I spent much of Labor Day
putting in a new faucet in our kitchen.
It isn’t that there was anything wrong with the old one; it certainly
worked well enough. But we are told by
reliable sources that white is out and brushed nickel (or some such metal) is
in and a prospective buyer may feel more favorably disposed toward our home if
the faucet in our very nice kitchen keeps up the standard of the rest of the
room.
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| In early April, we have the same verdant lawn as the ones in the videos |
And so, on a day that was supposed
to be devoted to celebrating our progress out of the darkness of sweatshops and
inhumane working conditions, I spent five hours on my back staring at the
underside of a sink cursing myself that I failed to take Shop in the eighth
grade. I am convinced that
fourteen-year-old boys have a Home Repair gene surgically activated in that
class. I have never mastered the repair
and replacement of plumbing and electrical items. It is one of my many failings. Instead, I got the job done with Betty’s
admirable and patient assistance. But it
is a half a day my life I will never get back.
However, what is going on inside our home – which will formally go
on the market at the end of September – pales by comparison to what is underway
in our garden. (Double-click on any of the photos to get a full-screen slideshow.)
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| By mid-summer, though, there's no mistaking that this is a 'serious' garden |
We have been looking at on-line
tours of homes in Medfield these last few days.
Each home in these videos is perfect.
There are pink frilly bedrooms for girls with names like Annabelle and
triumphant at-home offices for high-achieving executives (a framed Tom Brady jersey
is a staple in each one). We are told
that, while the actual rooms in each home are used, the furnishings are brought
in to achieve a ‘feeling’ and ‘tell a story’ that will appeal to a certain kind
of buyer. Those ‘stories’ are entirely
the product of the imagination of someone called a ‘stager’. If there is a young girl living in the home,
her name is not likely to be Annabelle, even though that name is stenciled on
the wall. The stencil, along with the
Tom Brady jersey, will disappear into a van as soon as the photos are taken.
But along with those autographed
jerseys, those home have one other standout feature in the videos: large verdant lawns with meticulously clipped
shrubs and a few standard-issue trees. The
grounds around the home are real, even if the contents inside it are ephemeral. And they’re the kind of landscaping that a
prospective buyer will take one look at and mouth the words, “easy care” as the
video rolls on.
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| What's not to love about a forest pansy redbud with its red-green heart-shaped leaves? |
The outside of our home looks
nothing like those in the on-line tours.
We have unapologetic gardens. Our
landscaping is a 1.7-acre riot of color and texture. It is beautiful, even at the beginning of
September when New England gardens are quickly winding down. It is filled with spectacular specimen trees
and shrubs that deliver gratification in every season.
And the truth of the matter is
that Betty has devoted the past half-dozen years to turning our property into a
low-maintenance haven in keeping with her philosophy of having gardens that
match the cycles of our lives. The
problem is that our garden doesn’t look
low-maintenance. Betty has done too good
a job of keeping up that ‘wow’ factor while simultaneously reducing the hours
per week required to keep the property in shape.
Meanwhile, I am scared half to
death that a prospective buyer is going to take one look at our garden and say
aloud, “Waaaaaay too much work.”
They’ll tell their Realtor to back out of the driveway, tout suite. I’ll be running down the driveway, waving my
arms, yelling that mowing a small lawn once a week is the most onerous part of caring
for the place.
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| This chamaceyparis 'Snow' is now seven feet tall. |
So, these past few weeks we have
started seeing our garden through the eyes of a stranger. We’re trimming back the scary parts. We aren’t taking out plants; we’re just
cutting back things that we’ve allowed to grow unhindered all season. On Sunday I filled a large barrel with more
than half of the growth of three beautiful specimens of persicaria. Lance Corporal,
Painters Palette and Red Dragon are still in evidence in the inner sidewalk
bed, but they’ve been subdued.
To reinforce the low-maintenance
message, we are taking care of the end-of-season maintenance promptly instead
of waiting until the cool days of October.
Iris and daylilies that are showing yellow leaves are being cut. Some hostas are being cut down because their
leaves, too, have started to show yellow.
We can’t hide the fact that we have a ‘serious’ garden. Our goal is show that taking care of it is
quite manageable.
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| It took nearly ten years to establish this leptinella as a non-grass groundcover |
As we do the work, we also are
aware of what has happened at our previous homes. Just weeks after we sold our home in
Alexandria, Virginia, our next-door-neighbor called us in tears to tell us that
dozens of bushes were piled up in the street.
The new owners wanted a fence and lawns, and our glorious shrub garden
was an impediment to both goals.
Well, we thought, they own the
house; they can do with the garden what they want.
That will also be the option of
whomever buys our home. Few people have
the time to care for an elaborate garden. We get that. It’s why we went largely
to shrubs and trees from perennials and annuals. But we also hope that the buyer looks at the
property and sees the inherent beauty we’ve spent fifteen years creating. But, if they don’t, there’s always lawn.
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| Our new garden will emphasize the same philosophy as does our current one: low maintenance, low water use, native-friendly |
But if they do choose lawn, they’re throwing away some gems. In Alexandria we didn’t have access to the
plant material we incorporated into our Medfield garden. There’s a chamaceyparis
‘Snow’ that turned out to be a mutant of the best kind. The tips of new growth on the green shrub
stay white until the next season’s new growth appears. It has matured into a stunning specimen. There’s a cercis
Canadensis – forest pansy redbud – that is fifteen feet high and wide and gracefully
arches over one corner of the garden with its red-green heart-shaped
leaves. Someone would cut that down? I certainly hope not. It has taken nearly ten years, but we’ve
established a large colony of leptinella
as a ground cover on a shaded slope behind out home that is as beautiful as it
if effective.
But moving is moving. We have a new garden to create. Even though
it will be just two miles away, it will be our new adventure. We’ll work with the new homeowners to explain
what’s there and what makes it all magical.
But in the end, we have to acknowledge that, once you no longer own it,
it isn’t yours to control.
At out new garden, we’ll follow
the same philosophy that guided us at our current home: low-maintenance, low water use, and friendly
to native insects and animals (well, except for a few herbivores that will
remain nameless…).
