Camouflage the Neighbors (and other eyesores)
August 19, 2008 § 1 Comment
Despite your attempts at diplomacy, your neighbor has decided to park his rusty old camper on your end of his front yard. This predicament is particularly significant if you are trying to sell your house, but it is not pleasant at any time. What to do. If he really will not haul the camper to the rear out of sight, then move on to plan B. Your landscape.
The old saying, “Good fences make good neighbors,” may apply in your case, but if you think that a stockade fence might be a bit aggressive, hedges are the next best thing. Lilacs, forsythia, or a traditional row of arbor vitae will form a quick-growing visual barrier between your property and your neighbor’s.
Eyesores in your own yard can be camouflaged as well. Fencing around a large air conditioner and garbage cans, lattice work around the perimeter of the deck to conceal the yard machinery underneath, a garden of sunflowers between the house and the aluminum shed, and the list goes on. Stand back on the curb or the edge of the property and pretend you are a visitor to your house for the first time. What do you notice in the yard that’s not so great? That’s what needs to be either removed or camouflaged.
I think this is a wonderful idea. Use beauty to hide the beast. I also have a neighbors eyesore, a large outdoor play area that their dogs use as a bathroom. I need to find something to “camouflage” so it is not visable.
It is hard sometimes to look at your own property for the first time again and again.