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When I lived down on the beach in Garden City, I wanted to convert my fireplace to gas so the gas company came out and put a massive tank beside my house (you can't bury at sea level), I surrounded it with Bougainvillea bushes and voila! Problem solved.
My point is that the gas company will come out and install gas for you.
I don't know of any of my neighbors that had gas anything.
SMXGirl - the tanks she is referring to are the ones I told you I had installed. They are propane, which you mentioned to me that you didn't think you wanted. I have two of the same tanks - one on each side of my house for different uses. The one is for my tankless hot water heater and the other is for my indoor gas fireplace and also I have a gas fire pit out on my back patio area. They are big and ugly tanks, but as blueherons mentioned, easily hidden with proper landscaping, fencing or something similar. You can also get one really giant tank. I went with the 2 because I didn't want to have to run lines across my yard from one side to the other, due in part to cost and in part to the fact that I have a paver patio which would have had to be dug up for the lines. But even the smaller tanks are still pretty big (about 4 ft. tall) and ugly. They look a lot like the propane tanks for a gas grill but much bigger and white as opposed to grey.
As side note, Carolina Wrens love to build nests in the lid part of the tanks, so there were a couple of times that I wouldn't let them fill my tanks because I didn't want them to disturb the nests. Luckily, I had enough gas left to make it through until the sweet little birds fledged.
Also, although she is right about not being able to bury those tanks at sea level, you can bury them if you are just a little above sea level. I live about 1/2 block from the beach and am 19 ft. above sea level and the propane company gave me the option of burying the tank. I chose not to do this for several reasons, won't bore you with why.
Blueherons - how did your Bougainvillea do in this climate? I have never seen Bougainvillea growing outside year round in the MB area and thought that they were only hardy in climate zones 9B and south of that. Did you have a special type of them, or what? I am very curious and also curious about if you had to do anything special for them to survive in the colder temps during our winters here. I would LOVE to have some growing out in my yard year round, so any info about yours would be very much appreciated.
Blueherons - how did your Bougainvillea do in this climate? I have never seen Bougainvillea growing outside year round in the MB area and thought that they were only hardy in climate zones 9B and south of that. Did you have a special type of them, or what? I am very curious and also curious about if you had to do anything special for them to survive in the colder temps during our winters here. I would LOVE to have some growing out in my yard year round, so any info about yours would be very much appreciated.
Vrexy, my bougainvillea did great because the tank and the back of my house acted like a greenhouse in the winter. The sun would heat up the tank and it would keep the bushes very warm and happy. The one on the back of my house grew to about twelve feet. Yes, they grew all year long.
If you drive down through Garden City Beach you'll see a lot of it. My one girlfriend who has a green thumb told me you cannot get it to grow away from the beach in the area but you can get it to grow directly on the water.
BTW, my husband just corrected me and said our fireplace was in fact propane. He said they don't run natural gas lines down to Garden City.
Thanks for your reply. I have and often do drive through Garden City. Almost daily, but have never seen bougainvillea there. I will try to look more closely. I have grown it before, when living in NJ, but always inside there, of course. Have not even tried it here, inside or out. But you've given me hope!
Thanks, everyone, for your replies. I will have to do some research on propane even though it would not be my choice. However, I am sure that it is definitely better than electric. I am looking at communities that have natural gas (or I hope they are natural gas and not propane), but right now we are just in the thinking stages of a move. I want to live near a good beach, have natural gas to cook with in a real cook's kitchen, have a fenced yard for the dogs, nice neighbors, be near the Y, and near Costco. Not asking too much!
Thanks for your reply. I have and often do drive through Garden City. Almost daily, but have never seen bougainvillea there. I will try to look more closely. I have grown it before, when living in NJ, but always inside there, of course. Have not even tried it here, inside or out. But you've given me hope!
Drive all the way down to the marina. It is all over the place, in particular the pink variety.
Drive all the way down to the marina. It is all over the place, in particular the pink variety.
Like I said, I'm in Garden City at least weekly, usually more often. Guess I better open my eyes! Not sure how I've missed seeing the Bougainvillea you are talking about! I will take a better look. Thanks again for sharing your experience and telling me where to look.
There is a very real possibility that we will be moving to the Myrtle Beach/Surfside Beach area within the next year. As I look at homes on Realtor.com and Trulia.com, none have natural gas. I did a search that indicated that Sago Plantation was a natural gas community, but the homes that I saw online had electric.
The Realtor.com listing seems to indicate natural gas heat also. (BTW, the Carillon section is age-restricted to 55+, but DR Horton has other homes in the main section.)
Seabrook Plantation in North Myrtle is a natural gas community. Seville in Grande Dunes also has natural gas available.
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