over at an incredible rate 😡 so much respect for our trees and plants here thriving despite the harsh conditions of our hot dry climate.
Could it be that there are too many of our species. Nah, surely the supreme court knows best. they'll be cumming for our rubbers next year.
Al is a absolute treasure, his ability to riff to camera is amazing.
Love he does it like a crazy person in the road.
I agree- very funny. Glad he is treasured.
Al is a fucken DEADbeat, he drank ALL my Old Styles and replace dem with Hamms. Like I wouldnt fucken notice. who DOES dat??????
I’m in East Texas. They cut down over 2000 acres of prime swamp land filled with God knows how many endangered species. You make way for McMansions for all the Californians flooding the damn place. I saved what I could but I know for a fact about 1 acre of rare native orchids Got bulldozed and buried
So sad. What species did they bulldoze? I wish I had the money to buy up land that hasn't been turned into pine plantations here in east Texas. Sure it's been logged in the past but the modern practice of bulldozing the land before replanting a monoculture is so much worse than just cutting and leaving. If people are going to build McMansions, I wish they would do it where the natives have already been decimated. As soon as Hwy 287 is widened the land prices (and property taxes) are going to skyrocket.
A builder looks at a lot & sees a future home. I see a current home that's superior to any slapped up crap box that could be put there. How TF people are still building is a mystery.
Love you Joey & Al, you make me smile, not an easy task. Gfyselves!
Edit: found a Lilium michauxii blooming in the ditch on my dirt road, amazing it's persisted.
Best add plugs on UA-cam. Is there an award for this, because y'all win.
Best commercials in the game, not to mention the plant content is killer!
Your mate Al is worth a million in prizes! Love yer work…
Glad to have you in Texas, keep these videos coming! I'd love to see you head to the eastern edge of Edwards Plateau sometime, near the Balconnes Escarpment. Mish-mash of climate between arid west and more humid east makes for a unique location, ranging from dry limestone flats to rolling hill country, with plenty of unique and endemic species like _Asclepias texana_ , _Buddleja racemosa_ , and _Passiflora affinis_ . There are also scattered populations of the (possibly) relictual species _Cotinus obovatus_ , a tree that was almost wiped out during the Civil War because of its valued yellow dye... would be a banger species to go over.
_Edited b/c idk how youtube italics work lol_
Thanks for putting that Cotinus on my radar. Had no idea there was a native North American species in that genus, I'm only familiar with the annoying one that's overused in Midwestern horticulture.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt Not at all! It's the least I could do.
It's quite a shame. the North American species is so underrated, I don't understand why they don't use it instead of the European one. It really should be planted more.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt You know my buddy Justin Parr. Love to show off some of the Cibolo Canyon lands area North of San Antonio. If you are ever thru here, and inclined to go check out some cool areas.
Joey, after listening to your countless rants against driving this country off of a fuckin cliff, I found myself wandering through a neighborhood, and was appalled at the cookie-cutter nature of it. Every fuckin house was exactly the same, EVEN DOWN TO THE “LANDSCAPING” (which, actually could be better described as a Home Depot truck flipping over on I-5 and scattering that stupid shit all over).
At 20, I would have been dying to live there, not knowing I would be condemning myself to a life of McCormick taco seasoning, Nike Air Monarchs, an overall beige existence, and a lifetime of indentured servitude, because I paid way too much and got a variable rate mortgage.
At 30, I know it’s cool to be a nerd and learn, a house is only a place that you sleep and take shits in, and that the world is really fuckin big and our lives are really short, so you’d better get out there and experience it before you’re 45. Healthy people drop dead as fuck every day at 45 so, if you just plan on being dead by then, you’ll have no regrets when you actually die (hopefully at a much later age).
Always keep the “social and political commentary” (rants). They are necessary for the advancement of our culture through whatever the fuck this is right now. I mean that wholeheartedly.
The things you say, and the way you say it appeal to blue-collar people (me) and academics (also me). You have a truly unique, amazing fucking gift in that, you serve as a bridge between “the two sides”. A blue-collar guy can, and will, listen because Tony says simpleton shit and cusses a lot. Academics will listen because you truly know what the fuck you’re talking about. Those two aspects together are how we come to recognize our similarities, and stop with the constant division.
You’re in a truly unique position to bring people together by doing exactly what you’ve been doing. You’re really doing some good shit Joe.
Much love to you and the family. Btw, the CPBBD and Kill Your Lawn stickers get laughs and confused stares everywhere I go. My plant reproductive bio professor now tells people to kill their lawns. GFY Bye
Amen. Well said.
I'm confused. I'm new here. Just stumbled across this dude. So I'm not sure if there's an inside joke in not privy to yet or what. But is this dude's name Joey or Tony?!
I've seen him refer to himself as both names
Joey Santore is his actual name, Tony Santoro is his Chicago garlic knot character name lol
@Turd Ferguson That's what I was getting from it. But I wasn't sure. I can not get enough of this man. All my plans for the day were shot all because of his lawn video. Because now I can't stop.
Mcmansions and their owners should always be bullied tbh. Love your videos
And you knoq they're all just 2x4 vaguely stacked on top of one another and held together by spray-in insulation, and then covered with PU/PIR foam insulation for good measure. Also what with macmansions always looking like a dozen garden huts stuck together and covered in roughcast? Is that because they're all based on modular designs that owners can mix and match to suit their (awful) tastes? There are just so many different walls and roofing surfaces, why??
I am probably wrong, but my best guess is that is more cost effective to build the modules offsite, truck them in, and then slap them together. For me the sad part is that I think they are not being built for people to live in. They are being built for real estate investors, housing authorities, and lawn care companies.
I love that old tree !! And the way that you describe the raping of our land by the developers. Keep up the good work documenting these plants and trees
"You spent half a million bucks to live in a home that looks like an Olive Garden." Holy shit was that a righteous burn.
As someone currently on antidepressants I would like you to know that your content makes life a little less depressing! Please keep being so snarky and I genuinely hope that your actual accent!
That cypress at the end was beautiful. You describe the people living their delusions very well.
Best ad reads in the business
I do hate my local culture, I hate when they tare down nature in my area. they destroyed a whole ecosystem surrounding a long stretch of resaca. I grew up here, I saw trees I'd grown up with since 4th grade cut and that hurt. felt like treebeard. love you came by.
I've never actually like a video before, especially for an ad, but that was the greatest intro ever. I love Astrovans
Your videos make me feel more sane in this crazy world. Thank you!
I dunno if I would even recognize right away that the tillandsae weren't just some twisted detritus of the tree. Hearing of tillandsae groeing down the face of a cliff is mind blowing. If I was as good at storage and recall as I used to be, I'd put these montezuma and tillandsia ecologies right up there with arguably my top favorite, the banyan.
lol
Fascinating how those Mimosa inflorescences also turn into the classic bean pod fruits, very similar to many species that have the typical Faboid flowers...
I'll never understand these people's obsession with living in huge interior spaces. Just more to clean and repair. Also the front lawns they'll never use but have to mow and water. What a time and resource suck. A whole lot of pointless activity to maintain the image of being "successful" I guess. Subdivisions of middle managers all LARPing as 19th century aristocrats. What a goofy lifestyle.
And they haven't a clue as to how precarious their empty lives are.
I won't blame anyone for liking big indoor spaces, but these houses are barely more than a single floor. You could have much more floor area on less land, but these McMansions are so shoddily built that's impossible. I like living high and dry, makes it much easier to see the sunset.
You can do a 5/6 video like this on Florida! With the swamp flowers and such disappearing one housing development at a time
In Minnesota, I've seen so many mcmansions and town houses taking up more and more land, destroying so many biomes. they are a plague, it's terrifying to behold, just hoping there's enough left to avoid the loss or destruction of entire ecosystems
Segue into Ad was well done! Good enough to convince me to endure the ad. That’s saying something. Thanks for the great content.
I will watch all 4 takes. Keep making these ads, I will keep watching them.
Thanks!
I would love to become rich enough to buy lots of homes like this and rip 70% out and reforest the land.
Also all 100% of homes would be destroyed but I will go up not out so affordable apartments with lots of native trees and lots of green space shade you no mother nature.
Need to lock down intact habitat first. Much more cost effective
Your home looks like an Olive Garden…BOOM!!! TONY!!!
Thank You for doing this.
I learn so much because of you and like you say see the bigger picture of this whole world we are in.
I think there were maybe just a few teachers in my schooltime that made me motivate to learn stuff like you do.
Thank You for showing me that learning is awesome.
Holy shit, dude. I just found your channel and I love everything about it. This get’s me thinking about a guerrilla redo of my dog-park here in Baltimore. Fuck the grass, let’s get some wood mulch and some American Chestnuts and gum trees.
Love the Tillandsias. So cool to see so many flowering and going to seed.
Your commentary while driving thru my nightmares earned you a new sub... I dont feel as lonely with my views anymore, thank you.
Those mimosas are replacing the crab grass (augustine) they planted at our house. Augustine is a blight across Texas as lawn turf, but a lawn full of mowable little pink balls is cute as hell.
I think you dunked on the McMansions exactly the right amount.
Thanks for all the botany porn, and the potty-humor commentary!
Also that was the funniest SkillShare in-video ad I've ever seen, congrats...
the drone shots in this were awesome, please show us more with the drone, love getting into the canopy of the trees like that
The ad made me laugh my ass off
Refined awesomeness.
Some of the best videos on the site, every time. Keep 'em coming, brother
Thank you Al and Tony for this.
Thank you for your documentation of such cool trees. They should be treasured! Damn the McMansions.
Those cypresses really get me going.
Thanks for the astro needed some parts 👍🏼 Vinnie is a great guy
I’m moving back from the PNW after seasoning on Whidbey Island for 4 years.
McAllen, TX I come home!
I’ve been watching your show since before you started the Texas modules. It gave me such pride as it was something I glanced over. The Texas brush and heat …
I’ll be making attempts to regrow some forest on my acreage!
You keep on teaching boss, hopefully I can help keep El Valle alive!
I love tillandsias, I have a dozen of them, but never had the opportunity to see them in their habitat. Thanks for sharing.
Said this elsewhere but Tillandsias amaze me. Here in Australia I had pictured them as restricted to cloud rainforests in South America
Watch out for the HOA snipers, Tony.
We got an Air plant in the garden, put it on an old tree stump and it's growing fine. Its an average condition area of New Zealand's north Island. Might reposition up in a tree. Thanks for the knowledge.
South Texas has some of the best birds and plants around. Rio Grande valley Nafta ripped its heart out.
I am in wonder at the way i share the hate of all that suburbia represents, to just suburbia but even big cities on the edge of wilderness that continue to ignore the worth of what they tear out, while i have not been able to have humor about it. I kind of get an anxious depression. I go out in the outside, and each time I do I see more destruction. It is literally every day, here. I like these bits you do. I think it weird that you live in Texas.
oops meant -NOT to just suburbia
"Greeting card quality art" 🤣
McMansion Cultural Death... No adobe/stucco clay tile roof haciendas with tile cement floors vents in the roofs natural ventilation... No solar driven air conditioning or high efficiency air conditioning.
Incredible adaptation. Plants that live in or on other plants fascinate me. It shows so clearly how built these ecosystems are on one another. It also highlights how fragile they are - if you cut down these trees to pave a quarter mile driveway, you have destroyed at least two populations of plants.
We grow ever further each day from nature, and as we draw from that place we ironically grow further from our humanity.
For no reason at all, I'm now tempted to release hordes of termites near mcmansion suburbs.
Sir. My GPA went up 1.12 from just your channel. You sir are a miracle worker even if you don't realize it
Man I love these videos. I'd like to see you come up to the riparian woodlands of the northern Rio Grande, what's left of it anyways. Everything is getting eaten up by Eleagnus and Tamarix, but there are a few spots without, and they are achingly beautiful. It sucks seeing it everywhere, because the more the invasives pile up, the hotter it burns. I'd like to be able to get rid of some if I could. Thanks again for your work!
That ad was just the funniest UA-cam ad I have ever seen.
I'm applauding - I just started watching the channel again and wow it's popping! Wildest youtube surprise video at me. Thanks!
been a little busy so have missed some. thanks man, keep on truckin with the edu macation of the masses
My childhood hometown has quickly become overrun with McMansions over the past couple of years. All of the farmland, the little forests, and the backroads are being absolutely overrun with these monstrosities and all the new neighborhoods are so densely packed; they neighborhoods don’t even really have yard space to allow breathing room between houses. To be fair, my hometown was never the best to begin with, but now it’s all just getting worse.
Did you know that if the company bulldozes that endangered plant and ecosystem, it would be against the law?
Also if they do not have a permit they must stop their construction.
Some of my favorite bonsai at Huntington Garden’s collection are Montezuma Cypress. Those bitches are amazing.
I visited the tree in Oaxaca many years ago! Very big tree indeed!
Depressingly uplifting.
So unbelievably surreal seeing thriving native flora right next to those fancy houses. We have plenty of urban sprawl in the Northeast, but what it replaces is usually just land that was already disturbed repeatedly and now hosts the "typical" native and non-native weedy plants. We have some more "exotic" flora if you go certain places, but even there it is far from untouched. The western parts of this country benefit from huge expanses with relatively little historic disturbance compared to the east coast.
Lmao! That is the very first time I did not fast forward through sponsor information! Nice job guys!
Because of your wonderful wit, and extensive botanical knowledge, it would be a crime not to subscribe to your channel.
Subscribed!
Just found your channel, incredible content, love your work.
When’s your Ted Talk, Tony? It’s inevitable. The world needs a CPBBD Ted Talk. Even if I’ll never be able to afford to see it live.
Man just yesterday I was going off about these new builds and I couldn't find a better way to describe them than you did. The ugly oversized copy-paste garbage houses people overpay for with no inspiration.
I am getting the Texas Parks and Wildlife Division to investigate this matter, I hope they can help to save these endangered species from certain death...
Get your ass out of Texas and come down to Florida, dude! It's a jungle down here with tons of tillandsia. And orchids. And invasives. God, lots of invasives.
Hey, they're called retirees.
@@1BergerVongSchlauigkeitHer 🤣
@@1BergerVongSchlauigkeitHer lmao
@@1BergerVongSchlauigkeitHer 🤣
Meant to make it this month but couldn't fit it.
Hello Tony. I found your channel in July on Facebook. I'm kicking myself that i didn't find it sooner. One question- Do you have any book recommendations? I'm old but still willing to learn a thing or 2! Your channel is fantastic but please don't ever apologize for saying the truth! People need some honesty badly right now. -C.
12:22 i mean, they might be huge fans of the olive garden?
And who can blame them? They do offer free breadsticks.
Holy shit - new to the channel and damn is this the best ad read I've ever heard!
The ending had me surprised and dying.
That's the most Chicago intro I've ever heard. It was probably Lincoln towing.
You made me miss home.
Astro Van Exhaust Manifold Texas Ebony NODULES McMansion taxonium Tillandsia trichomes termites tacky lions. Welcome to the Anthropocene! [Excellent addition of fart sounds] Love you bastards. GFYS!
When I was a kid, i was always puzzled about the use of these "toad trucks" people talked about.
Don't forget the floor space required for the home theatre compete with surround sound, a cabana next to the pool as much concrete that the site can hold, triple garage and a shitty designer dog *proceeds to put gun in mouth
Very informative and entertaining, but heartbreaking.