I used to have neighbors that had fake geraniums planted in the front of the house. From the street you can't tell but up close you can. The fake rocks are really catching on too.

Sounds perfect for the suburban neighborhood in which every yard should look the same...grass (hey, they already make synthetic grass, haven't you heard?), shrubs and a lone tree in the middle. They can pave everything over and place the plastic on top. That way, no one can screw up the "look" by trying to go outside the box. So to speak. :)

See? And fake brick and fake stone and fake wood and fake grass and fake waterfalls and fake ponds. Oh, I mean "faux".
(And don't even get me started on fake nails and fake body parts)

I had better go appreciate my non-faux nature while it still lasts.

*sigh* bad mood continuing
Patty

I actually suggested this to my sister--but hear me out first. Her house has PEMANENT second story windowboxes--which are almost impossible to water and care for. They look stupid with nothing in them. I told her to buy some "ivy" and "geraniums"--high quality ones--and switch the "geraniums" out for something evergreen at frost. From two stories down, I don't think anyone will REALLY be able to tell, and it saves her work. (She has two boys--5 and 3.)

Now, one wonders at the architect who designed this "feature"--but they liked everything else about he house. All the rest of her plantings are real. So, I guess I'm saying--I can see a reasonable use.

BUT.

Plastic pine needles are an abomination.

melanie

I feel your pain...my dad's neighbor painted her deck (natural, weathered wood deck) spearmint green and installed a bunch of fake flower spikes in her garden. She also gave my dad's weeping tree a bowl cut. His tree!!! and it looks so stupid.

How about the fake mulch strips and tree circles made of rubber? And I saw rubber beauty bark for the first time the other day--sooo gross. A really bad idea--finally something worse than the red lava rocks.

"Mature" height right from the get go.

Sounds great...just not sure how to get that 100' "faux" oak into the back of an SUV!

- Brent

OMG--Brent--that really puts things in perspective for me--because I hadn't really considerd that everything--all landscape element would be about 8 feet tall, max. Permanent "new subdivision" look. What could be worse than a plastic landscape? Miniature plastic landscape.

Hey, so far nobody has snarked on Vegas. Whole landscapes of plastic suff going on there--with varying degrees of success.

Hmm, are you sure people are that into reality? There are those who only want pretty pictures outside their windows. So if you paint the outdoor scene on the window, wouldn't that work? And you don't even have to worry about carting home 100' trees. Just paint a big trunk.

In a slightly better mood now. What a few hours in the real out of doors will do!

Brent, of course you could get a full-grown oak. Just get them in pieces and put it together. Get one of those cherry-pickers the tree-prunings guys use and you can customize the height. Hehee

And, Mad, I love the paint the window idea! Talk about a privacy screen.

Sammie, interesting that you mentioned Las Vegas. It must be one of the reasons my husband absolutely insists I would hate it there.
Patty

I think you've got a market in all these ideas. When I was doing homebuilder front yards in AZ, I was trying to give a homeowner a decent front yard- as much as possible with 5 1-gallon, 6 5-gallon plants, 3 boulders, and three possible colors of gravel- and he said, "just throw 'em all in a corner. What do I care what bush you give me? I'm just going to drive by it on my way into the garage."

As regards the synthetic lawn- I loved designing with it. It was the only way I could specify a big green space for the client (because of course they moved to AZ but still wanted an Indiana back yard) and still sleep at night. They've actually gotten pretty convincing.

I'm still waiting for robotic koi. With miniature car alarms to scare off herons.

Walking through the arts section at Walmart with the kiddos, I did notice the tackiest paint on window scene of 'nature'. Now I know what it was for, but aparently they where marketing it in the wrong department!

NO!!! That is the last thing that I want to read on a plant label...."Some Assembly Required". ;-)

Speaking of Vegas....There was a show on HGTV showing off the "great" landscapes. All I could do is cringe at these places that rip out tens of thousands of dollars worth of plants a couple times a year. Such a waste. I might prefer that they use plastic plants.

- Brent

The trees and shrubs would be telescopic, of course. Each year you push them up a few feet, using the remote control.

As to painted window scenes--ever hear of Baltimore's painted screens? Google it--and I've attached a link for the google impaired.

Gardenscout--I LOVE it!

melanie

Here is a link that might be useful: Baltimore's Painted Window Screens

After lurking for months on the gardenweb I find I must come to the defense of our "fair city." We've lived in Las Vegas for 16 years and I've never seen an all plastic landscape. That said there are more faux lawns going in of which I'm not a great fan but I do understand. Las Vegas averages 4 inches of rain a year, for the last 15+ years has had a tremendous move in population, there have been drought conditions throughout the southwest for the last eight or nine years so we now have landscaping restrictions. I believe front lawns are limited to a certain percentage in new construction housing and people and businesses with existing lawns are being paid $1.00 a square foot to convert to water conserving landscape. Some people just can't do without that square of green so they have turned to waterless, weedless, mowless "grass."

Personally I like lawns and we are on a well and pay only $30.00 a year + the electricity our pump uses for water but my social conscience won't allow us to put in a lawn so we have a lot of drought tolerant trees, shrubs, grasses and perenials and although different from an east coast landscape I consider it every bit as pleasing and see a lot of private and public spaces with some stunning and water conserving landscapes around town with NO plastic plants.

There's more to Las Vegas than the strip!

Maria

Hi Maria--I agree that people living in harsh desert conditions can still have very beautiful landscaping--it's just different..and more difficult, I think, because it takes real diligence to learn about the plants and cultivation habits that make desert gardens successful--easier for some people just to drop a load of white or red gravel on it and call it a day!

I was just teasing--that's what being snarky is all about--and was thinking, mainly, of what goes on inside and around the casinos.

Sammie, I was in no way offended by the plastic Las Vegas remarks I just don't see it that way . If everyone on the gardenweb stayed politically correct and enabled every crazy idea it would stop being informative and entertaining and I'd stop looking in. Snark on!

BTW try to find some plastic landscaping at the newest casino on the strip

Here is a link that might be useful: Wynn Las Vegas

Eeeewww...that's BAD plastic. I can be impressed when someone goes all out to create something--even using faux materials--that isn't it.

Usually a lurker only on this forum...but I had to chime in too. Our local Taco Bell has plastic flowers in two of the beds!! I'm totally serious.

I would have thought that their corporate office would have a better landscaping budget than that. Pitiful.

I think that's a brilliant idea. Now is the time to start shopping at the thrift stores and freecycling for fake flowers!

See, it's OK if one is diverting the stream of East Asian imported Wal-Mart plastic from the standard destination in the landfill.

That reminds me, I'd better get to work and finish up that beer-can couch...

I wonder if they will remove the plastic flowers during the winter time. I would look very odd to see a bed of "blooming" flowers in the middle of January. Also, I have to wonder how quickly the colors will fade. My guess is that they will have to be replaced every year, thus adding to the landfill problem.

- Brent

My sister couldn't bring herself to do the plastic flower thing. Instead, she found a "watering wand" of some nature that allows her to get to the far corners of her second story window-boxes---in SPITE of the casement windows.

I am proud of her.

melanie

I knew someone once who had a small water line run up to a high window box so all you had to do is turn it on from the ground for a little while. You could even put it on a timer with a slow drip.

I'm still working up to getting a drip system in my perennial beds. I spent more time watering by hand last year than anything else.