The clothesline. It's a women's thing. My wife loved to hang the wash outside. There is a fresh smell about it that can not be duplicated other wise. I liked it but that is as far as it goes. After working around mine for 10 years I finally removed it with much persuasion. In your case just deal with it till your conifers block it out.

The yard art...that really sucks but you have to respect what rings their bell.

As far as a yard full of conifers it takes time for others to adjust and wonder where you are headed. Now after years of development they are coming around asking questions and then adding 1-2 that they especially like to their yard.

The real bummer and there is always one, is the guy/gal that never takes care of their home. Hopefully they don't live next door. I have one 3 doors removed. Sometimes I go over and cut their grass to offer a little help and advice. They are appreciative but nothing ever changes and never will.

Dave

This post was edited by Davesconifers on Fri, Jun 14, 13 at 10:11

Great assessment!

Dax

I've watched your yard evolve over the last few years. I have to admit, at first I didn't get it. All these small "slow growers?" That guy is going to be waiting years!

Not the case at all, your place looks great, and I'm jealous of your lot.

What is the pine (I assume) right in the middle of the second picture? I'd guess some sort of Bosnian or Cembra? I really like it.

Guys like yourself have convinced me to look more and more at smaller plants. For that, I thank you.

Will: I have a high threshold for tolerating my neighbor's bad taste...so long as it doesn't infringe on my peace and quiet. When I'm in the conifer zone, I don't want to hear the neighbor's dog barking nonstop or loud music. I am often amazed at how people will leave their house unattended, with a barking dog in the back yard.

Dave: I used to live in California, where they have "master planned communities" that regulate every aspect of how you maintain your home. Forget to mow your lawn and you will be fined. On the plus side, it maintains property values and prevents your neighbor from putting his car on cinder blocks. On the negative side, you feel like you don't really own your property. I recall wanting to plant a Date Palm in my front yard, and I had to submit an "architectural plan" to get permission first (the committee told me no, because they only wanted the more common Queen and Mexican Fan Palms).

What kind of things do my neighbors have that bother me? Not much. What kind of things do I have that bother them? Probably a hundred or so...

My neighbors have a nice green lush lawn... it's dark green and I have never seen a weed in it at all. They spend countless hours mowing it different directions to get the checkered board look. My lawn consists of mostly weeds (but I keep everything cut nice so it looks like grass) and a hundred or so conifers.

I wonder what's going through there heads when they look over and see me digging more holes in the ground lol. All I can say is sure it looks like a mess now... but I don't look at it 'now'... I picture what it will look like in 10 years.

That's why I live in a place where I can't see my neighbors.

Great insights and thank you!

My wife was just complaining about bra and underwear on the clothesline when she stayed home for the day. Thats kinda creepy if you ask me.

Thankfully I don't have any neighbors that let the yard go but they all have their flaws, lol.

Ironically the one neighbor that is screened the most has the nicest looking yard with a great collection of plants. Plus she is a very nice, friendly and down to earth. Wish there were more of those.

Oh, and the yellow and blue bird in the pic above where moved to another spot in the yard out of my view! Hopefully she saw my message here!

I hear ya Will. The neighbor's oversize jungle gym is a bit of an eyseore. I planted a row of 7 C. nootkatensis 'Pendula's - they can't grow fast enough!

That is the view out the side...I far prefer the view out the back:

Alex

I think there's a long standing stigma against clothes lines, basically part of GE's commercial campaign to encourage people to buy their driers. Unfortunately, now it's considered a negative thing, similar to trailers and second-hand store. Drying laundry via the clothes line is really a much better solution for able-bodied people than a drier, which degrades your clothing, wastes energy/money, shrinks some clothing articles, etc.... Now it is/was generally more acceptable to use a clothes line in the backyard, a bit more out of sight, but to so many people, it's seemingly unacceptable in any regard to use a clothes line.

GE's commercials were pretty convincing to the public apparently...

The yard art is pretty tacky as well, but I guess to each their own.

I am sure a lot of my neighbors in my Homes Owners association that find my enormous conifer planting either too much, too noisy, too different or too something else. The key is I don't care much(or another colorful metaphor). I feel their enormous, wasteful lawns and sad looking two or three 'border' shrubs, poorly maintained look awful and I shake my head as a fine Saturday morning is heralded by the huge, monotonous roar of lawn mowers, edgers, blowers and what not.

In your case, Will, I think what you're doing is great - make your home your castle, and sometimes when your castle borders an ugly flea market, you build walls.

-Will

Right on, conifer walls!

Alex, other neighbor has one of those but his strange plot of containers, bricks and other crap is blocking the view. Luckily its been raining so much so the weeds, grass and other weedy trees are filling in.

{{gwi:741656}}

My neighbors are decent folks. They leave me alone when I have a parts car and I leave their boats alone lol.

When the one guy "fell asleep" in his truck with his lights pointed towards the bedroom window that was a lil bit of a thing. But I helped him inside and all was well.