40x110

I too envy those with more yard but I refuse to move out of the burbs.

So often we see closeup pictures of our wonderful plants and I do often wonder how much land you expert gardeners work with. I know I read that it is more challenging doing perennial gardening on a larger property (or maybe I just made that up ;)) but I would like the chance to have those problems!

Ours is 75' x 125', the house was built in 1920. Its inner city, quite close to downtown and I could definitely use twice that amount of space.

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 17:09

I have a goodly chunk of land, but not all of it is for floral gardens. But with new beds going in this year, maybe a few hundred square yards are for perennials. I'd have to actually measure out beds to be sure. Maybe more or less depending on if bulbs, lillies, and roses count as perennials or not.

Our back yard is 75 X 150 feet. Half of that is vegetable garden and the other half consists of lawn trees and flower beds. The front yard is 75 x 25 feet and is lawn and flower beds. I have flower beds down each side of the driveway. One along the house foundation with 2 cedar trees and a large oval in the center of the lawn. My beds consist of perennials and annuals most of which I've grown from seed

My home garden 12' x 28' - a third of which is greenhouse.
The allotment - 16' x 300' but I have 1.5 plots.
My woods 5.36 acres

The house and allotment are rented but I own the woodland.

I have .98 acre. The frontage along the road is 75 ft. as is the back boundary. Along the sides of the property it measures 230 ft. It sits square with the compass with the front facing east. Town zoning mandates no less than an acre per property/dwelling but the original builder evidently got a variance from the Zoning Commission.

I have a full-sun butterfly bed, a part-sun oval bed, a full shade bed, a front foundation bed and a curved bed that borders a granite walkway and the driveway. It's also part sun but since it gets midday summer sun, it has a wide variety of both sun and shade perennials.

Another sun bed features a granite garden bench which faces my butterfly bed. All the beds are well-established and pretty much packed with perennials and shrubs.

8 acres, three of which are the house, lawn, veggie garden, and flower beds. The remaining 5 acres is planted back to prairie.

..having opened this thread rather tentatively, thinking I couldn't possibly contribute...lol...

..I'm always hoping that size doesn't matter too much, but it's what you put in it and how it's all arranged... that's my excuse for having a plot only half the size of rouge's.... about 1/16th acre, - I just worked it all out......so I'd be happy to have an eighth.... but maybe this is enough right now... my dog would only dig it all up...

I have about 2 1/2 acres which includes the house and garage. Including the flowers around the garage and house, we have 18 flower beds, ranging in size from a few square feet up to one of 5000 square feet. We bought this after selling our dairy farm in 1995. I wanted to get as many different kinds of perennials as I could; so I started out with one of each. I know now that it would have made a bigger impact if I had listened to the experts ( 3 of each ). Oh well, I can add more. We now have over 100 different perennials, We have one corner for a bird haven; so have dozens of trees and shrubs. I don't know much about garden design; so some might find it sort of a mish mash. However, I like it very much and love to spend every minute outside. ( It will be a while as we just received 10 inches of snow). Being retired, I can do that; but being 82, I also can't get as much done as i used to. I'm fairly new to this forum and have really gained a lot. Thanks to all of you for your great contributions.
wayne

i have about a third of an acre, very small house, mostly garden. the british national trust calculates that one person can manage a quarter of an acre of intensively gardened ground and from my own experience i'd say that's true. i have about a thousand varieties and am constantly losing-and sometimes finding- things.

Well, as a newbie to gardening, I wish we'd bought a 1/2 acre instead of 3.5 acres.

I'm working with a dozen or so garden beds (all in the front and sides of the house) -- our backyard leads to a woodland path with stairs to a dock on a lake and I'd love to start tinkering back there sometime, but it may have to wait till I retire, or win the lottery!

Love this forum!
I'm learning so much,
Thanks everyone,
Dina

Hey Texasranger, you and I are an exact match! The only difference is my "hell strip" has a maple tree and grass, pretty common up here in northern illinois! Yep, I agree, more space would be great, I also have space in the back yard for my small dogs.

Sherry

Just over 3/4 acre with a *lot* of empty ground to fill. The front garden is about 1/4 acre and is my main focus at the moment. We have 1/2 acre or so of woodlands up the back. The house is over 100 years old, but the place was effectively abandoned for 15-20 years, so despite having been gardened on and off in the past, it's been a bit of a job.

We did manage to get the lawn terrace seeded last fall, and we hauled tons of leaves to mulch in most of the rest of the terraces, but you can see the scope of my planting challenge...

Here is a link that might be useful: My insane gardening challenge

..now that's a fantastic job you've done there, with such a difficult site, but with views to die for by the looks of things... I've seen some of your photos on the other thread too....
...I might feel a little giddy on that slope but have fun planting.... would so love to see some more when it gets established....
..you've obviously worked so hard with the house as well... congratulations...

Size smize. I wish could change the background view of the neighboring property beyond the garden area. I use the whole lot for planting but nothing will fix that awful backdrop of the horrible beyond. I'm more than a little bit jealous of hosta-holic having that bit of land put back to prairie, five acres of restored prairie is the stuff dreams are made of.

500 feet squared plus the driveway for a total of 5.2 acres

can i put it away now .... lol

ken

Wayne, it's not a mish-mash, it's "cottage style". That's what you meant about your garden, right? LOL!

We have 2 acres but probably a quarter to a third contains a lot of garden beds. I think I need to win the lottery before I can go any further because I could really use a deer fence around the entire perimeter. I have grand plans for the rest of the yard, but probably years away.

For those of you worried about upkeep as gardens get larger, there is one word....shrubs! They can make a great impact with structure, fall foliage, berries, etc., take up a lot if space, and are soooooo easy!

We have almost two acres of mature oaks mixed with white pine, so heavily shaded. There are beds near the house that I'm gradually converting from English Ivy and Lily-of-the-Valley to more well behaved or native perennials. We're lucky to back up to both the interstate and a large watershed for a nearby business district. So, there are at least 40 acres of swampy, overgrown wild area that is impenetrable and non-developable. I assume most of it is invasive plants, but we do have a nice diversity of birds at our feeders. I dream of sneaking into the wild areas and planting native plants, but I need to manage/finance my legal property first.
I'm enjoying hearing about everyone's settings and look forward to hearing more.

Martha

I dream of sneaking into the wild areas and planting native plants,

I do this all the time on public land which butts up against our property. It makes our too small property easier to put up with.

Thanks Marlorena. The views are to die for, but the amount of work to be done is immense. My bank account is weeping quietly in a corner. I thought I'd put some "before" pictures up in the hopes I can gaze fondly back at them in a few years while looking at the "after" shots of my beautiful perennial borders and kitchen gardens. I may be a bit delusional....

...not at all..... just make sure you don't sell up as soon as you've got it how you want it.... been there, done that... wish I hadn't.....lol... best wishes...

We came from 5 open acres and a small woods in NC to a backyard in CA the width of our urban house plus driveway, and about 20 feet deep before stopping at the hideous tall privacy fence. I lived (endured) there for 9 years- the small front yard belonged to the kids and the neighborhood, so no use gardening there. Then we moved to the country and have over 3 acres on 5 levels from old oak land above, down to a creek at the bottom. On the middle house level I have a small garden which is enough for me now that I am "going xeric" as necessary for water conservation. I'm happy though, I'm not visible to neighbors (could garden in the nude if I wished!) and I am recently hooked on and learning all about succulents and cactus which don't take up a lot of space.
Pugetsoundgardner: when I was a little kid we lived on the Sound in Southworth and thank goodness I was just old enough to realize that its one of the most beautiful places in the world! We didn't try to garden the slope to the beach though- you seem to have enough energy for ten people! Min

TexR - no hope of a tight row of tall skinny trees to give you some privacy from the Horrible Beyond? Min

The ugly is a yard to the east full of huge neglected hackberry trees that volunteered along their property line and various sized seedlings left to run rampant, its like living next to a wall of darkness that leans east and downhill toward us, the ground is 3 ft higher than ours adding to the visually disorienting effect. Everything growing on our property leans toward the east trying to escape the dark. You can literally 'feel' the oppression of it, hard to describe but trust me, its not an asset.

Min3 - Ha! I actually have health problems, so I garden when I can and shangai the hubby and local labor to do the heavy lifting when I can't. I'm trying to set the garden up so if I can't get out there for a few weeks it'll run itself. At least we have water here! And the hubby has promised to have the irrigation all set up with timers by the summer. I've learned that's the key to keeping a garden alive when your gardening schedule is... irregular. :) I envy you your private yard. We're pretty secluded here, but we are overlooked by one neighbor plus every passing boat. If I gardened in the nude I'd probably get arrested...

Marlorena - Watch we end up selling right before the fruit trees bear fruit for the first time. Isn't that how it always goes? At least we should see the property value improve from the garden. You would have needed a scythe to get through it before.

TexR There must be no use talking to the owner of that looming property and asking for some tree removal?

PSG I'm glad you have good help and plenty of water. Wish you could send some of both down here to me- I'm slowing down and this whole area is fast drying out.
Min

Min - We lived in SoCal for years. One of the reasons we moved up here last years is we missed water - you know, the wet stuff that falls from the sky? That comes with green things that grow themselves? It sure makes gardening easier, and cheaper! Plus we have active springs on the top of our property. In the dead of summer we get 3 gallons a minute. If we can get a cistern in we'll have free gravity fed irrigation water for life. :)

We've got about 7/8 acre.

Just moved here nearly 2 years ago. House had been empty for awhile, allowing weeds to completely take over the many flower beds. Bindweed is a big problem and I've dug up all perennials that could be saved and put black plastic over the furthest beds to to kill everything off. I'll plant grass seed in the fall and the BW will hopefully will starve to death after a few years of no leaves. It will buy me some time while I try to renovate the beds closest to the house.

We live on a cul-de-sac and have neighbors which is a really weird feeling as we lived in a teeny house in the midst of miles of cornfields for 10 years before. I am in the process of adding trees and shrubs on all borders ... I am calling it the "fortress." Would love the privacy you have, Min3

Pugetsound - wow, that is a fantastic terrace, nice work!

Thyme, I totally agree about the shrubs. (and the "cottage style" LOL) I'm looking to replace some portion of perennials over the next few years with small shrubs in addition to the larger ones in the borders,

gee whiz min3, if wishes were fishes and if that wonderful miracle happened what would my gardening challenge be?I have discovered that grasses don't lean in case anyone else needs a suggestion for a similar problem. One of my favorite activities is taking a break, studying branches and mentally limbing up & trimming out trees or on a really good day, wishing lightening would strike and burn the whole mess down because otherwise it ain't gonna happen.

I lived AND WORKED on 1/6th of an acre in inner city Austin. We had a working workshop that spread out of our garage and back studio over the driveway and every spare square inch of patio. our jobs were getting bigger and the city changed the trash collecting rules and my husband looked at the tiny bit of backyard to install a large dumpster and I said he had to find another solution. We traded it in for a piece of land that was half the value and 102 times larger 15 miles beyond the edge of town . I was unaware (coming from large cities) how this was going to change my life and how personal I was going to get with a chainsaw in my golden years. I have small xeric beds and natives and I garden for the wild look. I do get to design the brush and open things up and garden view lines with natives. The drought has given several stumbling blocks. Mostly I do a lot of land restoration and learning how to manage wildlife and build soil with slash berms. It is not what this forum is about but I do have native perennials and garden beds arond the house that I encourage diversity with and garden beds around the house with a few hardy exotics . Many of those natives are ones that y'all like. It is a long way from the roof garden surrounded by skyscrapers that I grew up with during my formative years but not that far from what my grandfather was doing outside of Philadelphia.

I find it interesting that the people who are on larger pieces of land (and there are some here) are mum. It is considered tacky to ask a Texas rancher how much land he has. Is it the same in other areas of the country? I always had a rule breaking blabbermouth but my land is the smallest piece in my neck of the woods and hardly qualifies..

I am gardening on 3/4 acre. The width of the lot is about 140 feet wide by whatever (don't remember) deep. Since I do my garden work from a handicapped scooter, I have 9 small island garden beds scattered throughout the yard. The width of them in the beginning was about 4 feet, so that I could reach in from both sides to get at what needed done. The purpose of the small beds is to allow me to do a lot of the maintenance from my scooter. That worked out well for several years till the main man (DH) here in doing the edging gradually increased the bed sizes. That along with my ever increasing weakness has lessened my ability to do a lot of the trimming, weeding etc that I used to do. DH is not as fastidious as I would like, but he is always willing to try. Those 9 beds plus 5 more little islands with just a tree in each means a lot to mow around for DH. A zero turn mower is a necessity.

Not big enough.

Marlorena - You are so right . It is all about what you do with what you have.
pugetsoundgardener - What a great job you are doing. In your climate it will be lush and beautiful very soon.
gazania - What a wonderful DH you have!
wantonamara - ("It is considered tacky to ask a Texas rancher how much land he has. Is it the same in other areas of the country?")
Well I am in Canada and if someone asks you tell, however I would never tell otherwise. I do have acreage and stayed off this thread since I did not want Rouge turning green lol!
We are out in the boonies surrounded by forest. On one side there is open cow pasture with the tree line about one hundred acres away. We do not own the pasture but enjoy the view. One year the cows were not there and it was filled with the wild flowers that they would normally eat, stomp or poop on. It was beautiful. The forest is full of wonderful native plants as well.
I intensively garden about 1/2 an acre and am always expanding outward.

Peren.all, around here they look a little put out if you ask and then they avoid the question and change the subject. When I first did ask. , someone else came , took me aside and I told me of my social booboo. I guess that I am not from around these parts. LOL

All kidding aside, gardening on acreage is weird. One needs to find out what is important and what one can do with the least amount of labor. How does one make a designed spread without making beds and turning over stuff that will then need to be weeded and irrigated. I have gotten really good at opening up land into vistas with "reductive gardening" and trying to figure out a system of plants that will work with the environment and the features that are there.. "Darwinian gardening"

Those cows do eat a lot, don't they. I had 2 and they about stripped this arid place down to the bone. Flowers are coming back...sheesh, grass is coming back. And in some places dirt is coming back ever so slowly.

Hey PSG! We did get some of that "wet stuff falling from the sky" - actually quite a lot of it in 24 hours, after a record January without ONE SINGLE DROP! You can bet my garden and trees were doing a happy dance along with me. I had put out every tub and bucket I have and many overflowed but I'm afraid we will be back to whining about our drought pretty soon. Your three gallons a minute seems better than a treasure of gold to me! I'm always glad your area is as beautiful as ever though. Min

My plot at home is 18 steps long and 9 steps wide. The allotment is a half plot, so 125 sq metres - about 1345 square feet - but I only grow vegetables there with a few self sown annual flowers. It's plenty for me. If I had more space it would become a source of guilt for not being out there enough.