Gardens with curb appeal are really improving our neighborhood

[awakenedsoul]

For some reason, my whole neighborhood has started to really improve, due to a lot of people revamping their front gardens. We used to have a lot of junk and dirt lots in front of many of these old homes. Now, people have gorgeous lawns, flower beds, roses, trees, etc. It's amazing to see the difference! Everyone is putting time into doing their own landscaping. I'm so glad. It's changed the entire feel of where we live.

Do your neighbors take care of their front yards? How about you? Do you do it yourself or hire someone?

[catherine]

I live in a typical New Jersey suburban neighborhood, and as you would expect, for most of the houses on the street, value is placed on perfect lawns (meaning no weeds, controlled by herbicides) and perfectly manicured green shrubs, and minimal flower plants, probably because this is a bedroom community and most people don't have time to put into gardening--and it's not a neighborhood of such affluence that they would hire someone to do that.

All the houses do have curb appeal, if by that you mean the typical suburban prototype of curb appeal. We have a large number of Asians in our community--many, many Indians, and they take pride in their homes, and while they are adopting Western ways, I keep hoping that they will bring their own culture to their homes in terms of the simple, natural, passed-down ways to garden rather than adopting our ways.

Walking the dog I see that there are very few vegetable gardens, and those that are aren't very big. Oddly, my next door neighbors on both sides happen to have chicken coops, but that's a rarity, and a bit serendipitous for me, because I can trade eggs for herbs and vegetables.

I no longer do the Weed n Feed on my lawn. I've let it go that way, and it's getting pretty heavy on the clover side, which from what I understand is an indicator that the soil needs more nitrogen. Perhaps I'll try some fish emulsion or bone meal on a section and see if that does anything to reduce the clover (which is a nitrogen-fixing plant anyway, so maybe I'll just let it do its thing). But I don't mind the little white clover heads, or the feel of the clover leaves on my bare feet.

We do everything ourselves EXCEPT DH has hired a lawn mowing crew to come once a week. He gets tired mowing the lawn, and honestly, the guys who come in get it ALL done snap snap snap--the cutting, the weed-whacking, the weeds on the sidewalk and patio pavers--all done in like 20 minutes. So it's one of those "life energy" questions--and I'd rather have them do the lawn so I can spend more time in the vegetables, herbs and flowers.

I'm also, from what I can tell, the only one in the neighborhood with a composter and a rain barrel. I'm hoping to start a trend. :)

[CathyA]

We live in the country, way off the road.......so we don't have to keep up any appearances.....and we don't!
We mow the lawn and grow flowers, trees, bushes.........but I'm sure it's not what is considered as having "curb appeal". I've always wondered where the idea came from, on how things need to look to be acceptable.
I like Sara Stein's book "Noah's Garden". She talks about people in suburbia and how they could let the back 10' of their lawn go. If everyone did that, there would be alot of 20' strips of natural woods/weeds all through suburbia.

Anyhow.......back to you question. I'm torn about what our yards should look like. I would like to see instead of large expanses of just plain grass, filled up with trees/bushes/flowers, etc. But that's alot more work than just mowing the heck out of a lawn. I would choose to do things that didn't require gasoline or chemicals.........but lots of people think that's just too much work.
I really feel we need to be more accepting of weeds. You just can't believe how much of the "circle of life" goes on in weeds. Not to be a downer...........but I think we need to change the way we perceive "beauty", and let life happen.

[catherine]

Not to be a downer...........but I think we need to change the way we perceive "beauty", and let life happen.

You're not a downer--I remember our permaculture teacher showed us slides of a community garden that was thriving, but it was a bit scruffy-looking. One of the students--a "garden club" type--commented that it wasn't very pretty. And the teacher said, "Maybe permaculture calls us to see beauty in a different way."

Exactly what you said, Cathy! We are so used to cultivating the heck out of everything that we've lost the authenticity of nature, so that our yards are the equivalents of the plastic faces of aging Hollywood actresses.

[Gardenarian]

My neighbors do have beautiful gardens, and I have learned a lot about gardening from them.

I'm working on getting my landscaping together. My garden has been a hodge-podge of permaculture experiments - some successful, some not - some TOO successful, like the herb garden that got completely out of hand. I've learned a lot, and now I'm working on the esthetics, bringing some symmetry and more color and privacy into my garden, while still sticking to my permaculture roots.

I really do appreciate my neighbors gardens; creating beauty seems to be contagious. Even the guys around the corner who moved in and opened a motorcycle shop planted some big Ceanothus and a fig tree.

[iris lilies]

Most people in my neighborhood are very house proud, but we have tiny gardens and front yards. Still, the plantings are usually pretty nice. All of the yards are very well groomed but grass isn't everywhere and what is there is usually a tiny space that can be groomed with a weed wacker. And then, on top of good grooming, some people have very well landscaped yards.

There are some tiny treasure yards using miniature boxwoods and grasses with a few annuals that are just lovely. It's easy to have a perfectly
manicured yard that makes a big impact when it is tiny.

In the front yard of one of my tiny houses I use ivy as the ground cover, edge it with monkey grass, and put a specimen shrub int he middle, It is low care but looks very nice. At the moment the specimen plant is a pink rose bush, but that is getting disease, so I will probably be moving it out next year.

[Lainey]

Here in Phoenix the front lawn is most likely some kind of small colored rock with a few desert trees or bushes. People still favor grass for their back lawns, mainly for pets and/or kids to play.

It's a look that takes some getting used to, especially if you're not from the SW, but it makes sense for the continuing drought we're in.

My own back yard is also desert rock, and in the last 2 years I've planted 4 desert trees there too for some shade, along with a few bushes. Everything is on irrigation so as to save time and water but even with that my water bills have increased somewhat with the new trees and bushes.

Finally, I'd be interested in the opinion of others on the "lawn ornaments" question - there was a kerfluffle in our HOA a few years ago when they sent out a letter specifying that that these were frowned upon, and gave examples of wagon wheels, animal skulls, large pieces of driftwood, gnomes, etc. In retaliation a number of homes bought pink plastic flamingos and stuck them all over their front lawns for a while - pretty funny! For me, I think these things are kind of whimsical and add some charm to what could otherwise be a pretty bland front yard. What dya think??

[CathyA]

Lainey........I think there's a pretty long continuum of "tasteful". Beauty is in the eye of the taster. haha

I've seen some homes that have tons of little statues, sayings, etc., etc., and I would throw up if I lived next to them.
However, I think a couple small things would be okay. But we all have different ideas of what tasteful is. Down the road, out here in the country, one person has a bigger-than-lifesize cement statue of Venus de Milo in their yard. haha (and it's a messy house and yard).
Who's to say what you can and can't have in your yard? (except for neighborhood associations).

Even though nobody would ever see it, I've been thinking about getting a sign for my shed that says "Frog parking only! All others will be toad".........and I'm afraid it would be too tacky. hahaha

[catherine]

In our town there's another subdivision (not mine, thank God) where one of the homeowners adorned his pathways and driveway with bowling balls. The neighbors HATED it, but had no leg to stand on, until they trapped him by having someone offer him money for one of the bowling balls, which he accepted, violating the zoning laws (residential, not commercial). As a result he had to remove the bowling balls.

He retaliated by lining his driveway and paths with rocking horses. I'm not kidding.

I actually have a smiling Jizo (protector of women, children and travelers) in my front garden. Hopefully it's not seen as too tacky. Of course I don't think so, but we never think our stuff is tacky.

CathyA--lol, love that sign!

[TMC]

In our town there's another subdivision (not mine, thank God) where one of the homeowners adorned his pathways and driveway with bowling balls. The neighbors HATED it, but had no leg to stand on, until they trapped him by having someone offer him money for one of the bowling balls, which he accepted, violating the zoning laws (residential, not commercial). As a result he had to remove the bowling balls.

He retaliated by lining his driveway and paths with rocking horses. I'm not kidding.

I actually have a smiling Jizo (protector of women, children and travelers) in my front garden. Hopefully it's not seen as too tacky. Of course I don't think so, but we never think our stuff is tacky.

CathyA--lol, love that sign!

OMG, I think that's my third cousin....Honest! :laff: And I don't mean he sounds just like my third cousin, I mean that's him.

[catherine]

OMG, I think that's my third cousin....Honest! :laff: And I don't mean he sounds just like my third cousin, I mean that's him.

REALLY??? PM me and tell me what town he lives in... that's hilarious!

[CathyA]

Why do people do those things? I try to understand. But I just can't. I'm thinking of a few homes that I drive by on my way in town to the recycling center. They have their yards stuffed full, of and lined with CRAP.......gnomes, faeries, fake flowers, globes of all sorts, etc.
To each his own, I guess. I'm just glad I don't live next to them. (There's probably some people that would be glad not to live near me too.......front porch filled with lawn mower, recycling, tools, bucket of wood ash, extra 5 gallon buckets, tools, etc., etc. BUT.....they aren't SUPPOSED to look good. hahaha
I'm just glad no one can see me from the road or a neighboring house!

[pinkytoe]

I live in a live and let live neighborhood (and city) where for the most part everyone has their own version of "beauty." I too have some neighbors with bowling ball lined sidewalks and giant buttons hanging from the trees. Another created a moonscape with native grasses, different strata of pebbles that look like rivers, cacti and metal yard goats. She moves the goats around every few days which always provides a laugh. My neighbors on either side are elderly and do the old paradigm green lawn with ball-shaped bushes. I am certain they think my yard looks a little too wild. I keep the front yard tidy but have lots of different zones of plantings - mostly trees and native plants.

[awakenedsoul]

Thanks for all the replies. I like all the gardens around here. They're all very different. We have no association, so you can do your own thing. I covered my Bermuda grass with straw mulch years ago. Now I have all flowers: hollyhocks, sunflowers, begonias, four o'clocks, vinca, iris, lilies, and roses. I've got baskets of miniature petunias hanging in the proch, and geraniums in the window boxes. Along the driveway I have oregano, sage, some kind of tall purple-ish Native American flowers that the birds planted, zucchini, tomatoes, rosemary, and lavender. I also have a lime tree on one side of the house, a tangerine tree in front, and a ruby red grapefruit tree on the other side, along the driveway. You can see a guava tree by the gate that leads into the back orchard. There is a poplar tree and a fruitless mulberry tree that provide shade and shield the house from the sun. (The previous owner planted those.) I love it! It's small, but very pretty and feminine. I keep it all mulched with straw. It reminds me of the cottages in Carmel.

[Selah]

I live in the ugliest, most run-down apartment building I have ever lived in, and we are now the ugliest, most run-down building on our block! All the other buildings on our block have either been updated and retrofitted against bombs and earthquakes, which always includes fancy new refacing and the addition of plush lobbies, elevators, and individual bomb shelter rooms in each apartment, or they've been torn down and built anew. We are in a fabulous location, close to the town center and a block from the sea. But the owners of the apartments in our buildings have been faffing around for more than five years now, arguing about how to get the retrofitting done and to sign an agreement with the contractor to carry out the work.

Our building's "landscaping" includes some dry and lumpy grass, some dirt patches with loads of dog crap, and some tired plastic planters with dead plants and thriving weeds. No one is "allowed" to make any changes, because we have a (very old) man in our building who gets paid a tiny amount of money every month to "tend the yard." He doesn't want anyone to take his gig away, so he is protective of his "job" and other, related, tenants in the building help him protect his turf...literally!

[iris lilies]

About garden tschotkes: we toured many gardens as part of the national conference of the North American Lily Society and the last one we visited had a lot of whimsy, expressed in garden "stuff." There was a large fairy garden that wasn't at all to my taste since it was all commercially produced resin items, and she had a catt garden as well and some other things that were kind of funny. But since her hosta collection was great, and her selections of day lilies amazing, it was easy to ignore the odd-tacky stuff.

[awakenedsoul]

One of my neighbors has her two horses and goat on a nice piece of land across the street. She rents it from an older lady who owns the house above it. It used to be covered with weeds and a few old cars. Now it looks really pretty. The animals graze and keep the land clear, and they add a nice ambiance. The lady took out some of her plants because it was hard for her to care for the yard. (She's a widow and dealing with health issues.) She put in bark and some ceramic animals. She did a really nice job.

[Gardenarian]

I have a gnome :)

[CathyA]

I have a gnome :)


oops. Sorry! But it's probably a very tasteful gnome! :)
I have a faerie, but it's in the back yard!
Are we still friends? ;)

[awakenedsoul]

I have a gnome :)

I love gnomes. They remind me of my travels in Europe. I have a fairy statue in my cottage garden, and a tiny one perched on my potted rosebush.

With the original post, I was just saying I appreciate the work people around here are putting into their yards. I don't expect everyone to have my taste, (and I don't criticize their choices.) It's their yard. They like it, and to me, that's what matters. I've got my own messes to clean.up. (Like my backyard and all of the dog hair in my car!)