So those bushes don’t self maintain? The trees need trimming? Who knew?
There’s some pros and cons to owning a home. (And I loosely use the term “own” since the bank technically owns my house until I finish paying them). People who grew up with parents that enjoyed working in the yard have a good idea what it takes to maintain a full size spread outdoors. My early yard work experiences typically involved desperation (money) and time (summer) so I never really thought that much about it. I do remember my dad finally giving in to having a yard crew come in and paying them to take care of it all. Once you get your own home, ya gotta think about this stuff. Apartment living is pretty easy when you think about it.
I wrestle with jobbing out my lawn care myself – as I hump it outside clipping bushes that I hate, or trying to coax my lawn back to life. In my neighborhood, lawn/grass care is more or less at the homeowner’s discretion – since we don’t have a HOA. My neighbors are nice, and we only have one house that has an engine block in the yard, but even they keep the lawn more or less neat. It’s always interesting watching the reaction of people who drive by while I’m working in the yard.
But some of the things that some people think about (like how their lawn looks) is second nature. I suppose it might help if had an HOA because then I’d have an idea about what I needed to work on next. “Weeds too high” – time to mow! My neighbors to either side of me and myself – we’re probably the worst on our half block at keeping our yards neat. It ends up being a sort of backwards competition – who can let their yards get the worst without looking TRULY horrendous, and mainly who will be the last person to mow.
I’ve only lost this competition once or twice. My neighbors seem to be less interested than even I am at mowing. When I mow, I think that’s their bat-signal. “Geez, if HE mowed, I guess I’d better mow, because my house looks horrible next to his!”
Worse, for me, is that doing yard work reminds me of the rest of the house that needs work. The roof. The garage. The back patio. The lawn.
My dad shingled my old home himself. It was a two story house. Wow. I’m still in awe of that. He had a full time job too, and worked on a patch at a time. He hated heights (and I do too) so I remember climbing out onto the very top part of the roof and checking it all out.