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I had no idea people remove the landscaping from a home when it was sold. I thought that if it was in the ground and growing that it was a part of the deal. I have heard of people removing their A/C and replacing it with something from the flea market just before the COE, but plants? We are hoping to move in retirement so when we do find a house, I will be sure to photograph the yard as well.
Thanks for the heads up!
I have seen this in a few real estate listings included among exclusions. Many years ago I saw one that listed rocks in a certain location as excluded. At first I thought...rocks? really?
I now have had for several years certain rocks myself that are my favorites for the color and texture. They were given to me by a dear friend who allowed me to dig them from where they lay naturally about her woods hundreds of miles from my home now.
I have other rocks I got free on freecycle...nice big ones in a lighter shade more common in the local area. They are big parts of my rock garden and enhance a difficult low hillside.
If I were to sell, I decided I would leave most of the rock garden rocks because a rock garden in the odd location it enhances would be one of the selling features.
I would keep the rocks I consider sentimental and particularly beautiful. Most are in a particular area that could do without them even. The bed doesn't depend on them. I would either leave them and gather the few others in other locations to the same area and state they did not convey (since it's an easily identifiable area); or just put them away in a container.
But I don't want to leave the rest of my garden and it's old friends and fresh surprises every year.
Until a contract is sold the house belongs to the seller and anything they want to dig up for a move is theirs. And if I still wanted to dig up anything else after the contract but before closing I would list them specifically in the contract. When we were showing our house I had pots full of treasure lined up on the driveway and there was still so much in the gardens nobody would never even know what was missing. However our house did not sell until after we moved so the new buyers were not even aware of what had been there.
I know exactly what you mean. Some of mine were given to me for special occasions or from departed friends. Some I rescued from abandoned homesites in the boonies (after i got permission) and a few I found in nursery dumpsters which I was able to bring back to life. We knew for at least a year we would be moving so I set up shelves with paper bags full of sawdust for bulbs and iris I dug up, seed retrival for annuals i particularly loved and of course endless pots for my perennials. I have some plants (particularly thinking of iris, Daylilies and Amaryllis and daffodils) which have traveled with me from Oklahoma to two different homes in Georgia and now to N.C. When DH started grousing about "Why the heck are you taking all these plants with us. They have plants in N.C. you can buy!" I came back without a moment's hesitation 'YOU WOULDN'T LEAVE THE CHILDREN IN THE BACK YARD WOULD YOU?"
That was when I realized my attachment was so much more than the financial investment I had in my plant material.
Oh my gosh....NO!!!! How can you leave the children in the back yard!? I'd love to do an album, with a complete description of who, why, how, when...for the plants. Honestly, I think my kids and grandkids would appreciate and care for them more, if they knew the story, when I'm gone.
I wish some of you were closer because you'd be good plant Moms. I have some Iris that are from my childhood home that are over 50 years old now. I've planted them every where I can find a spot but I have to cull some next year. My ferns are out of control and I gave away about 20 last year. I had some house plants that were with me since I was 17 but they're with new Mommy's now. I understand how hard it would be leaving things you've nurtured and cared for behind. I think those Iris will always be with me where ever I live. I have such fond memories of chasing my pet pig through the yard trying to retrieve the ones she snatched as she crunched and ran with them. She also ate one of my water lilies from my fish pond. How in the world will I ever be able to take those with me???? My piggie has been long gone now but those Iris make me smile every time I see them and think of her. There's my kitty in the rhubarb where she loved to hide and that crazy rooster that lived with us for nine years in the bean patch.
At our previous house in Atlanta where I dug up hundreds of bulbs and plants to bring with me we also had 2 really nice koi ponds. Those koi were pets. They came when they felt our footsteps and they ate out of our hands. We named them. We had the ponds dug to 3-4 feet so we wouldn't lose any to cranes and other varmin.
When my husband heard me on the phone trying to find foster homes for our koi because the new house didn't have a koi pond he finally put his foot down. "You expect to foster out over 25 fish all over Atlanta, build a new koi pond at the new NC house and then gather up all the fish from their foster homes and then transport them all to N.C.? NOT GONNA HAPPEN!"
I actually cried over that loss but I knew he was the one who would have to do all the work. So if the new owners let the grass and plants die I don't even have to imagine what happened to my precious fishy friends.
I had no idea people remove the landscaping from a home when it was sold. I thought that if it was in the ground and growing that it was a part of the deal. I have heard of people removing their A/C and replacing it with something from the flea market just before the COE, but plants? We are hoping to move in retirement so when we do find a house, I will be sure to photograph the yard as well.
Thanks for the heads up!
Speaking only for myself here, but I took some of the bulbs and divided some of the others. I don't want to give the impression that trees and shrubs were taken. Generally speaking, this is what people take.
As for photographing, depending upon what time of year you go to contract and eventually close, the same things may not be in bloom so you would not know until the following season and the truth be told at that point, it could be due to the way the former owner took care of the garden and the way you do in terms of what comes back. In many cases things will come back anyway but not all cases.
Any time we have considered moving, it's the not wanting to start over yard wise that changes are our minds. I don't think I am on the level as many of you guys but I have gotten to where something is always blooming, I'm always weeding, checking things, I have a garden in the side yard where I put things that need to be taken out of the main garden but can't bring myself to chuck. It's now blooming with stuff I didn't think would survive.
We got new neighbors last fall. They moved from Washington state and the house they bought had been empty for a year and had gone wild. They have asked questions but I think it's over whelming and too much for them to handle. And Colorado is not easy to garden in. I have been frustrated that they are ignoring the weeds that butt up to our yard. I end up pulling quite a bit.
He came over the other day and said that since my landscaping is so beautiful, if I want to just continue it around on their side, I can do that. Well how thoughtful of them to "let" me landscape part of their yard......
He came over the other day and said that since my landscaping is so beautiful, if I want to just continue it around on their side, I can do that. Well how thoughtful of them to "let" me landscape part of their yard......
Some people would jump at the chance for some extra space. Just saying.
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