No. I haven't.
I cant get anyone motivated to keep up their yards with even the most basic maintenance or improvements. And I give up. I'm not going to give out any more free advice to the neighbors.

I have inspired a few around the block, and some other ones blocks away. No dought, having another lawn whacko in the same block helps a lot...

Quirky, you got rain today didn't you?

Its one thing to have a really nice lawn but for the past year I've been the only one in this neighborhood to even have a green lawn. think I got at least one person wanting green grass because in previous years they overseeded with annual rye. And I've had compliments and people ask me "what to do" but then don't do it.

Yes it rained about a half inch over the past couple of days. I guess that means I gotta change my microblog.

To a point. I've gotten two neighbors off the Scott's four-step method and onto organics. My parents also made the shift.

I haven't inspired anybody to become a lawn junkie and, like Quirky, I give up. Most of the lawns around me look terrible and don't receive even basic maintenance. Of eight neighbors, three take care of their lawns. Five completely ignore them.

Sidenote. Why spend THAT MUCH on a house just to have the entire property look terrible? Somebody explain this to me please. Mom was a realtor and she says that nice landscaping adds significant value to a home, plus increasing the curb appeal enormously.

I'm glad to see it isn't just here and with the type of grass grown here.
The strange thing is the neighborhood down the road is a much different story. The houses are in the same price range but it's like a different world. It's very frustrating. Those houses are older though, about 8 years older I'm guessing. There's about 200 homes in there and only 1 or 2 is on the market. In here there are half as many homes and 8 of them are on the market. The only thing I can think of is I suspect there are people that bought these homes with creative financing and can't really afford them and can't afford to keep them up and are preparing to have to move or something. Something about the time that these houses were sold, they were pushing no money down loans to get anyone to buy a house. But strangely, nearly 99% of the homes in here use chemlawn or similar lawn spraying service. They probably signed up long ago and now can't get them to stop coming.

I would move across the street if it weren't for the fact that the houses there are smaller and there are very few on the market. Hmmm I wonder why.

The only thing I can think of is I suspect there are people that bought these homes with creative financing and can't really afford them and can't afford to keep them up

Good point and one I hadn't thought about. As I reflect on it, you are likely correct. I've noticed that as I look through windows (as one glances in during a walk), these people don't even have furniture.

I probably shouldn't expect an excellent lawn.

What is worse about the new home prices in this area is that they have sky rocketed over the past couple of years for a house this size. I feel sort of lucky to have bought when I did because we're catching up to the rest of the country in terms of price. The appreciation of course isn't that high but new contruction is.

morpheus......My wife is sick of me ranting when we drive around town, as I always point out the homes with horrible landscaping. We live in an expensive community outside of New York City. A "starter" home is about $500,000 and they progress up to the millions (on the "other" side of town, not my side!). There is one lady down the road from me who hasn't painted her house in decades. There are some lawns that literally have no identifiable grass - just weeds. While I don't think everyone has to be a lawn nut, I do think you should take pride in your home and make sure it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood.

Well, I have converted one neighbor. The guy across the street has had a landscaper in about four times (one time last year, and three times this year) to overseed and aerate. His grass is just beginning to look decent.
I have a young family living on either side of me. The one guy is a high school teacher. He cuts what little grass he has, but that is about it. The other guy is a nice guy but works extremely long hours. Since our lawns are adjacent, I usually cut his grass when I cut mine. I also fertilize his when I fertilze mine (he buys the fertilizer for his- actually I buy it and he reimburses me). And in the fall I mulch his leaves when I mulch mine.
Now before you begin to think I am being too altruistic, he removes the snow from my driveway in the winter time (even it is with my snowblower.) :-)

rutgers1, I, also, have stories to share. One neighbor does not care too much about his lawn but he is a superb AC technician. I spray the paved areas of his property and I do not pay the labor costs of AC repairs.
Another neighbor is a cop and we feel a little safer because of the squad car parked on the street. He does a good job on his lawn but some of us help (edging, blowing etc.) whenever we do our own property. Another neighbor knows what to do but she freely admits to being 'too lazy to bother'. I do the lawn care past the property line to the edge of her driveway because I like the look of it done that way. None of the lawns will win any awards but they look 'cared for'. I have concluded that horticulture occupies center stage of my 'recreational time' and other interests do the same for other people.
Like the 'ole people seh' "You can lead the horse to water but you cannot make him drink it". "One man's meat is another man's poison" etc. etc. ad nauseam.

I am a convert. My neighbor has a better looking lawn because he puts more time into it (retired), fertilizer out, and has an irrigation system. I was organic before I really knew it because I did nothing but cut the grass because I was so frustrated with my 20 year old mower. I got a new one and what a joy it was. Made me want a better yard. Now I am trying to compete with my neighbor, but have a long way to go. I may plant some new flowers next spring. I may get flamed, but I will say that the perfectly manicured, dark green all year lawns look just as out of place as the worst kept yard in a neighborhood and makes the 'hood look bad - just from a different end of the spectrum and probably makes most people turn off to yard care because they don't want to put the time and effort into it. Perhaps the mantra to offer to those that ask should be to sim;ly mulch mow and water correctly for good basic lawn care. There are some who won't even do that, but for those that do they probably will want to take the next step of correctly fertilizing, overseeding, et al.

Sidenote. Why spend THAT MUCH on a house just to have the entire property look terrible? Somebody explain this to me please. Mom was a realtor and she says that nice landscaping adds significant value to a home, plus increasing the curb appeal enormously.

Morpheus, you're going to set me off into a rant! :)
I've been saying the same thing to my wife. I wish I could explain it. You move into a nice neighborhood (custom homes, $300,000 and up) and you'd expect people, who would spend that much money, would take a little pride in their property. I'm not even talking about being a lawn nut, I'm just talking about basic maintenance.

Here's a tip for %90 of homeowners (including myself, but at least I know my limitations), you don't know a thing about landscaping. You can barely take care of your own lawn. What makes you think you can landscape your own house? You can't! You spent $300,000 on your nice house, why would you nickel and dime the landscaping for it by trying to do it yourself? Isn't it reasonable to spend $10,000 landscaping a $300,000 house? Pick up the phone and call an expert, PLEASE! I'm sorry but going to home depot and spending $400 on a couple plants and trees is not landscaping!

I don't buy the, not enough money, or bad mortgage argument. I have neighbors with 4 year old custom homes with zero landscaping. Zero landscaping, but they have $70,000 cars, four wheelers, $1000 trampolines. It's about priorities plain and simple.

My neighbor who didn't take the above advice, put in two front beds himself (not raised beds, he decided to put in slightly below grade beds, lol) and will not pull weeds or grass from the beds, it looks so bad that some day I may have to pull the weeds myself. Drive through my neighborhood and it's very clear who hired an expert and who did it themselves.

You mention curb appeal. Our neighbors have been trying to sell their house for almost a year. Nice 2400 sq ft ranch with zero curb appeal. Their idea of landscaping was to put two circular beds on each side of the driveway, throw a big rock in the middle of each, and plant annuals, and only annuals in the beds. Of course what little mulch they put in them is never refreshed, never even turned over and loosen up. Now we get to look at two sun bleached empty beds of mulch all winter.
Isn't curb appeal even more of a factor nowadays? Most home buyers search the internet for homes first, look at pictures of homes. With no curb appeal (call it internet appeal), people aren't even getting past the pictures of the house on the internet so they aren't even bothering to come out to see the house. With no curb appeal, people won't even click past the picture on the ad.
End rant.

" Isn't it reasonable to spend $10,000 landscaping a $300,000 house? "

gbig2:
No, because it's all relative. In my neighborhood, 300K bought you a frame bungalow with no garage. A shack, in other words. 10K on landscaping would be ridiculous, pride in onwership or not.

And in today's times, with people having recently bought homes with no money down, 80/20 mortgages, no interest mortgages and etc, where would they get this 10K for landscaping? You have proof in right in front of you, that they bought the home without having a pot to pi*s in!

Lastly, implying that since you own a 300K house means you should very well be able to afford a professional landscaper, is very condescending of you.

Like I said, on my block, you'd be the hillbilly! But that's OK ... just keep your little hillbilly kids off MY lawn and we'll get along just fine. It's all relative.

Gary is right.

In the town where I have the place in New Jersey, you'll pay $380,000 just for a tear-down. New construction homes start at $800k. (Which by the way is the only way you'll get new construction there... there just isn't any available land. So you have people paying $300k just to demolish it and build something new.)

Gary....I think you might have been a bit harsh with that response. I think the person made a valid point - that people are buying houses that they can't afford to maintain.

Where I live, I have seen people scrape together every last dime to get into the town, but from there not put any more money into their home. Furthermore, they keep their kids at daycare from 7AM to 7PM so that they can afford to pay off their $700,000 home. Sometimes, I think they would have been better off finding a home in a less expensive town (there are very good towns around here that are less expensive), maintaining it properly, and working a bit less so they could spend some time with their kids. But that is just me.

Gary, I understand your point but regardless of $300,000 homes or $800,000 homes, the point made my morpheus, that I agreed with, is why buy so much home and have the landscaping look terrible. A certain % of the value of the house should be reserved for decent landscaping? Otherwise you're buying too much house, and you're house poor, as they say. I stand by my point that if you don't know anything about landscaping, it's a mistake (that I almost made years ago) to try to do it yourself, hire a professional. I've seen too many examples of home owners who thought they knew what they were doing only for it to turn out horribly and impact their curb appeal/resale value.
Rutgers, thanks and agreed. Back to your original post. Thanks to these forums, I went from not knowing what KBG was or TTTF was, or even knowing basic maintenance practices (mowing high, mulch mowing, watering deeply) to now, completely renovating with KBG and having a good understanding of turf grass and landscaping basics. Several neighbors have raved about the lawn and expressed interest. I hope to share what I've learned on these forums with them, or at least get them to stop making the same mistakes I was making.

A bit harsh? rutgers1 is most likely 100% correct, but I never pull any punches and am blunt.

Seeing that this is a DIY (do it yourself) forum and the actual nature of the thread, - "Have you inspired anyone to join you in your lawn obsession?"
many of gbig2's comments, I find very pretentious, aloof and pompous, which prompted my reply.

"What makes you think you can landscape your own house? You can't!"
"why would you nickel and dime the landscaping for it by trying to do it yourself?"
"Pick up the phone and call an expert, PLEASE!"

-Maybe they like doing it themselves? Maybe they are proud of what they did!

"I'm sorry but going to home depot and spending $400 on a couple plants and trees is not landscaping! "

-Maybe they LIKE what they bought at Home Depot? Maybe they are proud of what they bought!

"My neighbor who didn't take the above advice, [****hiring an expert, I assume?****] put in two front beds himself (not raised beds, he decided to put in slightly below grade beds, lol)

-Instead of now laughing at him so pompously, maybe some neighborly hands-on help would have been nice?

"it looks so bad that some day I may have to pull the weeds myself."

-This statement is not condescending?

"it's a mistake (that I almost made years ago) to try to do it yourself, hire a professional"

- This statement is not supercilious?

"I went from not knowing what KBG was or TTTF was [snip] to now, completely renovating with KBG"

- So I must ask ... did you DIY or hire a professional?

It doesn't matter whether $300k buys you a tear down or a castle on 40 acres...

You still need to have a certain amount of money to buy (and continue to live in) the property.

The cost of housing became very inflated because people who were broke were able to buy houses anyway and thy did not hesitate to buy the maximum price that they thought they could make payments on ( before the interest rates rose.) Perhaps most buyers relied on the income of their spouse as well.

Cash poor buyers could also buy a lot of cars with zero down for a while but it was actually easier to get financed for a house that you couldnt afford than a car that you could!

In short, few people can really afford to buy houses at the prices they have gone up to and are struggling to make payments. Landscaping is not a priority for them, it's a dream!

Like someone said you can peer in the window of $500k houses (aroud here that's a lot of house) and there won't be any furniture, the walls aren't painted etc.

Hello everyone, I simply could not resist this opportunity to observe that some people are buying the $M's houses and installing the landscape on the INSIDE. From what I have been seeing, it is state of the art technology in the areas of agronomy, electricity conservation and applied lighting. It would appear too, that the return on investment is quite lucrative which would embrace entrepreneurship and astute asset management. Maybe there are some other aspects of which I am ignorant....

Like someone said you can peer in the window of $500k houses (aroud here that's a lot of house) and there won't be any furniture, the walls aren't painted etc.

Me. In retrospect, I suppose I should qualify that statement. I got lucky (if you can call it that) and inherited most of my furniture from relatives who had the same very traditional taste that we do. If I had to furnish that place AND do the landscaping things wouldn't be nearly as far along.

So I must ask ... did you DIY or hire a professional?

For GBig's conversion on grass types, the question doesn't mean too much. The grass areas were already established and lined in (presumably by the landscaper), as were mine. Replacing one type of grass with another is trivial.

People do have different interests (mine is landscaping, others are not interested at all in it), but really...is it reasonable for me to have to call the township when the grass passes the legal limit? An average of four times a year?

I'd say not, but apparently my next-door neighbor disagrees.

I don't care if the homeowners hire a landscaper or do it themselves I just wish they would do SOMEthing to improve their property. Most of the houses in here look like the day they did when they builder sold them.

"some people are buying the $M's houses and installing the landscape on the INSIDE."

That would actually be a pretty good idea in this area since we aren't able to water outside legally and probable never will be able to again. We can water indoors though! Ever since I saw Willy Wonka & The Choc Factory as a kid I wanted a house with a big open room that looked like that with a river flowing through it. Then years later I discovered an Embassy Suites with jungle-like atrium and the dream was kept alive. It is for that reason that I have a two story greatroom and I have been looking for a large tree to put inside. I've only found one tree in the size I liked but the pot was too big to fit through the door.

Wow, glad I live in Nebraska where my custom home cost $280K and it looks better than some million plus dollar homes in other parts of the country.

But it is all relative.

I'm VERY lucky my home came with $10K worth of professional landscaping and I really don't have to do much other than prune and mulch and weed. My obsession is the maintaining the lawn and have learned so much from this forum. Some of my neighbors are catching on to my obsession and always complimenting and asking some advice, but so many others have let their expensive sod go to weeds. It really does make their nice homes look like crap from the outside. I don't get it. But, to each their own.

crazy lawn, do you have a KB lawn or Buffalo?

What is really pathetic is it's the same people make time and spend money to put out tons of cheesey christmas lights and decorations.

Then they won't take them down until june.

I have spoken with many so called professional landscapers (purported experts)over the past two years and have found their advice to be poor. Here are some examples:

"Pythium blight primarily occurs on Kentucky Bluegrass" - wrong.

"Kentucky bluegrass is not suitable for Connecticut's climate because it will not survive the winter" - wrong.

"Making one pass with a core aerator when re-seeding an area is sufficient" - wrong.

"This is great topsoil, it has no twigs or leaves in it like the other companies" - wrong, it is the worst soil on my property.

The previous statements are all from professional/full time landscapers. Maybe I should hire my next door neighbor's "expert" landscaping company who burns his lawn out every summer with high nitrogen fertilizers during droughts and heat waves. Or maybe hire the guy across the street's "expert" landscaper who mows his lawn so fast that I'm surprised the blades cut the grass at all. Now I'm sure there are true professional experts out there but even so, are they going to obsess over our lawns?

No, I haven't motivated anybody yet but I'm working on one of my stepsons. Rather, I was the one motivated by my neighbor to get a lawn and take care of it. This was done not by intimidation but by simply setting an example and offering advice when asked for it. I just happened to buy right across the street from the prettiest and best-kept place in the neighborhood.