Why? WHY have you infested my yard??
Ah, things you didn’t know you needed when moving into a house.
Michelle over at Making Sense of Cents did a post yesterday on how she plans on upping the curb appeal of her home. Now there’s a topic I can get behind! I purchased my home in foreclose in November of 2009. It never really occurred to me that if the house was trashed on the inside, it was probably also trashed on the outside as well. Autumn evenings hide all sorts of gardening sins…
Spring finally rolled around and it finally occurred to me what I had purchased. I bought THAT house. You know the one; you drive down a street of perfectly manicured homes, just to see the blight of the neighbourhood. The source of all dandelions. The yellow lawn that causes an ombre effect on the green lawns beside it. I had my work cut out for me.
My neighbours thanked me when they saw me doing yard work that first spring.
Not only that, but with leaves on the trees I could see that despite having been planted at the same time, my tree was over a foot shorter than every other tree on the block. The suckers shooting up around the trunk were up into the branches in terms of height. The poor thing was literally dying for some nutrients. It didn’t flower the first year I lived here. The second year it flowered on one side only (the uphill side, nearest the fertilizer spike), which was kinda funny to look at.
Having moved from my parents acreage to an apartment for university, it didn’t really occur to me until that spring that there were all sorts of things you needed in a house that you don’t use when you live in an apartment or condo. As such, I had none of them. These aren’t necessarily 100% needs, but most people will probably find they need them at some point in time or another if they try to do anything with their yard. The ones in green I’ve already had to purchase:
- lawn mower
- weed wacker
- leaf rake
- gardening rake
- thatching rake
- trim edger
- shovel
- ladder
- snow shovel
- ice scraper
- pruning shears
- weed killer – anything from vinegar to Killex.
- buckets or a wheel barrel
- lawn fertilizer
- tree/bush fertilizer
- grass seed
- hose
- sprinkler
- spray attachments
- watering can
- assorted small gardening tools, seeds, topsoil, etc…
The list goes on and on. I hobbled by the first year partly on the generosity of others. My parents gave me a gift card to Canadian Tire which I used for gardening supplies. One neighbour gave me his old lawn mower when he purchased a new one, and I borrowed his weed wacker on occasion as well. The lawn mower got me through the first year and a half, but it died a smoky electrical death last summer. That lead to me purchasing a reel mower – no gas or electricity needed (and therefore no more smoke). There were two kinda crappy snow shovels in the house when I moved in, which I still haven’t replaced yet. Kinda dragging that out…
When Michelle wrote that she was thinking of possibly setting a $500 budget for yard work, my first reaction was “are you nuts??” *insert scrooge reaction here* Then I actually thought about it. I’ve easily spent that much on my yard so far, I’m not done yet, and I’ve been doing the best I can to keep my costs down. $20 for grass seed here and $30 for tools there adds up very quickly. You put painting, fixing a lawn and planting a garden all into one bucket, and it’ll easily be $500. Easily.
She’s got me thinking now about the things I want to do for my curb appeal this year. I have to keep the cost down, especially in the spring while I’m still paying off debt, but there’s quite a list of things I need/want to do.
- I need to keep working on my weed eradication *free*
- I need to start trying to revitalize the grass in my back yard *~$50*
- I’d like to mirror the herb bed I built on one side of my sidewalk onto the other side as well *~ $50*
- I’d like to plant a bush in front of the house *free if my friend still wants to split hers*
- I’d like to put capstones on the trim around my tree *~$100*
- I’d like to repaint my porches *~$150*
- I need to paint my fence *~$100*
And what do you know, I’m already almost at $500.
If you live in a house, what did you have to purchase when you first moved in? What would you encourage a first time home owner to buy to get them started? Am I missing anything on the list?
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