Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Drive by photos? It's a compliment!

When a car stops in front of the house I have to peek, especially since this one also backed up.  She rolled down the window and out came her phone.  It's a drive by photo!  I'll take it as a compliment.  


The video is amusing.  Bloggers will recognize this move and I've done it many times.


Often when a car stops out front they're trying to find one of our neighbors.  We live on a confusing curve where the street names change for no apparent reason.  Even more confusing is the other street has the same house numbers except odd-even switches sides from left to right.  "Your destination is on the right", "or left (maybe)."  We've had to run up the street to redirect a few guests who ended up at the wrong house.  Some of my neighbors on the same street even live in a different town which adds to the fun.

This time I'm pretty sure it's the landscape that caught her attention.  I wanted to tell her it does look better than this in spring and fall, but maybe seeing how good it looks on a hot summer day is even more informative.  Just a few Pride of Barbados blooms by the garage because the Salvia greggii along the street has just finished blooming.  This view doesn't change much in the winter as I noted in a post last March.



With a significant increase in water bills this year due to a new tiered system designed to target irrigation systems we've seen a renewed interest in cutting back on lawn.  No lawn here.   This area is hot in the summer so most turf grass would brown out anyway.  That doesn't mean an absence of grasses.  Mexican Feather Grass has turned from green to tawny for summer.  It'll need a little grooming in early spring, otherwise it's pretty easy.  I used to pull out extra grass seedlings to maintain the original planting design.  I like the look so much better now with grasses popping up wherever to soften concrete and stone.   We've planted native Muhly grasses:  Pink Muhly, Lindheimer's Muhly, El Toro Muhly, Deer Muhly, and Seep Muhly.  African native Ruby Crystals grass is best along the driveway where even Mexican Feather Grass couldn't stand up to the heat.



While our neighbors fire up their lawnmowers each week, we cut back the grasses every few years in January and Salvia greggii gets a light haircut after blooming several times a year.  Grasses bloom in the fall, their soft colors adding so much more to the landscape than turf grass.

I very much enjoy knowing our choices are appreciated.  So thanks anonymous drive-by for stopping to snap a few shots of our landscape!

13 comments:

  1. It's beautiful in all seasons, and a great example of smart, location-appropriate landscaping. I can see why the drive would want to slow down and snap a photo. :)

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  2. Thank you Beth. It's taken a few years to pull this off but I really like it now.

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  3. Who wouldn't want to snap some photos of your gorgeous garden? Yes, your blogging friends do recognize this move:)

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    1. Thank you Peter, I know you've done this many times.

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  4. I would definitely stop! However I doubt I would be able to stay in the car, I'd have to get out and stroll the sidewalk.

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    1. I've had people stop while out walking too. It's nice to hear the compliments after all this hard work.

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  5. The drive-by complement is well-earned, Shirley. I'm often tempted to stop and take photos as I proceed down from the peninsula into town but doing so would probably earn me a ticket, or have someone reporting a "suspicious driver taking photos" to the sheriff's department! And I laughed in recognition at your description of the confusion visitors have in finding an address in your neighborhood - ours has the very same problems, confusing even delivery services like UPS and FedEx.

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    1. I do sometimes wonder what people inside are thinking when I stop. Our neighbors have reported seeing people stop for photos before but not so much now that they know I don't mind. Having seen some of your neighborhood photos I can see how there could be confusion with drives going back to homes perched on hills etc. Regular delivery drivers know, but even with GPS substitute drivers and mail carriers still get the wrong house now and then.

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  6. I'm that person, only we've been known to jump out of the car to get a good shot of whatever plant caught our eye. In fact we've been known to "stalk" certain gardens through the seasons to make sure we don't miss something great.

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    1. Stalking gardens with plants you like is key to getting ideas that you know will work.

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  7. It's a great compliment. Not surprising though as your garden is lovely!

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  8. Drive-by landscape pics is definitely my way...your continually refined front is definitely game for like-minded souls.

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    1. Continual refinement, I like that. We're about done refining the front. Now to make sense of the plant chaos that is the back.

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