Such a Polite Garden!
The front yard, for instance, is downright rude. Somehow we are always so busy with different back yard projects that we never seem to get to it. What used to be a hated yew hedge is now a line of yew trees. Since the brakes on the lawn tractor started to go, the especially steep parts of the front lawn have reverted to meadow. The lawn there is SO steep that it takes a pair of spiked shoes to get up or down it. I plan on replacing grass with groundcover as soon as I get a myself a pair.
People driving by the front of our house would probably be shocked to discover that gardeners live here.
You may be asking, "Exactly why is that impolite?" (Although I doubt you'll need to.)
But I'll tell you anyway. It upsets the neighbors, whose lawns are carefully manicured. Of course, due to the way our streets were built, they all have lawns that can be handled with a weekly pass of the manicure scissors, while my husband and I deal with half an acre of steeply sloped grass and a broken lawn tractor. The neighbors have a right not to have our poorly tended lawn inflicted on them. Unfortunately, that lawn is too large for them to be able to ignore, and far too large and steep for us to be able to deal with when the tractor, an antique Cub Cadet, is out of commission. Which is why my next summer's plan includes doing something with the front yard.
Exactly what I'll do, I'm not sure. But for the sake of neighborhood relations, I can try to follow the thought processes of the people who garden around here. Unlike me, they have very polite gardens.
Polite gardens do not upset people. They do not make people feel uneasy, or envious, or overly picky. Polite gardens try not to raise emotions at all.
Which is why, while I solemnly promise to tackle the front yard, it will probably not be polite when I am done with it, either. But perhaps it will no longer upset those concerned about property values.
To achieve politeness is to create a garden that makes no waves - one that is safe, full of the tried and true - and done with exquisite good taste. That means not one single pink flamingo. No topiary hedge of sculpted dancing penguins. No amorphophallus. Not even a canna. One of the prime elements of good taste is suitability - and cannas are not perfectly suited to a front yard in a zone 6 garden.
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