• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Home Garden Companion

Home Garden Companion

Ilona's Garden Journal

  • Plant Library On The Journal
    • All Season Garden Color
    • Sitemap
  • Garden chores
    • Essential Garden Tools For Beginners
    • Garden Tips and Advice
  • Ilona’s Garden Home
    • Old House Blog
    • Garden Librarian
  • Ilona’s Garden Flavor Shop
  • Privacy Policy

Good Neighbor Gardening

28.12.07 | Ilona Erwin | 1 Comment


Reading Stuart’s Gardening FOR the neighbours post of this past month started me reminiscing about different neighbors and a few of my front yard garden opinions. First the opinions: I think the front yard space ought to take the public into account. “What will the neighbors think?” doesn’t usually matter much to me, except in the case of considering their viewing pleasure of my front yard. Not that I garden for others, but I try to “blend” with the landscape and give a pleasing public smile to passersby.

I put matching hanging baskets on the front porch in the summer. The driveway borders stay demure and trimmed, but after that it is any body’s guess what either the state of the garden might be, or the color combinations for that year. I think a persons garden is their private affair. It ought to please the creator foremost, and express their view of what is artistic… or just makes them happy! But the front entrance areas are shared spaces and ought to accommodate others feelings.

Neighbors…Good, Bad, and the Ugly

I’ve had them all, and while I tried to be the good one to others, there are some that just wouldn’t be pleased. I was the dog to their house… or something. Anyway, my present neighbor has had all sorts of opinions and demands about what I should and should not do. I gave her many “good neighbor” plants, helped plant her first trees, etc. While she sprays the fenceline with herbicides which irks me no end, and she was angry that I didn’t get her input on that fence in the first place. Prior to that she was angry that I had kids that kicked their ball slightly over the property line (which started to be disputed in her mind) before the fence. In this case, a fence made a good neighbor out of me ( sort of like the “honest woman” !!!) We put up a simple board horse fence around the property. I think fences are the answer to many annoying situations. Like the surreptitious plant snatcher of my former neighborhood in the city. I had made a little rock garden in the front yard and began filling it with many miniature treasures. One day the ‘Black Molly’ violas proved too tempting to someone… they were completely lifted from their little nook. A picket fence went up soon after, which also kept drunken students from next door and short cut-ting kids, stray dogs, and mailmen from tramping a trail through the small front yard area. So it worked out well and still gave an intimate view of the garden to the passersby.

In that city garden I had some of my best garden neighbors, though. There were a number of us that took great pleasure in our gardens. An elderly lady whom I helped put in her ajuga gave me starts of her perennials, a single woman down the street shared her tips on compost making, and the couple across the street had outstanding taste in creating their landscape- we mutually admired and encouraged each other in our garden endeavors. Sadly that neighborhood went downhill once again, but it was an experience in the benefits of good gardening on an urban neighborhood.

Be a good neighbor , but be true to your own gardening vision. And oh, don’t forget the virtues of fences and hedges 😉
Technorati Tags: neighbors,

Blogroll Me!

Share this:

  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

← Previous Post
Christmas Eve
Next Post →
Go Gardening

About Ilona Erwin

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Thank you, in advance for your support! Privacy Policy

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Stuart says

    December 31, 2007 at 12:09 am

    Great summation Ilona. You’re very right in that some neighbours just can’t be appeased.

    Our next-doors have recently moved out. Their house has been occupied by another family and it is a breath of fresh air. No noise, no cats, and no discrepancies over where the fence line does and doesn’t end.

Primary Sidebar

Oh, hi there!

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

Newest Postings Here

  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
  • Wayback in Ilona Garden Time

Visit for a Spell

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Mission

Finding your way home via the garden path

Books, Tools, Tips

Read reviews from the GardenLibarian

Portrait of a Gardener

gardener musings
Musings

What’s Wrong With Today’s Gardening?

Modern gardening
What Is Wrong?

Garden Journal

fine garden journal
Journal, Planner and Log Book
buy quality plants

You might also like

seeds

National Seed Swap Day in January

Garden advice

What Makes a Low Maintenance Garden?

Create A Child’s Garden, Grow Love For Nature

Growing Indoor Flowers In December

I Found Out About “She Sheds” And Coincidentally, About Friends

Newest Postings Here

  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
  • Wayback in Ilona Garden Time

Books, Tools, Tips

Read reviews from the GardenLibarian

Standouts

10 Useful Gardening Tips For Spring

Do You Grow Herbs? 10 Reasons To Love Them

10 Cool Season Annual Flowers To Plant

Standouts

August Gardening: Ten Suggestions

What are your ten top choices for perennial plantings?

ilonagarden

With village lights With village lights
Christmas decor #christmasspirit🎄 Christmas decor #christmasspirit🎄
Instagram post 17935013548845771 Instagram post 17935013548845771
Instagram post 17981374354427684 Instagram post 17981374354427684
Instagram post 17865517706595888 Instagram post 17865517706595888
Gift of flowers by my bedside Gift of flowers by my bedside
#mockorange #juneflowers #ohio #mockorange #juneflowers #ohio
Instagram post 18224713828022497 Instagram post 18224713828022497
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Join Me

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 · Your Site Name

Hazel Theme by Code + Coconut