Post by treedimensional on Apr 21, 2014 9:48:57 GMT -5
This morning, I was upstairs, looking out the window at my garden below. It's such a small space, but I try to fill every available nook with plants. I like it crowded with exciting textures and colors. Then, I look at what lies beyond my fence. Because we're rowhouses, small and close together, I can also see my immediate neighbors yards in their entirety. Aside from the Funneighbor's place, a couple doors away, of which I can see only a bit, most have a only one or two unattended shrubs. No effort goes toward maintenance, let alone design. Then I observed the birds. A pair flew into my garden at high speed and took cover in the trees and shrubs. They darted here and there, coming into and out of view. Then, they flew over to the Funneighbor's.
It is very clear where the birds prefer to be! Why, then, do people want to live in such barren, sun-bleached back yards, with no trees, no shrubs, no nothing? WHY? ?
Post by Laura Palmer on Apr 21, 2014 10:15:08 GMT -5
I'm guilty of this. WEEDS! I hate going in my yard because the damn weeds are so out of control. I just do not have time to manage all of that, what I want to do indoors, and do what other non-H&G things I want to do.
Post by simpsongal on Apr 21, 2014 10:49:39 GMT -5
Our yard is like a park - I love it! Big thanks goes to the avid gardener who owned this home for 40+ years. We had a fox the other day and always tons of birds. We have a huge yoshino cherry tree in peak bloom. The cascade of blossoms made a spectacular backdrop to my Easter dinner (we had robins in the branches visiting the windows too). I can't wait to harvest pounds of fresh produce from our garden.
But all this beauty is a lot of work, and we spent $2000 on landscaping this year (all DIY). Most neighbors don't even cut their own lawns, so I'm not surprised that they don't do much to improve their landscaping.
Well I am removing an oddly shaped flower bed for more grass, but we're putting in a swingset and a smaller bed somewhere else.
But curb appeal/landscaping goes a long way for a house. We just got new neighbors around the corner and the previous older couple did NOTHING but have the grass cut. Just them ripping out all the overgrowth and dead shrubs makes things look 100x better.
I think people think it's more work than it is. Our front flower beds are fairly low maintenance and don't even require much weeding.
Post by mrs.jacinthe on Apr 21, 2014 11:18:59 GMT -5
In my case, it's allergies. I can't spend more than 1/2 hour working on the yard without feeling crappy for DAYS. So I don't. And the yard suffers. R only has so much time and to be honest, he's not so great at yard-tending either. It doesn't help that the plants we DO have that attract birds and bees are major fodder for the deer and we can't figure out how to stop them (our poor rosebushes ... SOB).
That said, our home has some really nice, well-established plants and we're working on a long-term low-maintenance redo plan. However, it's going to be piecemeal and the yard's just going to look like crap for a while.
Post by texassmith on Apr 21, 2014 11:36:45 GMT -5
Just like anything else, some people love it, and some people don't. We are in the latter category. I love making the inside of our house a home, but I just don't care for landscaping, yardwork, etc. Once we move into the new house in a few weeks, DH will cut the grass and we will pay landscapers for simple, seasonal color.
DH hates working in the yard. I tolerate the maintenance stuff like mowing but love the "puttering" aspects of it.
Our goal for this year is to start upping the biodiversity factor in our front yard. The previous owners went low maintenance and we basically have grass and hostas in the front so I am working on a plan to move some of the hostas to the north side of the house and add more butterfly friendly and night blooming plants and/or perennials to the mix.
I love working on our yard and beds, but it's expensive and hard work and intimidating when you don't know what to put where. We spent all summer last summer moving rocks, restoring topsoils, planting, pruning, planting, weeding, moving more rocks, planting, pruning, planting, weeding, etc etc etc.
This spring, I'm not sure what to do next. I'm unsure what components we are missing, how we can work with our tiny space etc - so it's intimidating and daunting to the beginner.
Like I said, I love it and I love the hummingbirds that visit our garden and I love finding creatures in there that my kids want to explore. but it is a huge investment of time and money and sweat.
Around here I usually assume it's lack of $$ and creativity. We don't see many people out in their yards. If anything it's crappy kid toys or dog stuff.
We don't have the money for much either, but I've bought the tiniest plants and waited for them to grow and to be able to divide. It's taking y.e.a.r.s. to get beds planted up. If someone is planning to be out in 5 years it would never be worth it.
Money and lack of know how. I have 3/4 acre of lawn weve been desperately trying to fill. If you want to give me tips on how to make it a relaxing oasis on the cheap I'm all ears!
I know I'm preaching to the choir and hopefully treedimensional will agree, but seriously, call a landscaper or local good garden center and have them draw you up plans for low maintenance beds. Seriously, DH trims the bushes in the front once a year and they are good to go. We've done a lot of work inside and out to our house, but the front landscaping has been a huge change.
Post by emoflamingo on Apr 21, 2014 12:10:15 GMT -5
For me, I have no time (my weekends are usually full of errands and events), I'm allergic to grass (so I get super itchy when I sit in freshly cut grass), trying to get 2 kids to behave nearby when I'm working on yard stuff is impossible. I'm also poor (like literally, we're paying off hospital bills slowly, plus other things that come up, as fast as we can to free up monthly income), so we can't just pay someone to clean it out and start over.
I want to have it look nice, but I'm finding it hard to maintain what was left for us.
TreeD, have you posted a pic of your garden? I want to see it
I have, probably without saying it was my garden. This is my teeny tiny backyard.
Tell me about the planters on your fence- I wanted to do something similar, but I was unsure whether watering them would damage the fencing over time. Is that a silly fear? I realize the fence is designed to withstand the rain, but we are pretty dry out here and I wouldn't want to have area on my fence that have deteriorated well before the rest of the fence if that makes sense?
Post by treedimensional on Apr 21, 2014 14:51:27 GMT -5
ktzmoh, I must admit that water damage to my fence from the trough planter has never crossed my mind! The last fence rotted from the bottom up, because the bottom was always the wet part. The area around the planter doesn't get very wet, and it doesn't stay wet. To fill the haystack planter, I buy new "cocoa shell" liners each year (some people re-use them for two years). The liners are VERY porous and dry out in a few hours, so everything in them dies if you don't water 2x a day. I cheat- I put a layer of plastic inside them, with a couple of holes to drain. That way I can keep things alive without being there every day.
treedimensional can I ask a slightly unrelated question about your fencing? I'm also in a city/row home setting, and the fences are directly on the property lines. The chain link fence I inheirited with the house is well past its prime. Did you just talk to your neighbors and make sure they didn't care about you having the fence replaced? Is there shared property line ettiquette that I don't know about?
I didn't confer with the neighbors. I just built my fence inside the existing chain link fence. I lost a couple of inches of property... meh. Totally worth it to have a 6' tall barrier. The neighbors on either side have no trees, no shrubs, nothing but weeds and dirt. One of them only mows when the city threatens her with a fine. Building my fence has greatly reduced the weeds blowing in every year.
EDIT: actually, I think I did have a fence conversation prior to building. It's been a long time ago. I'm sure the response was pretty much NO, you can not remove the chain link fence even if you install a much more expensive one and pay for 100% of the work.
ktzmoh, I must admit that water damage to my fence from the trough planter has never crossed my mind! The last fence rotted from the bottom up, because the bottom was always the wet part. The area around the planter doesn't get very wet, and it doesn't stay wet. To fill the haystack planter, I buy new "cocoa shell" liners each year (some people re-use them for two years). The liners are VERY porous and dry out in a few hours, so everything in them dies if you don't water 2x a day. I cheat- I put a layer of plastic inside them, with a couple of holes to drain. That way I can keep things alive without being there every day.
That's an excellent idea! I have a couple of hanging baskets lined with that stuff and I've struggled to keep plants alive in them. I was going to replant them this weekend actually (because they are dead again), I'll be sure to try this out! Thanks!
We are in the process of figuring out how to deal with a fence directly on top of a retaining wall that needs to be replaced urgently. It's a headache because my neighbor wants to DIY it, but he's got concrete on his side of the wall so it'll need to be attached to the retaining wall directly and I'm afraid of damaging it. If I could just build another one on our side like you did, I would definitely do that without asking the neighbors.
treedimensional can I ask a slightly unrelated question about your fencing? I'm also in a city/row home setting, and the fences are directly on the property lines. The chain link fence I inheirited with the house is well past its prime. Did you just talk to your neighbors and make sure they didn't care about you having the fence replaced? Is there shared property line ettiquette that I don't know about?
I didn't confer with the neighbors. I just built my fence inside the existing chain link fence. I lost a couple of inches of property... meh. Totally worth it to have a 6' tall barrier. The neighbors on either side have no trees, no shrubs, nothing but weeds and dirt. One of them only mows when the city threatens her with a fine. Building my fence has greatly reduced the weeds blowing in every year.
EDIT: actually, I think I did have a fence conversation prior to building. It's been a long time ago. I'm sure the response was pretty much NO, you can not remove the chain link fence even if you install a much more expensive one and pay for 100% of the work.
That is weird that they didn't want you remove the chain link. Man I hate chain link. Our back fence is a 4ft aluminum fence (made to look like wrought iron). I was thinking of planting a privacy hedge back there because I felt bad building a fence right next to it, but maybe you will give me courage.
Post by mandiespharm on Apr 21, 2014 19:55:51 GMT -5
treedimensional I love your gardens! We are working on getting our cleaned up from the last owners. The garden has been rota-tilled and compost mixed in and the first load of mulch has been delivered. AND the best part - we have a yard again. The apple tree branches are no longer in piles in the yard. Instead they are gone or in piles along the edge of the yard. Pics to come tomorrow when the sun is shining.
I didn't confer with the neighbors. I just built my fence inside the existing chain link fence. I lost a couple of inches of property... meh. Totally worth it to have a 6' tall barrier. The neighbors on either side have no trees, no shrubs, nothing but weeds and dirt. One of them only mows when the city threatens her with a fine. Building my fence has greatly reduced the weeds blowing in every year.
EDIT: actually, I think I did have a fence conversation prior to building. It's been a long time ago. I'm sure the response was pretty much NO, you can not remove the chain link fence even if you install a much more expensive one and pay for 100% of the work.
That is weird that they didn't want you remove the chain link. Man I hate chain link. Our back fence is a 4ft aluminum fence (made to look like wrought iron). I was thinking of planting a privacy hedge back there because I felt bad building a fence right next to it, but maybe you will give me courage.
That neighbor is a spiteful shit-stirrer. Me and the Funneighbors started an alley beautification project and planted flowers just outside her fence in the alley (with her permission). When someone called the city to complain about her knee-high weeds, she assumed it was one of us, so she had her handyman mow down the whole flowerbed as well, to spite us (or piss us off). Well I don't really care, it will save me time and water, but Ms. Funneighbor was upset.
I was driving through my neighborhood which is 20-27 years old, past some houses where nothing has been done to the back yard. The houses are well maintained and most have front landscaping- but nothing outback- just a set of temporary wooden steps off their back door.
I do the minimum to keep the front of my house presentable in the context of my neighbors. I have two single women (a middle aged mom with 2 busy sons and a very elderly lady) on either side who barely maintain what the house came with. Then I have a couple perfectionists on the corners. Both DHs do a lot of the work and seem to enjoy/take pride in it. The one couple has all the topsoil removed and fresh sod put down every couple years on the side yard where the dogs do their business. I have a master gardener who hires out her heavy work and fusses in her yard daily. She has something in bloom about 10 months out of the year.
My DH doesn't enjoy yard work- his leisure time is spent reading. DS isn't much of a fan either though he'll take direction if I ask.
Post by demandypants on Apr 22, 2014 7:18:02 GMT -5
I have some different issues, about an acre, most of it in the back. Lots of trees but more "lawn" than I would like. It is overwhelming to start! We don't have to mow often. And we don't water, fertilize or weed the lawn. It is free-range. So far we have taken out a bunch of old mostly dead yews and planted a couple hydrangia, hostas, a rhodie that didn't survive the winter and an eastern redbud tree. barely makes a dent! I think I am on the 30 year plan towards the perfect garden to enjoy into retirement.