anyone else whose backyard is not magazine-perfect? - Page 2

[Teensy]

Ours.

It's not horrid looking, and in some neighborhoods might look okay, but two of our closest neighbors have pristine yards and we pale by comparison (one neighbor is retired and spends about 30 hours a week working on his yard; the other neighbor owns a hotel and sends the gardeners from the hotel to care for their yard also).

Our grass is green and lush, but needs to be cut. Our beds are full of weeds. The edges all need trimming. The shrunds are way overgrown. We have a wooden playset in the backyard that looks okay from the street, but up close you realize it needs sanding and refinishing, two boards have come out, and is full of leaves, spiders and bits of detritus.

I love the idea of a nice yard, but I loathe actual yardwork so until I win the lottery and hire a service, I'll have to just keep dreaming.

[staceychev]

Nope, not magazine perfect at all. I'm trying my hand at "jungle gardening" this year in the raised beds, including some volunteer black-eyed susans that migrated from the front yard. The swing set is old (came with the house) and the fence needs painting. There's probably not much real grass, but there's a lot of clover, and even that doesn't grow much under the maple tree near the house. Add to that a very functional deck that gives splinters to barefoot kids.

Nope, it's not magazine perfect. But, it is picture perfect for a five-year old's birthday tea party last weekend.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...chev/yard3.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...chev/yard2.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...chev/yard1.jpg

[EFmom]

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree

In the fall, it was quite amusing - I thought they must have alarms wired to their yards - to let them know when a stray leaf fell, so that they could grab it as soon as it hit the grass .

There's a reason they're called leaves...

[Ruthla]

Hello, my name is Ruth and I have an imperfect backyard.

[HeatherAtHome]

Love the pics!

I was going to add that to make matters worse, we have a reel mower. It works fine in the front yard where the NICE grass grows but the backyard is a little bit wild and has some odd weeds, big dandelion leaves and tall skinny bits of grass (really, it's like hay) that aren't cut with the mower. Really, it just won't cut those random bits so out backyard ends up looking like a plucked chicken. Mostly clean but the odd 'feather' sticking up. And yes, our neighbours are retired and spend so much time on their lawn. But we live in the country surrounded by woods and fields so it's forgivable, I just feel guilty like they're watching from their house shaking their heads over us 'hippies' with the reel mower.

[staceychev]

That's funny, Heather. We looked into buying a reel mower, but everything I read said that it didn't work well with "weeds" so we decided on an electric! My grass is anything but...

[EFmom]

Originally Posted by HeatherAtHome

Really, it just won't cut those random bits so out backyard ends up looking like a plucked chicken.

We've also got the reel mower and the plucked chicken (OK, the randomly defeathered chicken) look, too, and we are in the heart of suburbia. Since we are the only family in the neighborhood that don't Chemlawn, I'm sure the neighbors love us.

[taubel]

We live in a wealthy suburban area (in a tiny, dated house) with a beautiful yard, by our standards. But of course it looks NOTHING like the perfect yards of our neighbor's! We actually have clover, dandelions, and all sorts of weeds growing.

We use a reel mower. And we have signs on our lawn that say, "No pesticides. We love our family and the environment more than our lawn."

Most of the neighbors don't seem to mind us, but I'm sure others hate our lawn!

At least our kids aren't playing in chemicals!

[JessicaS]

My yard certainly is not magazine perfect.


We have a big pile of branches we need to burn/mulch and my veggie garden isn't very pretty

[stormborn]

Ours looks like crap. The only way it will ever look great is to keep the kids off of it so stuff can grow back, so only 16 more years to go!

I'm sure the neighbors really cluck because dh does lawn care for a living....just not here.

[SubliminalDarkness]

My yard is hideous. The backyard is HUGE for starters. There's holes in it from the owners' dog(we rent). The grass is patchy and mostly weeds. There's no landscaping in the back at all.

The front isn't much better. It's sloped. Same patchy/weedy grass situation. There's some landscaping, but it's really blah and we don't do much to maintain it.

For one thing, I don't like the idea of watering grass or using chemicals on grass. For what? Aesthetics only? Doesn't strike me as environmentally friendly at all. And we rent, so why do I want to invest time and money into improving the homeowner's property? He clearly didn't care much for it when he was living in the home. He once 'suggested' that I get TruGreen service for the front yard. Um, you didn't have it. It's your house. You want the grass green, set it up and pay for it.

Anyway. So yea. Our yard serves it's purpose, and that's enough for me.

[rere]

I've got one of those grass loving neighbors and I put down clover seed in my yard so yeah...