Small Yard Anyone?

Sometimes people on Dave's Garden make reference to the size of their yard and property. So many people have big yards. I was wondering who else out there in Dave's Garden land besides myself does not have a big yard. I have always lived in some surburb or another, so my definition of a big yard is 1/2 acre or more.

Our whole lot is 40x150', I believe, long and skinny. We've come to the realization that we wouldn't want to try to maintain anything bigger, anyway; some day we'd like to be out of town, though, and we'll get a wooded lot so the majority of our property is trees and meadow.

Our lot is something like 120' x 100' and that is all we can handle to keep it looking halfway neat. If we ever live somewhere cheaper, we'd like to have at least 10 acres and let most of it grow wild. Neither my husband nor I have ever lived on a lot bigger than this one, so we have great fantasies about big yards and not being able to hear your neighbors.

Oh, I hear you! One of our neighbors has a double lot and their house is down a little hill on the opposite side of the property line. The other little house next to us, though, is about 8' from us. Thank goodness the windows are not directly across from each other - and thank goodness the neighbors are quiet!

My current piece of personal paradise measures a grand total of 14 ft. by 24 ft. With the pond and gravel path and plant beds that leaves an area the size of a postage stamp for lawn which I mow by standing in the center with a weed eater and making one full turn. After living in the country with severl acres to play on it takes a whole different attitude to garden in a small space. Since I tend to prefer the large bushes and plants it forces me to become much more selective. But with determination I am finding that even such a small garden can hold a wealth of plant life to feed many a slug, snail and Troll.

Zany, I would like that kind of mowing and trim! Sometimes we miss when we rented a condo and someone else took care of everything but our 6x20' flowerbed.

I have a small CA tract type yard too. I look at pictures of the yards of some of the Eastern folk and drool. I think I could get to like a riding mower. I could not afford to water gardens (or lawns) that size here. But remember Kelly, we do not have to move all of plants into green houses for the winter. We can leave them out to fend for themselves.

I have actually decided that I am glad the deal fell through on the house we wanted to buy. It had a huge lot with lots of lovely garden space in front and back. In fact the back reminded me of a park. But as the back grows weaker and the knees give out it is nice to have a nice small spot to putter about and the challenges of a small place are well offset by the ease of maintenance

Zany, frogs... I think you have the bigger challenge: to garden on a small plot!

I currently have 3/10 of an acre lot, a lot of which is house, driveway parking, a garden shed and a summer pavillion. Doesn't leave much for actual gardening but it's still a lot of work.

Who knows what I may have next. Maybe just a postage-stamp size lot although I'd love an acre or more to have soem woods around me.

Lol th funniest thing to see is the 25 HP tractor lawn mower sitting in the garage. We had just bought it and had only about 10 hours of use on it when the property was sold out from under us. The entire thing with the double grass catcher cost us about 2,200.00 and the jerk that was selling the property had the nerve to tell us he would take it off our hands for 150.00. And acted like he would be doing us a favor at that! I decided to keep it in storage in the garage and give it to the kids for a house warming gift in a couple years when they are ready to buy.

Darius, it isn't too bad unless you like vegetables and have to move the tomato area every now and again. I am amending a new area now. I have a 12 month growing season so am never deprived. I am with Zany though. I am slowly but surely turning the yards into low maintenence areas. Say goodbye grass. A decent lawn is a pain here so the front is getting xeriscaped.

1/4 acre and still way too much grass if you ask me. I'm working on remedying (sp?) that. Of course I can get rid of all my bermuda sod and my neighbors' will just creep back in and repopulate anyway! lol Hate the stuff.

Bermuda grass!!! Ugh!!!! Run while you can!

we have a small yard and bermuda grass too!!

Lol. My neighbor and I were talking about taking out our adjoining front yards and making ourselves the big party patio! We could line the thing with orchids, edge with brugs, and call it good

Frogs, that sounds like a great idea for expanding the space and making it More functional for both of you.

Ours is 75' x 160' just about the right size until I run out of room and as small as it is we have one heck of a time keeping up with it!

Run??? That's the bermuda grass's job. lol Run all into my beds that is.

Frogs that sounds like a wonderful idea. :)

Sometimes, I think grass is a whole lot easier to maintain than flower beds. Weeding is the very bane of my existence. I need to do it daily, or at least every few days, and keep on top of it.

my 'yard' or garden as we call them in the uk measures 30feet by 20. Half of the workable area is taken up by roots from my 5 50 foot conifers and my greenhouse so actually gardening space is very small indeed. In order to beat the roots I am going to have to do an awful lot more container gardening. Weeds are not a problem in my garden. My garden is sunken with 7 foot fences so any weeds blow straight over the top!

We have 17 acres in upstate NY and a 100'x150' lot in FL. There isn't a whole lot of difference in maintenance, just requires different tools and techniques. Also the NY property is frozen for 7 months of the year and requires only that the inside of the house be heated during that time and my great neighbor water DW's 120 houseplants every ten days. We pay him but the amount is only an expression of appreciation...not nearly enough to justify the work and responsibility.

My yard is the one at the top center of this photo, where the backyard looks like a 6.
http://www.terraserver.com/cart/preview_image.asp?item=8016&type=i

Well - My lot is 14 feet by 136 feet (it's a row house), 15 feet of front sidewalk, about 45 feet of house, about 20 feet off the back alley for parking - I guess that leaves me with a garden about 14 feet by 56 feet. My favorite plant is my red oak, Quercus rubra, which has a diameter of about 2 1/2 feet and is in severe need of pruning to get rid of large dead limbs. I don't think I can plant much else unless I start pulling things out.

Kelli I have a small garden 250 sq ft but I would like to have at least an acre or two lol.

My backyard is about 65' x 40', front yard is about 1/4 that. The back yard used to be filled with tall pines (nothing but a lot of columns, pinestraw, shade, roots, and falling limbs),but they were removed a year ago Jan 2nd, so it's a whole new story. Have to admit, I sometimes suffer from "yard envy", wishing I had a lot more (so many things to plant, not enough space to make it all work), but already I'm concerned about the maintenance issue. I've slowly cut the size of my lawn every year the last few years. Wonder when the neighbors will notice it's getting smaller? :)

Our entire lot is probably 90' wide by 75" deep. Excluding the house, driveways and sidewalks, not a lot of gardening space. I have put in a series of small gardens, sometimes at ground level, sometimes raised and even sometimes in water. And yet because of the dogs, I have to maintain some grassy areas in the backyard. We have sunnny garden, shady garden, water garden, a little bit of everything. Not organized, but not boring. Something different where ever you turn. At least I try to mke it so.

:^)
Molly