I live in a neighborhood where the houses are on 1-1.5 acre lots.
We're not too close together, but still we can see our neighbors.
When we came here, we noticed nobody had fences. For dogs people use invisible fencing-
So everyone's yard runs into everyone elses' yard......your view is as far as the eye can go-
And when you're new to a neighborhood, you want to fit in- you want to respect what was there before you, so you try to do what the rest do.
I kept a really UGLY apple tree in my yard for the first 5 years because the retired man behind me told me it was the only one left and that this whole neighborhood used to be nothing but apple orchards-
Finally I had to remove it because i was afraid it would fall on the house-
Anyway, I have really nice neighbors-
The couple next door to me are our age with two kids- one just started college this year, and his daughter is my daughter's age.
Tim and Patty have always been friendly to us, and although we don't socialize much with them, they've been unobstrusive neighbors....
But there is one thing (isn't there always?) that makes me a little bit nuts-
They're completely anal about their yard-
By that I mean they were outside last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the entire days raking and edging and cleaning out all of their beds. They re-mulched EVERYTHING!!!!
It looks PERFECT!!!!
Do you know how hard it is to keep up with that???
I watch them and get exhausted!
There's not a dandilion on their grass, compared with my lawn, that seems to have been taken over by the blasted things!!!
Tim mows his lawn so that there's a DESIGN in it!!!
I'm not kidding-
Round and round he goes- every single blade perfect.
My husband opened the shed doors on Monday, telling me he's thinking about cutting the grass this week....
So here I am, 4/24, looking at their perfect grass and perfect beds and comparing them to my own, which are SORELY in need of some TLC, and thinking........how the hell am i gonna get my yard into shape this weekend????
Meantime, I guarantee he'll be outside Saturday at 6am re-sealing his deck. He does this like clockwork every year, the weekend after he does the initial yard work...
And then the weekend after that, he'll be out with his ladder, touching up all of the paint on his shutters....(whether they need it or not)-
By then all of his perennials will begin the dance of blooming- which they do until fall....he's got it all planned so that things bloom one after the other all season long.
Ok, i'll admit that having them as neighbors does motivate me to keep up our outside-
but does he have to make it look so good???? Gosh he puts us to SHAME!!!!
