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Poll: Your yard!
My husband and I just bought our first home on .37 acres. We are in love with the backyard. It is completely fenced, lined with tress, landscaping, and a separate fenced off area for a garden. We have lots to learn but we are up for the challenge.
I wanted to do a quick poll about about care and maitenence of the yard. I will be honest in that I'm a little worried about how long of of this new "yard stuff" is going to take. I recognize that everyone's situation is different because different lawn features require different maitenence, but I thought this would be interesting!
1) What state do you live in?
2) How many acres do you own?
3) What are your land like / what are you "lawn features"? (vegetable garden, flowerbeds, pond, etc.)
4) About how many hours a week do you spend on maintenance during the summer? During the winter?
5) Any general advice?
Re: Poll: Your yard!
2. ~1/10 of an acre
3. dramatic slopes in backyard & first few feet of front yard. Vegetable garden, herb garden, 3 trees, patio, foundation planting, cottage-esque perennial borders and just a tiny bit of lawn.
4. Maybe one hour in the summer? That's mostly mowing (which doesn't take long with a reel mower as we've eliminated most of our lawn) and weeding. Some weekends, though, we do big projects (trimming hedges, deadheading, etc.) and that can be several hours. In the winter, we don't do anything. In the fall, there is a lot of time raking and cleaning up the garden/flower beds.
5. Find a great local nursery (not Home Depot or Lowes) that has qualified people to answer your questions about plants.
1. PA
2. .6
3. Steep slope in the front yard. We've had it landscaped to add a retaining wall, plants/shrubs/trees, and a small lawn on the only flat bit we have. It's still a work in progress as I slowly fill in the bare spots with whatever strikes my fancy. The back yard is a small grassed in area, and the majority of it is forested. We have a raised bed garden in the pathway between the front yard and back, with great southern exposure
4. An hour or 2 a week during the summer, mostly weeding. I do absolutely nothing in the winter.
5. Don't be afraid to try something. Most plants are cheap, and if it doesn't work out, you learned something.
Our little Irish rose came to us on March 5, 2010
Don't drink the water.
Disclaimer: I am not an MD. Please don't PM me with pregnancy-related questions. Ask your doctor.
1) What state do you live in?
CA
2) How many acres do you own?
1/10 acre
3) What are your land like / what are you "lawn features"? (vegetable garden, flowerbeds, pond, etc.)
No lawn. We have a small veggie garden, small water container garden (no fish), and the rest is flower gardens. We're on a very flat lot. We have a small front yard (maybe 15 ft. in front of the house), and a nice-sized back yard for our neighborhood.
4) About how many hours a week do you spend on maintenance during the summer? During the winter?
Added together, we probably spend less than 10 hours a week out there year round? But we have a lot of self-sufficient perennials and fruits now.
5) Any general advice?
I have no advice on caring for grass, so I probably can't help much with a lawn. For the flower gardens, stay on top of the weeds. And plant for your zone and the amount of rainfall you usually get. I try to fight nature as little as possible.
I enjoy not just the garden, but all of the birds, beneficial insects and frogs it brings. Think about the animals when you're doing things in your yard. Install a birdhouse, some feeders, and maybe a birdbath if you can take care of it, and don't spray chemical cocktails all over everything.
1. Indiana
2. Less than .25
3. We have a vegetable garden, three flower gardens, three shade trees and two flowering trees. We have several bushes. We also have a bunch of dried up dead looking grass, and plenty of weeds. Currently, it's all covered in snow.
4. Since it didn't rain much this summer, DH barely had to mow. We spent a couple weekends ripping weeds out of the beds and covering them with mulch. We don't go outside during the winter except to shovel the snow.
5. General advice: Know your climate, and start small. Don't go nuts planting a bunch of stuff when you are still learning what you can and cannot handle. Try out several different species of plants and see which ones thrive. Be sure to look up your agricultural zone and learn about the types of plants you like before you start planting.
Also, water features are gross, especially if you live in an area with mosquitoes. Any standing water turns into breeding grounds.
1) What state do you live in?
1) What state do you live in?
VA
2) How many acres do you own?
1/10 or under
3) What are your land like / what are you "lawn features"? (vegetable garden, flowerbeds, pond, etc.)
Formal sheared Boxwood hedge in front with Yucca corner accent. Tightly cropped English Ivy lawn. Steps ascend to covered open porch. Deck in back, step down to very small, complex, and well defined garden with rare ornamental trees, flowering shrubs, and hardy tropicals, surrounded by 6' wood privacy panel fence, painted matte Oxford brown. Many grade changes, stone retaining walls surround entire garden, curving walkways with steps converve at the center to a sunken planter with a giant Colocasia and striped Ginger lilies. All retaining walls are seat walls, with wide capstone. String lanterns hang overhead, and there is one massive wood windchime.
Birds love my yard but my dog liked it better when it was simple and flat.
4) About how many hours a week do you spend on maintenance during the summer? During the winter?
Maybe one or 1.5, mostly weeding and cutting here and there.
5) Any general advice?
Feel your soil, and get to know your roots.
1. TN
2. 1/3 acre
our yard is a slope but back yard is pretty flat, side yards slope, front yard flat. backyard is fenced with 6 sq.ft gardens, 2 in ground veggies and a huge playscape. Front yard is over-lanscaped with 2 rows in front of the house of bushes and a hedge row along the sidewalk. I have flower beds by the front steps and window boxes on the porch.
4. anytime my kids are outside. I play in the garden. I have a lawn service.
5. Put aside about 3 weekends a year for heavy yard work.
1) What state do you live in? VA
2) How many acres do you own? 0.87 acres (but not all is usable)
3) What are your land like / what are you "lawn features"? (vegetable garden, flowerbeds, pond, etc.) The front yard is very sloped and covered with grass. I have 2 small perennial beds at the end of the driveway and 3 large beds in front of the house. In back, we have one long series of raised beds along the fence line that alternates between dwarf fruit trees and flowers and vegetable plans. I have another raised bed next to our shed that I use for a vegetable garden. I have a large bed going down a slope next to the house and another bed in the middle of the yard with a bird feeder. The back is fenced in and filled with grass and trees. Our property line extends beyond the fence though and there is a small creek that runs along the back. We can't do anything in that area because it is protected.
4) About how many hours a week do you spend on maintenance during the summer? During the winter? In the spring, I spend a lot of time weeding and planting. Throughout the summer, we mow every other week. It take about 1.5 hours to mow and another hour or so to weed whack, but we don't do that every time. Other maintenance is probably about an hour every other week - watering, picking and weeding. In Fall, we probably spend 2 weekends trying to gather up as many leaves as possible. I also spend a day planting bulbs and weeding. In winter, we don't really do anything. (Unless shoveling snow for the drive and sidewalk count.)
5) Any general advice? If you just bought the house, I would give it a year to watch and see what comes up. We were suprised our first spring in the house when tons of lillies bloomed. Then later in the summer we realized that there were other things blooming in unexpected places. Once you have a good idea what is there, you can make decisions about what you want to change and what you want to leave alone. I made the mistake of ripping up a lot of bulbs accidentally because I wasn't expecting anything to be planted where I was digging.
My Blog
1) WI
2) Just under 3 acres but most of that is woods or the ponds. The actual mowed area is...I don't know maybe 1/2 acre.
3) We have two "yards." The front, back, and side yard around the house and a lower yard on the corner of our property which has multiple raised flower & veggie beds, a trail through the woods, and flowering shrubs & trees in a small yard. The lower yard is sheltered from the street by a row of shrubs and we plan to add a small trail so we can add a bench under the huge willow tree that overlooks the pond.
The main yard has a tiered rock wall flower bed, flagstone path, and brick edged flowerbeds along the house (mostly filled with just dwarf conifers right now). (See my blog for pictures.) The side yard is steep and has a big flower bed that I hope to turn into a fernery since it gets so little light. The backyard has a patio and separate fenced in area for the dog.
4) We have a riding lawn mower and it takes only 30 min to mow the main yard and 1 hour to mow both the main and lower yard (which we only do every couple mows). I spent most of my time outside last year planting things and only a few hours a week maintaining things. I purposely try to buy lower maintenance plants that perennial and relatively drought tolerant. I also use a lot of mulch to help make weeding easier. Weed early and often. I like to take a small bucket and pull weeds as I see them when I take the dog out after work. In the fall I cut back some plants but others I just leave because I'm lazy. We started a leaf mold pile this year which will be great nutrition for my plants and gives us a way to get rid of all the leaves we have. We have a lawn sweeper that we pull behind the riding lawn mower to pick up most of them. In the winter I don't do anything because it's all under snow.
1) What state do you live in? MI
2) How many acres do you own? .5
3) What are your land like / what are you "lawn features"? (vegetable garden, flowerbeds, pond, etc.) We have a fenced in back yard with a privacy fence and hot tub. We don't have too much landscaping done yet. We have only owned it for a year and a half and have been dumping out money into the inside.
4) About how many hours a week do you spend on maintenance during the summer? H does all the lawn mowing.. so maybe an hour a week During the winter? H does all the plowing but it doesn't take him long at all because we have a plow on the tractor
5) Any general advice? Riding mowers are your friends.
Our last house was on a hilly wooded acre. It was an absolute nightmare I wouldn't wish on anyone except a retiree with stock in Scott's yard products. It constantly wanted to revert to woods with weird underbrushy things popping up everywhere, mowing the steep front hill took DH 4 hours, and the land didn't drain right. In the summer, you'd literally spend every Saturday all day out there and you still couldn't make it do right.
Now we have a little courtyard with just a couple beds where I've put in no maintenance plants. Love it.
Your area shouldn't take much time at all, provided you put in the right plants. Be smart and choose your plants well. Read the tags! So many people are so dumb and plant a tree that gets 40' tall and 20' wide at their front door because it's cute in its current size. Well if you wanna prune the stupid thing weekly, sure. Otherwise, choose the right plants to start with.
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The Googlesites Paint Bio
Thinking of doing cosmetic updates to a dated home? These were our costs.
1) What state do you live in? PA
2) How many acres do you own? A little less than 1/4 acre (our lot is irregular, more triangular shaped)
3) What are your land like / what are you "lawn features"? (vegetable garden, flowerbeds, pond, etc.) We just have flowerbeds, with 1 rock wall and another to be put in this spring. Our patio is also pavers.
4) About how many hours a week do you spend on maintenance during the summer? During the winter? During the winter, 0 hours. lol Spring, summer, and fall, not sure of an estimate but it's just constant work. I'm always weeding and watering. Mulching is just in the spring, it usually takes us one long afternoon to do, and in the fall is when I divide plants and dig up old stuff and cut everything down. That is also one really long day or 2 half days. Lawn maintenance is a whole other thing...
5) Any general advice? Dont expect perfection the first year. The first summer in our house we tore out everything and we still have 1 flowerbed left to plant yet 8 years later. It's constantly changing, you're always adding and removing things, etc. Also get a good set of lawn/garden tools.
I will say that gardening is one of the most rewarding hobbies that I picked up when we bought our house though. Hearing everyone rave about how great it looks is just so awesome!
1) What state do you live in? Colorado
2) How many acres do you own? a little over 1/3, and 90% is behind our house
3) What are your land like / what are you "lawn features"? (vegetable garden, flowerbeds, pond, etc.)
front = dismal. Hoping to re-do it completely this year. (It's small)
back - 5000+ sq feet yard (in bad shape), which is ringed by a hill/raised area with apple trees, plum trees, my veggie garden area. We still need to clear out brush for the last 25 feet or so in the back because it's overgrown & not usable right now.
4) About how many hours a week do you spend on maintenance during the summer? During the winter?
Last year - almost nothing once I got the veggies planted. My only goal was to keep my tomatoes & peppers alive, and we had tons of them. Between a newborn & back problems, I put everything else off.
This year I plan on getting out there at least 2-3 hours a week. My goal is to get our front landscaped, another good veggie garden in the back, and the lawn back to healthy. I'm also going to push my boys into helping clear out the brush in the very back.
5) Any general advice?
Have fun with it. Talk to some local gardeners (my nursery has free classes which are great) and then don't worry too much about it.
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