Some of my pet peeves. People who devalue property because they haven’t a clue about landscaping.

A new owner next door removed the brick border (professionally installed by the previous owner) around her planting beds – they were flush with ground level – and she just sets the bricks on the ground as a border, and moves them around occassionally. ????? I don’t understand it, but it looks messy and awful. Remaining bricks sit atop a plastic storage cabinet in full view of their yard.

I don’t mind mulch, but mine is confined within borders, and it’s definitely not a focal point. My neighbor uses mulch, but in most areas doesn’t use borders, and mulch is all over the place. Eyesore.

Neighbors yard is a pink nightmare. Pink flowers…all containers and hanging baskets are pink, pink, pink. Its overkill, but add to that, their daughter is dressed in pink barrettes, pink shoes, pink socks, pink pants, pink shirt and pink handbag. Daughters bedroom walls are striped in pink, and I’ve seen them shake a bedroom rug outside, and guess what, it’s pink. It’s a pink nightmare. Queen of faux pas and cliches.

Or, how about this. How about copycat neighbors? We plant a purple shrub next to our garage, they do the same. We install complimentary underplantings, they do the same and with the same selections, we install a lannonstone walkway, they do the same (all of this within a week of our doing it). It goes on and on, and it’s beyond flattery, it’s WEIRD (we stopped counting when we reached 100). I pride myself on having my yard different than everyone elses, and my own ideas, so when we are consistently copied by someone who lives directly next door, it’s extremely irritating, but I change things out annually because it makes it harder for them to keep up. I knew that last year they’d have hydrangeas, this year they’ll have elephant ears and rhododendrons, it’s like clockwork. What I do one year, they do the next if not within a weeks time, it happens eventually.

After our lannonstone walkway, they wanted to tear out their entire walkway in the front of their house, which looks brand new by the way, and install a lannonstone walkway. Their entire house is lannonstone, that would be overkill!!! They ended up emulating the walkway off their patio in the back yard, similar to ours. I get conical hanging baskets, they get conical hanging baskets. So, I guess the point I’m gettng at is, there’s nothing wrong with admiring someone’s home or landscaping, and building on ideas, but don’t copy EVERYTHING everyone else has or does, otherwise you may as well live in a cookie cutter neighborhood where all the homes are the same. The same neighbor who tore out a beautiful lilac shrub at 10:00 pm, which offered both properties privacy, to make room for more seating for a party the next day. A couple months later, another shrub, immature small speciment that will not reach the fence height for many years to come, was put in its place. What are you thinking???? Hire a landscape professional if you don’t know what you are doing!!!

Urns next to the city walkway. Neighbors did this too, and it looks terrible, “homemade” as someone in the neighborhood called it. If you are going to place urns as a focal point, know how to place them or don’t place them at all.

Multiple shepards hooks in the front yard (at least three of them) with lanterns and what-not hanging on them. Very tacky.

Plastic waterfall right next to where you sit. Isn’t a fountain supposed to be a view from a patio, a focal point, not on top of it?

Multiple pieces of plastic storage in the yard, unhidden. Ugly.

Mulching, with wood chips, the back of a yard that is less than 1/8 acre, as a playground, with a large wooden swingset and all. Every vistor here comments on the ill appearance. There is a public playground, literally, around the corner.

And for me, I know that many people differ from this, but I just don’t think that ornamental grasses belong in the residential landscape. Ever. I think they look great in front of commercial businesses, or on a city way, but not in residential landscapes. No offense to those who have it, just my personal taste.

I also dislike fountains in a front yard UNLESS you don’t have a back yard, or if perhaps you are in the country. In the city, on small lots, it’s tacky. Especially when it’s plastic and cheap looking, it does nothing for the value of your home.

I dislike anything in the garden that is painted in unnnatural colours. All those little coloured statues and wind blowing things all over the place make it look like a trailer park. (No offence to tasteful gardeners in trailer parks).

I like landscape fabric for certain areas, not in the garden. I have an overgrown weed filled ditch that I am thinking about covering with landscape fabric topped with old straw/hay/cut grass.

I dislike manicured lawns. Why have grass at all. The horrible stuff has no practical value at all. Why not put in paths and trees and gardens. If you do it right with lots of mulch they are really less work than a perfect lawn. Lawns need a lot of water and chemicals to look nice, not to mention time spent in cutting and edging.