Friday, January 27, 2012

A landlord who landscapes…

Let’s face it; nobody really wants a rental house next door to their home. Rentals have a bad rap and I’m willing to say that’s usually for good reason. Most landlords only offer a minimum of upkeep; most renters don’t give a care about the house and yard thinking “why invest time and money in something that’s not mine?”
Of course I say most because there are always exceptions. I used to be a renter, and I’m pretty sure I added to the property value rather than took away from it (planting tulip bulbs and regularly mowing for instance). And of course there are good landlords, like this one.
I can’t remember what the property looked like prior, but it wasn’t anything remarkable.
Then one day a transformation began to take place.
Can you see the little figs on the tree? Probably not.
While this isn’t particularly my landscape ideal it is still a vast improvement over a nondescript lawn and they’ve made some pretty interesting plant choices. Naturally I assumed it was the homeowner making the changes and I complimented them one day as they were hauling groceries into the house (I figured if you were hauling groceries you must live there). Their response “isn’t it great, no we just moved in and the landlord had just redone everything!”…so kudos to you Mr. or Mrs. Landlord for not taking the cheap way out and instead beautifying the neighborhood.
Speaking of "the neighborhood" I’ve posted pictures of this overplanted (that’s a compliment) next garden a couple of times…click here for last July, and here for May. I thought you might enjoy seeing it in the winter. Photos taken last Saturday the 21st.

27 comments:

  1. Love the followup shots! Thanks. And thanks, too, for an example of a landlord treating property like he "owns" it. Very cool.

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  2. I think keeping the landscape up helps rent a place don't you?

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    1. Oh gosh yes, at the least I would think you get a higher quality of tenants.

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  3. Wow...that's quite impressive for a rental! Is it bad that I'm horribly jealous of all that space...sheesh! I was a renter for YEARS too...until just 3 or 4 years ago...so always felt that at least I left the houses better than I found them (garden-wise). I think my biggest pet-peeve with renters is that there always seems to be about 3 people...and 6 cars! It's a bit annoying...that and the carelessness. I don't fault them too heavily on what they do (or don't) with the landlords property...but STAY OFF mine! I know I'm going to be more and more aggro this year when I plant my parking strips...and they will have trouble getting in and out of their fleet of cars (well, passengers will, anyway). Oh well...what's life without a few challenges, right! BTW...LOVE the overgrown house (of course)!

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    1. I only rented one house, the others were always apartments. I can imagine that you probably couldn't keep yourself from planting when you were a renter! The one house I've rented was when we first moved to Portland, I had so many refugees in containers (from my garden in Spokane) to care for I didn't garden in the yard hardly at all! But to your point about the cars....OMG.... across the street from that house was another rental and there were 2 or 3 people...but 4 cars parked ON THE LAWN! What? Why? Park on the street Bozo!

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  4. I agree with Darla, it's a good move to landscape a rental place as it makes it more appealling (even if the prospect tenant have no intentions of maintaining it). If the landlord cared enough to landscape it chances are they also care enough to maintain it :)

    I do like the overgrown house, ethereal especially with that last shot with the chair on the porch!

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    1. Good point! (If the landlord cared enough to landscape it chances are they also care enough to maintain it)

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  5. The landscaped rental looks to chosen pretty hardy and easy maintenance plants. The overgrown place is really interesting! There must be a very original soul living inside :) Cheers, Jenni

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    1. You would think all the many times I've walked by the overgrown place I would have seen someone out gardening, but I never have!

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  6. I have seen a few articles in gardening magazines where the renters created fabulous gardens. More proof that gardeners are obsessive with or without ownership. On the other hand, we have had several renters who vowed they would maintain the garden and we were foolish enough to believe them. Finally admitted that it is 100% up to us.

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    1. I wish your rental property was next door to me! I hope I didn't insult you when I made generalizations about landlords...it's based solely on my personal experience (and that of my parents, they've got a couple of real bad ones in their neighborhood).

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  7. Look at all that Clematis armandii in the overplanted garden! I love it.

    BTW, I hadn't mentioned it before, but it's been fun to rediscover your blog after a long period of no time for reading blogs. You've inspired me to (finally) order Eryngium agavifolium this year, which I've always put off for slightly sexier plants--yours looks so nice, and like it's doing so well close to its neighbors. Thanks for that!

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    1. OMG!!!! You should see and smell that Clematis when it's in bloom...amazing. I'll have to be sure to capture it this spring.

      BTW it's been nice being rediscovered! On my post http://dangergarden.blogspot.com/2012/01/gardening-on-snowy-winters-day.html I should have mentioned that while I indoor gardened I also enjoyed catching up on a certain Garden Confidential podcast, I think I had to finish your episode with Germi on the old one and then I had all the new ones to listen too...it was fabulous you rock the podcast thing!

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    2. Oh and I totally didn't respond to the Eryngium agavifolium comment, yay! It is one of my favorite plants, I think you'll find it's very sexy. The dangerous spikes the bees who just can't stay away from the odd blooms...oh ya, you're gonna love it.

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    3. Awesome on all of the above! So glad you're enjoying the podcast, and cannot *wait* for agavifolium. I'm itching for spring already, and it doesn't help that it was almost 50 out yesterday.

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  8. A nice landscape certainly does make a difference. I love the overgrown house too.

    Our renters here didn't do a thing with the yard even though they said they would. Since the landscaping was low maintenance, most of it made it through just fine.

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    1. When we decided to move to Portland we briefly talked about renting my house in Spokane rather than selling. It came down to me knowing that I couldn't handle hearing they had trashed the garden...

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  9. Nice landscape areas...such a person here owned 4-5 adjacent rental home properties, plus a couple others on the block. He had manzanitas, huge deodar cedars, many western oaks, and so on. Quite the neighborhood treasure...and he tracked the weather faithfully since he and his wife built the house in the 50's.

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  10. That landlord should win and award for very atypical landlord behavior.

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    1. Perhaps I'll have to make one up and spike it into the front yard!

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  11. Kudos to that landlord! Most homeowners don't take care of their property half as well! I see so many front yards around here that cry out to be transformed. But an expanse of lawn is still seen as the gold standard by a lot of people...

    Gerhard
    :: Bamboo and More ::

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    1. I figured lawn was probably what was going in the middle circle of this landscape, it's only recently begun to sprout. I wonder if it will get much use?

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  12. I'm feeling a bit guilty as a landlord who landscapes fairly minimally. Problem is, I can't keep up with another garden elsewhere, nor is it appropriate for me to hang out there. The result is we have done relatively low-care things to enhance the garden. But one of my new tenants who just moved in is an urban conservationist by trade, and it sounds like he's raring to get into the garden when they get settled. He already identified an invasive groundcover (yellow archangel) I didn't know I had...dang!

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    1. But I doubt you let your tenants park on the lawn, leave weeds 4ft tall, or plastic bits, strewn across the yard. This sort of not caring is what I'm against. Low care is good, as well as a basic understanding of what is and is not appropriate. I so didn't mean to call out the landlords who keep up a basic yard, more the ones who just don't care. On a positive note it sounds like you got yourself a great tenant!

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    2. No offense taken, Loree. I, too, hate seeing a nasty yard (or home) that's been left visually trashed by whomever lives there, whether landlord, tenant or homeowner. There are some people who should live only in condos and apartments!

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