Hey All, How do you feel about leaving your property behind?
Last week, my colleague and I were talking about the topic of moving someday. He is moving on 6/1. He is in a good situation. His wife works at a private school, and they applied for campus housing and it was granted. Now, he says he feels a sense of betrayal despite this move being good financially for his family. He has stewarded his property to become a small forest on a suburban lot and feels it won’t be appreciated by the new homeowners. He is dreading what could happen to this forest.
Today, my other colleague was talking to me about when she inherits her dad’s house, it will be too much upkeep. But she feels a sense of sadness because she believes all the native plants will be eradicated by the future homeowners.
I work at an arboretum so we are all involved with stewardship.
As for me, once my kids graduate, I will be moving from my beloved home to a different state because I have inherited my uncle’s house in an area that my husband and I can afford. It’s a beautiful area so no issue there. But I will be really sad about leaving all of my wonderful weeds behind to someone who just doesn’t get it or have the time, etc. 😢 Not to mention all the invasive plants just waiting for me to be gone to make their comeback. 😣
Here is a picture of my garden from a few years ago. My landscaping looks nothing like my neighbors’ landscaping.
by Carpinus_Christine
20 Comments
I won’t live in my home forever, and my husband prefers a more traditional garden, so I’ve tried to split the difference in hopes that a subsequent owner will retain even some of the natives. But for the time I live here, I offer a home that didn’t exist before to native creatures and I’m glad for that.
Leave a note for future homeowners that identifies plants and their locations on the property, along with information on their benefits, what animas they host, and photos of them in bloom or in different seasons if possible, etc. this is the best you can do.
It may be a lot of work but could be worth it. I’m actually starting this process now, even though we don’t have a plan to sell or move anytime soon.
include it in the listing as if it’s a selling point. it might help attract buyers who care about it, or might make buyers think about something they’ve never thought about before.
I would have loved to purchase a house with a garden. I have had three houses. No gardens. I left extensive gardens in the last two homes. No idea what is happening to them. I was able to move some plants to my new house. Start collecting seeds and pots for digging up some plants. You will want to bring some of your garden to your new home. It is worth it to take some with you. Makes the move a bit easier.
I had a friend who’s house came with a 4” 3-ring binder with garden details. It had a calendar, details on which plants self seeded, which ones were a little rowdy, what pests came and when and how to deter them.
It was a historical home, with a postage stamp lot, but there was no grass to mow. It was all cottage flowers, herbs, berries, etc.
If you’re not moving this year, there’s time to at least make a little guide to the yard. Take photos at beak bloom, put them in an album kind of thing. Even if you don’t give it to the new owners you’ll have it. 💛
Times and tastes are changing! Future owners may be excited to have a beautiful, natural space that requires less maintenance and less water?! Your sadness is valid, but it’s not like you’d change anything from the past would you? If you could go back and re-do it, you’d still create the natural haven you have, yes?
I hope you all leave info for the new homeowners on what everything and recommendations for maintaining it! When I moved into my house 3 years ago I loved watching the plants grow and bloom but between all of the normal chaos and having small kids I couldn’t invest much into figuring out what to do to maintain the landscaping. In some ways it’s worked out because I’ve been replacing a lot with natives, but I think all the time that it would have been nice to have a binder with an outline of the maintenance for the yard and when to do it. So many things I’d look up when the best time to prune them or do things and it would have already passed. The new owners will likely make changes but if you pass on the info to help them I’m sure a lot of people would be happy for some guidance
I get it!! I feel the same way.
What aster and goldenrods do you have? They are so gorgeous! You never know, your landscaping just might attract a buyer who knows what they are looking at! Maybe ask the realtor to mention your native plants in the listing? Maybe wishful thinking I know.
I am starting over in a new house this year and it’s so overwhelming, especially with a toddler. I had just started converting my last place to natives and we sold it just when I really started to get things going. I can’t imagine starting over again anytime soon. It takes so much effort to really learn the ins and outs of a property and get things established!
When I read that trees and shrubs support more species than anything, it helped a lot. They’re long lasting, and other owners will almost certainly retain mature ones. The forbs may go, ce la vie, but the heavy hitters that are foundational will remain and give your forest friends habitat long after you’ve moved on 🙂
Native plant gardening is quickly becoming a movement, so there is hope that whomever buys your home will appreciate them rather than remove them.
Sorry to be a downer, but native plant gardening is mainly for you and the people you might inspire along the way, but it won’t change the world in any other meaningful way. A homeownership is too small in both time and space for that. The very structure of private property makes it impossible to create anything permanent. You need land trusts, public parks, and conservation land born out of robust laws to get anything that lasts. Support those efforts if you’re able.
This is my rant, which I use to make sense of the fact that I’m gonna need to move in not too long. Nothing is permanent. I’ve had fun with it. Next one is gonna be even better.
(But you should leave info, and tidy up stuff to make it less chaotic, to make to more likely it’ll pique their interest.)
Does the way you’ve landscaped help in practical ways to the avg homeowner? I’d definitely use that as a selling point to future owners. For example, my backyard was full of sinkholes before I started filling them in and planting over them. It really wasn’t safe for kids. Also I eliminated standing water by making a rain garden. And I’d bet all the plants and trees lower the temperature of my property by a lot compared to my neighbors lifeless front lawn.
If I’d known the new owners of our previous house were going to tear out 90% of my plantings, I would have taken as much with me as possible. The extensive herb garden, gone. Native garden with small frog pond, gone. All sorts of shrubs and flowers along driveway, gone. I’ve been told they even took down the three young tulip poplars and a gorgeous mature hawthorn which really makes NO sense to me. The tuliptrees were not near the house so no danger, and the hawthorn is a small tree.
So unfortunately, those fears are legitimate. You can only hope the new owners will understand and appreciate the plants. I agree with comment about making a map and list of plants which maybe will sway them to keep at least some of them.
I will add that our property sold in 3 days and many comments were in regards to the beauty of the property. We were very proud of it I confess, as there was literally nothing but grass when we bought it 12 years before selling.
(We’ve been at our new place for 4 years, it has a very small yard but it’s already chock full of natives, veggies and herbs!)
My plan in a few years when we leave is to create a detailed map of the yard and then one pagers on each plant and the benefits to nature and people. The cover page will have my contact info, reassure them that I know it is now their home and that things may change but if they ever want to remove any plants I’d love an opportunity to do that labor for free and find the plants new homes. They may bin the binder but at least I’ll have tried
I was thinking about this today and felt sad for a moment. This is our third house and we did tons of work on the first two and are still working on this one. The first house is in a different state so we’ve only driven by it once in 25 years. The second is nearby so we’ drive by it regularly. In both cases all of the beds were/are completely overgrown and filled with weeds. Realtors told us the landscaping was a selling point and the home buyers remarked on it during closings. I think a lot of people just don’t realize how much work goes into maintaining a carefully planned, seasonal garden.
I lost a garden (and house, neighbors, the whole nine) as part of a divorce several years ago. So much of my being went into that soil and leaving felt like I was betraying something precious and vulnerable. The garden was full of pollinators, birds, and wild beauty. Buyers said they wanted the property largely because of the garden – it’s now filled with sun bleached plastic and invasive plants. Painful? Yes. But it’s what works for them and it’s their space now. At least a couple neighbors started planting more native plants and considering wildlife in their gardens after conversations we had in/about mine. So while my native haven has relocated to another address, several others have cropped up in that neighborhood and that’s AWESOME!
Thank you for broaching the subject. My solution so far has been to dread the possibility and avoid thinking very much about it. Looking forward to perusing the comments for better ideas.
It’s like they are family. The plants, critters and world.
I’ll likely have to move in a few years too and I have spent so much time and money on our landscaping. My thoughts around this are that first and foremost I will make sure we photo and list the house during peak blooming, this will sure they know they are not weeds and how beautiful they are and also likely they will end up seeing birds and butterflies during their visit to our home. I’ll also make sure that the benefits are listed in the home description and that I weed and prune and freshly mulch/put out annuals and garden decor. I also will leave a binder with photos of the plants and birds and butterflies who visit. Finally, one thing to remember is that they may not keep everything there, but if it looks pretty they may keep some of it and that is still a win! There are also people like us who are having to move that may be more likely to buy a home that has a native garden to begin with! I’m going to take as many plants as I can when I leave, and just look forward to the fact that I have gained knowledge and ideas for the next space.