What Does Your Yard Say About You?

Neighbor with 100% best yard!

Years ago, there were types of neighborhoods. You had your classy type were everyone had perfectly manicured lawns. There was the type where everyone had starter homes and small children with bikes lined up outside.  Then there was the type where empty nesters lived like me. Today, it is as diverse as  ever.  Folks are so busy that you can just imagine a great deal about the inhabitants from the outside. 

Take our neighbors for example, if I might.  I think ours represents a good cross reference of many of yours:

Pool use to be behind house with blue siding

We have the one neighbor who had the kayak pool above ground up for years. It was  in the backyard when we moved here over eleven years ago, about 100 feet behind their house.   It stayed that way till about 3 years ago.  The only thing missing was people swimming in it. It had the white lattice work, a nice deck around and a pathway from the deck off the back of the house leading to it.  I am not sure what was in it or what its’ purpose was. It did lessen the amount of lawn that needed to be cut. When our dog, Charley got free, he was always anxious to pee around it.  It began to look sorta creepy when moss and vegetation grew around it over time and was quite a mystery why someone would leave a large unused pool up in a hot summer in TN.

We never bothered to ask the neighbors about this though. Our only communication with these folks was coincidentally through Scott Bolon. He was visiting from Northern Kentucky and taking our dog for our walk.  As he went up the curb with Charley, our dog apparently peed on one of the trees that lined the side of his long yard. Out of the blue, Scott heard a loud angry voice screaming, “Do not let that dog piss in my yard!”  He looked over his shoulder and it was the man from that house yelling out the door from his deck not very happy with a few expletives thrown in there.  We felt perhaps they were not the type of neighbors that would like us to ask them about their unused pool.

Tree Saying "Help Me"

Then we have the neighbor whose tree fell down a few months back during a storm. He

has made no attempt to pick it up.  He is waiting for the tree fairy to come by and pick it up.  I never knew such a fairy existed. It must be a southern thing. 

Next door to us for years our dearest neighbors have one of those fold down top trailers.  We are not sure they ever used it but Rob tells us he got a heck of a deal on it. I suppose it makes sense if one gets a deal to buy it while the picking is good. So, over the last ten years, we have seen it get opened up and aired out at least two or three times. I think it may have housed a few slumber parties for their youngest daughter even.  It has been moved two or three times to different locations in the yard, making its way from the driveway, to the back of the yard to where it resides now, closer to the front. I am assuming it is waiting for another person to drive by and see it and think it is a heck of a steal and buy it.

On the other side of us is a wonderful family. They are the home fixer-uppers that believe why pay someone else to do things when we can do it ourselves so much cheaper. Perhaps if you gaze at some of the pictures you can see why you would pay someone else.  

The patio we watched initially being constructed. It was hand laid and they picked the hottest day of the summer.  It began with skids all over the backyard piled 3 to 4 feet high with bricks.  The patio was going to be shaped in this wonderful custom geometric shape. It was going to take some time to construct, they told us, but they were in for the long-haul. By noon, the day they started, plans changed. I think, by then, it was decided to switch to a square patio with plant boxes made of the bricks on the side!  Plants were purchased, at some point and lined up in the backyard to put in those planter boxes for once the patio was complete. The construction site was open for ages. When complete, very little energy was left to plant.  Eventually they made it into the ground.  However, all energy was spent by then, so nothing was left to care for the greenery so the picture is self-explanatory. The plants around it became overgrown and now look like long forgotten friends left behind.  

One day a concrete truck came through the yard of our neighbors, a site we don't normally see. Apparently he was laying concrete in the backyard.  This, we quickly learned was for a basketball half court.  One would think one of the children was going into basketball.  Nope.  Apparently, oh well, nothing more to say here, incase it does happen in the future, it is here, in their yard.  Oh, it has been used occasionally. Normally though the hoop is laying where it is pictured here, on its side.  

Somewhere along the line a boat was purchased. They have a camper so we presume it was for this purpose.  Even though home owner rules disallow all of these items to be proudly on display, they are in their case, allowed to disobey these rules. Or think they can.  Their yard is reminding me more and more of Pawn Stars.   The boat, pretty as a picture, hangs underneath their bedroom, upside down. I doubt this will go to  the best bidder though so do not even attempt to stop and bid!  Go two houses down to the fold down camper (3 paragraphs above) if interested in purchases. Your chances will be better on that gem. 

I certainly don’t want to imply we have no room to talk.  We, for our part, have a huge

Man-Eating Evergreen

evergreen out front that looks like a man eating Christmas tree. I have no idea what came over this plant but it once was a beautiful tree in a pot in our house for the holidays. We put the bulb in our front yard and it has never once looked the same again. It began to grow and took on this idiotic shape. We are waiting for some horticulture nut to come by one day and take to it so it looks more ‘normal’.  We do not want to be the subject of someone else’s blog!

It is not obvious this time of year but our front porch normally has on proud display pots holding fake flowers. I know what you are thinking, that is phony. Yep, but it works, they look beautiful and from the road, no one can tell.  They do not need watered, and can be reused.  I got the idea from a magazine and believe it or not, many friends have stolen my idea since. 

So maybe it goes without saying that the idiosyncrasies we all have inside our house, inside our lives are also expressed outside our homes. The next time you are driving through a neighborhood, perhaps your very home, take a look around.  Life can be quite humorous in a silly kind of way, in the mundane.