QUESTIONS (and please add any add'l commentary you feel would be helpful):
1) What is the geography like there? Which areas are prettiest (i.e., where I live it's very hilly with amazing views but rocky soil & deer, but on the opposite side of the city (Austin) it's flat farmland.)

A few miles north of Bloomington, it starts to become hilly. The hills encompass Bloomington and spread to the south. It was a naturally forested area that has, in many spots, been deforested for farming. There are small lakes around the area. The small town names include Gnaw Bone and Bean Blossom. You would probably want to look for homes to the east of Bloomington in Brown County. It's the hilliest and has both the Hoosier National Forest and Brown County State Park.

To the south, there's Lake Monroe near Bedford.

2) Which area is best to locate for good country living (including good soils/gardening conditions), with development fairly close (not an hour away) but minimal encroachment (our current country neighborhood has been fully developed the past 5 yrs - subdivisions coming in). By which area, I mean, which towns/geographic location - NE/SW, etc.

3) What are gardening conditions like there? Here I'd say the hazards are drought, heat, deer & limestone/calicche soil. We don't have jap beetles.

You'll have heat and mild/moderate drought over the summer. When we say heat, we mean 95 max with typical highs in the 80s. It's often a humid heat. Deer can be a problem. The soil tends to be alkaline clay. Japanese beetles can be a problem, but they haven't been a problem this year.

4) What is the overall feel of the area/city (including Bloomington)? We live around Austin & I'd say it has a good mix - artists/hippies and high tech/yuppies. Very outdoorsy/environmentally conscious.

Bloomington itself has a mix of university people and working class/professional townspeople. The university people come from very diverse backgrounds. There's a lot of ethnic, language, and nationality diversity. This diversity of people tends to be valued by the community and there are all kinds of cultural events, restaurants, arts, etc. that reflect this richness.

The arts are highly valued and visible, especially music, because of IU's School of Music. IU attracts travelling Broadway companies, internationally renown musicians, and well-known scholars.

It's easy to find organic and/or vegetarian food and the town, in general, is environmentally conscious. You'll find hippies and yuppies, but few techies.

Nashville (to the east of Bloomington) has more artsy and environmentally conscious people. In fact, it's know for its artists. However, it can be a little tourist-trappy, especially in the summer because of its downtown which is full of stores with folk art, handmade furniture, antiques, etc... If I were choosing a place to live around the Bloomington area, I would find a piece of land to the east of Bloomington on a hill with some woods and at least a patch of sunny space for a garden. I would build a little environmentally friendly house. A chicken coop might be nice, too.

The communities to the north of Bloomington have a lot less diversity and tend to be much less environmentally conscious. In fact, some of them have bad reputations for a lack of tolerance for cultural and language diversity. In all fairness, one town, in particular, has been working with African-American and Hispanic groups from Indianapolis to create a more hospitable environment.

I hope this helps!
Katie

Hi Sarah
I live in Indianapolis but teach at IU in Bloomington. I would agree with Katie about everything she has said, but to add a caveat that Indy is a great town with good shopping, good nurseries, and a wonderful gardeners program at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In addition there are 2 Trader Joes here in town. There is a lot of traffic north and south on SR37 between Indy and bloomington.

I am a transplant from the Pacific NW, and gardening is a whole other world here--the soil is a constant challenge, and we have a temperature span of -15 (often with NO snow cover) to blistering hot. Additionally, the ground freezes and thaws all wintern long. Ezra Haggard has written two brilliant books on Midwest gardening with pictures of REAL gardens.
This is a good place to start.

Good luck--
Barbara

If you are interested in Indianapolis, you might want to check out my neighborhood, Irvington. It's a historical area with a small town feel. The houses are still affordable. You can walk to the library, independent coffee shops, an organic co-op grocery, and independent restaurants. It's about 10 minutes from downtown and an hour from Bloomington. We have a VERY active garden club, annual garden tours, and a farmer's market every month in the summer. It's a racially and socio-economically diverse community where many people are actively involved in planning neighborhood events, including free summer concerts in our parks. People in our neighborhood sit on our front porches in the summer and take many walks through the neighborhoods. My block has occassional neighborhood barbeques. I've lived here for three years and know all of my near neighbors, and many other people on other blocks.

Here are some neighborhood websites:
http://groups.msn.com/IrvingtonGardenClub
http://www.historicirvington.com/
http://society.historicirvington.com/index.htm

Just as a fun thing, watch the movie "Breaking Away." It was filmed in & around Bloomington, IN, in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Nice scene at a lake that was formerly was a limestone quarry.