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David E. Ross · 27-07-2008, 07:31 PM posted to rec.gardens

On 7/27/2008 6:30 AM, wrote:
Hi everybody,

We live near the downtown of Green Bay, Wisconsin, though actually,
it's an old "suburb." Back in the 1920's, the lots were platted as
"farmettes" 50' wide and 250' deep, the idea being that everyone would
have a produce garden.

Over the years most people eventually converted their yards to nothing
but lawn, but when we purchased the home 20 years ago, we decided to
convert half of the backyard to an urban habitat with natural
landscaping. The result has been not only a lovely wooded and secluded
lot full of flowers from early spring through fall, but we haven't
needed to water or use any chemicals. What little lawn we have
(because we've kept it mowed away from neighbors' properties) is only
a 30 minute task with a reel mower.

The problem is, we now have the home up for sale and what to us has
been an asset is a liability in the eyes of prospective buyers! They
want us to knock off thousands of dollars from our asking price for
their cost of "cutting down those trees and clearing out all those
weeds in back." They want the big rectangular lawn.

Has anyone else experienced this situation and if so, what did you
do? Are there any networks we could plug into where we might find an
appreciative owner for this beautiful landscape? We would gladly knock
off a few thousand to someone who said "This is lovely! I want to
keep it." But we've already rejected an offer from somebody who wants
to destroy it. (Yes, I know...we're crazy.)

Thanks for any advice or suggestions you might have to offer.

:-) Tommy

This past May, we visited Winterthur in Delaware. For about 150 years,
this was an estate of the Du Pont family. See
http://www.winterthur.org/.

The gardens were outstanding. Our tour guide described them as natural
gardens but then went on to explain the term "natural". The gardens
were planned and planted, not left to nature. They were planted to
resemble what nature might do but contained a significant number of
non-native plants. The gardens are maintained, including pruning and
occasionally replacing plants.

If you allowed nature to plant your garden, you should at least groom
it. Trim shrubs to open a vista. Remove dead tree limbs. Add some
plants that are well adapted to your climate and that are compatible
with the natives (e.g., ferns, spring bulbs). Provide paths through it,
perhaps paved with bark chips, decomposed granite, or recycled concrete
(broken up sidewalks) as stepping stones. A bench within the native
plants would be a nice place to sit and listen to birds singing.

A natural garden can be much more attractive than a weed lot. Some even
resemble classic English perennial country gardens.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/