You are by your own admission 5 years from moving....that's a long time to live with a crappy floor and bare spots in the garden.
And who knows, what you buy today could be dead in 5 years.
Of course plant....in 5 years your crappy neighbor could be out of there and you may decide to build on rather than move.
Linda C

Well, yea, I'm trying to see things that way.

We do want to move, though, it's not just about this neighbor. We've been talking about it for a while, it's nothing new, it is a goal we're working towards.

Two things are keeping us there right now - the economy is in the toilet in SE Michigan and I doubt there ever has been such a bad time to sell a house, plus it is really convenient for me to get to the university from where I live. We want to move farther out and get a few acres, and that's just to far to commute to college a couple times a week.

Hi mxk3,
We are thinking of moving ourselves in 6-7 years after our kid finishes grad school. I was thinking the same thing some weeks back. I have decided not to plunk in a lot of money into the house or garden anymore.

The good news is you can get a lot of wonderful plants from seeds at a fraction of the cost for plants from nurseries. Folks at the Winter Sowing forum have been having a great time with their seeds. It keeps you involved in gardening year round. Some people sow seeds in summer and fall too...not just winter. Please check out the link and forum. You'll be surprised how easy it is and for pittance. And all this without much expense because we do it without indoor equipment.

Check out the FAQ and the threads. The people there are very nice and you'll be offered a lot of helpful info and SEEDS!

Have fun and enjoy your garden. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Sowing FAQ

think of it this way if you plant more plants, and can afford to, not only will you enjoy them for the remainder of the time you are there, but if you are going to sell your house, it is an added bonus. Who does not like a well landscaped yard? The buyers may really like the garden, it may be extra incentive to buy the house. Lots of people are lazy and don't want to garden for themselves! I live in a trailer park, and we rent the lot, but own the home. I know we will not be living here in a few years, but I have over 100 different varieties of daylilies planted here. We get lots of comments from passers by about my garden. But by the time we move my daylilies will need dividing, and 75%of every clump is going with me in a pot. I don't mind digging and dividing! Ive spent too much money on my plants. Im sure who ever comes to look at our house will appreciate all the work ive done, and enjoy what ive left behind! Good luck! -Jessica

jkunkel: "Who does not like a well landscaped yard? The buyers may really like the garden, it may be extra incentive to buy the house."

I think you answered your own question a bit later on:

"Lots of people are lazy and don't want to garden for themselves!"

And there you have it - elaborate landscaping is a turnoff for some home buyers, either because they see maintaining it as too much work, have different tastes, or are not very interested in gardening.

Plant within your budget for what you'll like (5 years is a pretty long time) and don't expect to make back your "investment" on resale.

I've been in impending-move holding patterns in the past. Mine were only for 6 months to a year, while we either waited to close and move, or decided whether to go at all. During those periods, it was actually a feeling of freedom, to stop spending, stop obsessing over things that could be improved or made more comfortable and convenient (I'm a compulsive improver) and put money in the bank that I would have spent on gardening and stuff for the house. I was looking forward to starting fresh in a new house in a new location.

I didn't have much to do without the garden and house improvements, and started some new hobbies and got involved in dog rescue in a big way.

That can get tired pretty quickly, though, and I started to feel like a renter instead of an owner. Now that we're staying where we are, I'm spending again on plants, lamps, decor, etc.

Anyway, if you miss buying new plants, get some, just cut back. 5 years is a long time to give up something you're passionate about. If you find you don't miss it, that's fine too. I wouldn't expect to recoup garden costs when you sell, so keep that in mind.

I agree that 5 years is a long time to forego your gardening pleasure.
Also you might want to consider that, if your kitchen floor is worn now, what will it look like in five years. Prospective buyers will certainly be put off by a worn kitchen floor. Some home improvements are a good investment when contemplating selling your home.

How is five years from now "soon"?

Well, I guess your just going to have to do what makes you happy! All I was trying to say was it couldn't hurt anything to have a nice yard. Especially if gardening is something you enjoy doing anyway. In my garden, after mulching well, there is not much work to do, other than pull an ocasional weed, which I don't get many of. I just sit back and enjoy. I never said that you would make back your investment, when selling, just it would improve the appearance of your place. I would at least fill in the bare spot with something, there are so many non-fussy plants you could choose to fill the spot and then be done with it, if you need to save money for your move. I wish you the best of luck with what ever you choose to do! -Jessica

Well, this is really not something anyone else can answer for you. If it was me, I'd buy the stuff because I love gardening, because I love having a great yard, and because if I spent $200 or $300 on plants, it wouldn't mean having to live with a kitchen floor that I hate.

A few things to think about. Do you want a new floor because the old one needs to be replaced, or because you'd prefer a different look? If it's in disrepair or worn out, then it probably makes sense to replace it so the house will show better (though I'm not a realtor and don't know if it would pay in terms of the value of the house). If replacing the floor means that you can't or don't want to buy the plants, then there's your answer.

Five years really is a long time - it's enough time for a garden to go from sparse and "twiggy" to mature and beautiful. You could consider installing the garden now, letting it mature, enjoying the time between now and when you move, and then when you are ready to move, divide everything and take "duplicates" of the plants with you, which saves you $ on landscaping when you get to the new place.

I'm doing the same thing abut my plan is 5 - 8 years out. I'm retiring and my dh and I have already purchased the land that we are moving to. I'm still adding to my collection of plants every year. I do it for two reasons'. One to give joy to any and all that look into my garden and the second is to learn how to take care of any plants that I'm unsure of.

This coming up fall will be the first year that I'll dig up perennials and divide them, thereby making sure that I know how so that when I decide to move I'll be able to go through my yard and pot up plants that I want to take with me and establish them in my new garden without having to spend $.01 cent on them. I'm also learning how to compost and sow seeds so that I'll be one leg up before I move.

I say purchase your plants and enjoy what they bring into your life. Learn from them now; take divisions when you plan on leaving.

As for your kitchen, I also intend to put tile and granite in my kitchen because that will bring me pleasure and will increase the value of my home but this is only my two cents worth :)

We are either going to remodel or move within the next 2/3 years. I won't stop planting or changing my garden because that is what I love to do.

As for the kitchen floor - if it's bad I would replace it now and love it for the few years I will still be there and it will help when you sell the house. What I don't want to do is decide to move and then put money into updates just to sell the house.

Pitimpinai and I agree - grow your own from seed or cuttings. WS is really fun, and you will learn so much through different techniques of propagation. Join the local botanical garden or gardening club and go to the plant swaps. Or wait till the fall sales and clearance tables for the $1 plants. Our local arboretum has a class on propagation from cuttings and you go home with 10 cuttings to grow on by yourself.

RE Landscaping and the idea of investment. I'm going to try to say this so I'm not misunderstood. I think of perennial gardening as more of a hobby, not landscaping or investment. I say this because most people's taste in form, color, etc is different and new owners are likely to change what is there over time and make it over into something that they like. The last house we owned was bought by a guy whose father in law was a builder, and they promptly tore out all my hosta garden, mature clematis, really most of my perennial beds and planted some easy care shrubs. They had small kids and Mrs. didnt' care about the yard - definitely a C'est la Vie moment when I saw that. I really like foliage and lots of colors. My Sis-in-Law I don't think has ever done anything outside the pastel range in 40 yrs of gardening and hasn't got the first red or dark leaved anything in her garden, not even the bold hostas in her yard - we choose very different plants and combinations. I think hardscaping and shrub and tree installation really is more of
"landscaping" for the long term because it should incorporate the total view of what you see, not individual plantings. All this is to say - don't think of your $300 or $500 of plants as an investment because the next owner may not like them at all. Maybe think of them as your creative hobby and ask yourself what you'd spend on a hobby. If you're comfortable spending that on your hobby - go indulge yourself and don't get upset if they die or the next owner removes them. If you can learn more and get more plants by propagating, wintersowing, bargain shopping or swapping plants - its really about fulfilling your creative instinct. If you invest in a nice tree or shrub, then its placement is more permananent in the total landscape - besides the fact that they are usually a lot more expensive too. I think trees and shrubs are also an investment in landscaping because they grow more slowly and are not as easily moved.

5 years is a long time - I look back and realize how much my own taste has changed in the garden. What you buy and grow today may bore you in 5 years, or it may die out and you replace it with something else that caught your eye.
Actually that is one thing I love about doing containers for the summer - every year I do something totally different to accent the perennial beds. This year I'm doing dark red cannas with dark dark foliage in jade green pottery containers around a large planting of Japanese Blood Grass. Last year it was chartreuse potato vine and red verbena. Ok, I'm rambling on, go have fun and don't spend more than you would on a hobby is my 2 cents worth.

A good way to get some of the value back on perennials after you move, without having to look at a hundred pots that need to get planted while you're unpacking, is to give away divisions of your favorites to gardening friends and relatives.

After you move, and when you're settled in and know what you want to do with your new landscape, call up those friends and ask them to send you divisions of the plants. This way you don't have to get them all at once, making a lot of work when you may not have time to do it.

Thanks for all the viewpoints.

I ended up buying some plants, I guess 5 years is a long time. This bare piece of bed is right in front of my huge living room picture window, prime real estate in my garden, and it really does need to be filled in. I will definitely enjoy the view right out the window. I ended up getting a few coral bells and blood grass. I still need a few more blood grass (the nursery didn't have any more so have to hit another nursery this weekend). A couple weeks ago I put in a Chocolate Joe Pye, and also some variegated bamboo and Halcyon hosta, and want to get a couple more Japanese Painted Fern to add to the planting I already have. There were already hydrangeas, bloodroot, and Ostrich ferns in the shady area of this bed and Stokes Aster, oriental lillies, Zebra grass, sedum, etc. etc. in the sunnier portion, so I think it looks quite nice when I look out the window, even though the new stuff isn't filled in (the mature stuff is gorgeous this year, though!)

Anyway, re: the floor: I HATE my kitchen floor. Hate is not strong enough a word - I **LOATHE WITH A PASSION** my kitchen floor. I cuss at it every single day. It is tile. White tile. What kind of idiot puts white tile in a KITCHEN floor? There is no way to keep it clean. I clean it and five minutes later there's something showing on it. I've hated that floor since day 1 (eight years ago). It is good shape, though, save for the grout needing to be cleaned.

I was talking to my brother yesterday about selling the house, and he brought up a good point: As long as the floor is in good shape, most people aren't going to care what color it is, they're just going to be happy it's tile. So replacing the kitchen floor just because I don't like it but I want to move in the foreseeable future isn't a wise investment. Better to put that money into siding (my siding and gutters is in desparate need of replacing) because if I try to sell my house with the noticeably bad siding it will be an immediate turn off to potential buyers. Plus DH keeps nagging me that we need siding and gutters, and he is not one to spend money on the house - so that tells me how bad it looks....

That made a lot of sense, so now instead of an envelope labelled "floor fund" it will be changed to "siding fund" :)

I do agree with most of you guys that five years is a long time not to enjoy my garden, so I did buy those plants and I'm sure I will enjoy them over the next handful of years. It really isn't that much money spread out over that time period and will give me a lot of enjoyment, especially in this prime location right outside the window.

Hint- You don't need too much blood grass, as it will take over your garden. I bought some in a gallon bucket last year and it has tripled in size this year, and is growing up inbetween all my other plants. It spreads by runners, I think. By the time you move, you may have a garden filled with thick grass with red tips! Im glad that you didn't give up what you like to do! Who wants to do that. Have fun planting! -Jessica