Paint the fence, trim the lawn, and call it done.

It’s not my fence. It’s my neighbor’s. My fence is brand new, and I just connected up to theirs.

i wouldnt bother with the expense nor effort.. if you are moving out ... whats the point???

poor soil.. fighting dogs on the other side... is a battle a a new owner might not want to fight ...

whats the schedule for moving?? .. where are you. big city name.. that you can pull this off in winter ...????

is the fence wood or plastic/vinyl??.... if wood.. id repaint it.. if plastic cleaned or whatever option will get rid of the dog marks in the last pic ... if thats what those are ...

ken

I’m not moving until June. I’m in SC by the beach. I think there’s no getting around the fact that I don’t have a yard, I have weeds. We have all but set our lawn on fire trying to get rid of poa annua. We have done everything the manuals say to do to get rid of it and some new weed will sprout next. We have tried so hard to choke out the weeds, but nothing has worked for us. There’s a tree that’s growing near that fence, but we never planted a tree there.

I think my agent was wanting to make it look more decorative to hide the fence, but I don’t think she understands what I would be undertaking to accomplish this

Your dogs would trample anything you planted there. Just wash the fence.

Power washing the fence would make a big difference. Use a product that kills algae. Also use some roundup on the grass growing between the concrete area and power wash the concrete also. Do you have nice outdoor furniture to put on the patio to “stage” it? That may help distract from the lack of grass, etc. It seems like a big area to plant beds. If there’s a local landscaping company that gives free estimates have them come out and suggest something. I think it may be more than you want to spend.

To make it look inviting, clean the fence. And add some colorful large potted plants onto the patio/ pavers. You don’t need a ton of them- sometimes the garden centers have pre planted containers that look amazing and all you have to do is keep them watered. Then you can move them with you. So you couple hundred dollar investment (or less!) goes with you!

Would you recommend doing anything to fix the poor drainage along the fence? I do worry about that issue. That was always our issue was it would rain, the water would stand for days and then just be muddy back there, and then the dogs would go out to fight and I was having to bathe them because of all the mud.

Wash the fence, keep the lawn mowed and the weeds by the fence trimmed, make your patio nice. Don't worry about the water near ghe fence, just don't let the dogs out when it's wetand you have a viewing. Putting in a bunch of landscaping to sell ghe house sounds dumb.

Depending on how much you want to spend on a lawn, you could have a nice lawn and get rid of the poa by sodding with St Augustine and then spraying with an atrazine product like this one.

This stuff kills the growing Poa and kills the seeds for next year.

Would I go to the trouble to put in a lawn for someone else?? I doubt it. Plus + dogs and grass don't usually end well for the grass.

I agree with other posters who say it doesn’t make sense to add beds if you’re planning to sell in a few months. Your lawn is a nice blank slate for the new owners to landscape to suit their own taste. If I were buying it, I wouldn’t want to maintain beds, but would add trees to block the view of neighboring houses (and block their view of me!).

I completely agree with the suggestions the the first priority from a resale standpoint would be to clean the fence. You want it to look like the property has been maintained. Similarly clean up the weeds growing in the patio and "stage" it with your table and some chairs. The goal is to make the yard look useable. You have a lot of open space, which is great for people with kids or dogs or someone who loves to garden and might be excited about landscaping the yard to their taste.

As for beds, the only way I would put beds along the fence if you have fence-fighting dogs is to put a bed and then a secondary decorative fence between the bed and the grassy area to keep the dogs out. Otherwise your dogs are going to trample and destroy anything you plant. At the same time, I don't really see it bringing value to the property. So why spend the money?

I had very poor drainage at the back edge of my backyard, because the neighbor behind me was on a hill. My yard got all the rain that washed down that hill with no particular place to go. There was a professionally dug French drain going perpendicular to the back fence, along the side fence, exiting in the curb of the street. I had some laborers dig out the poison-ivy riddled scraggly hedge along the back edge of my backyard and then dig an 18" deep straight-sided trench for 25', ending into the original French drain. I then had them lay landscape cloth in the trench and straighten it out. Then had them add a couple of inches of 3/4" gravel. On the of the gravel, I had them lay 25' of perforated PVC pipe, with the holes downward. Then I had them swaddle the landscape cloth around the pipe tightly and pin it in place that way with landscape staples. We then filled the rest of the trench up with the soil that had been shoveled out. No more flooding!

Your problem with standing water near fence after rain may be from gutters pouring out in that direction. We had that problem, and put big flexible black accordian looking hose on the end of the gutters to divert to the front yard. You may have to bury it to look nice. You can get it at big box home improvement stores. It was easy and inexpensive.

Use no herbicides where dogs go. Also, if the involved realtor is of the same mindset as in my market area it will be hoped that you pack up and move out before they show your property to the market. And that you will pay to have a staging service bring in furniture and so forth beforehand. With I'd think it being the case that if you have dogs that you let out and then let back in repeatedly - after them having been in dirt or even mud - it being impossible to keep the floors looking sharp if you are still occupying the house when showings begin. In addition, rooms shared with dogs of much size tend to smell of them - getting the house completely presentable will be much more of a priority than details of how the lot looks. Notice for instance how the neighboring properties visible in your pictures show little evidence of much planting having been done at all. Because the contemporary market is predominately oriented towards built features like houses, outbuildings, fire pits, pools, paving and fencing. And not plants and gardening (except for lawns).

Best comment yet from Embothrium. Get the house perfect before thinking about the yard. Sales prices rarely are much affected by landscaping.