Edible Curb Appeal

Essential when selling a house. Helpful when buying one. It can keep you on good terms with the neighbors. Or, if lacking, can result in their displeasure. Perhaps, even their utter contempt - underscored with fines and censure from the neighborhood HOA. 

Such is the power of curb appeal.

Efforts towards its attainment might win you points with your spouse. Neglect could create problems. 

If it’s appealing enough, your home’s curb appeal might even put a smile on your own face as you pull into the driveway after a rough day at work. A tidy lawn, delightful ornamental plantings. A fresh coat of paint on the house. A newly-pressure-washed driveway. 

Who could fail to be pleased by this level of curb appeal. How could the very apex - the slender and lonely pinnacle of curb appeal like this possibly be any more appealing? 

Only one way ; If there was an edible organic garden out front.

If there were a handsome pair of 4’x8’ cedar garden beds placed just a few feet from the very curb itself, onlookers would quickly gather to get a closer look. Police might even be needed to keep the street cleared and traffic moving along. 

Instead of furtively peeking through the blinds at your new cedar garden beds, your enchanted neighbors would simply raise the blinds, and set a chair in front of the window -  to get the best possible view of your new organic garden.

And that’s just on the first day. 

Imagine the force of your now-soaring cub appeal once your cedar garden beds produced their first edible harvest?

Just the mental image alone of the swaying throng of eager organic garden onlookers - jostling one another like rugby players just to get a glimpse of your cedar garden beds - might be too upsetting to some readers. 

So let’s move on with our story.  

Now, the Sagor family was already keenly aware of the dramatic and positive effect that an organic garden would have on their home’s curb appeal. So it wasn’t a coincidence that they boldly included two cedar garden beds in the complete redesign of the front yard landscape of their Charlotte home - in the Historic Cherry neighborhood, practically in the shadow of Uptown.

 

At this point, we should probably briefly disclose that at least some small part of the reason for all this emphasis on the Sagors’s front yard might be that their backyard is completely shaded by a towering canopy of trees. And this scenario is not at all uncommon in Charlotte, either. Especially in the city’s older neighborhoods, where ancient, colossal hardwood trees often shade both the back and front yards. 

Nevertheless, we maintain that it was almost entirely the desire for the ultimate enhancement of their home’s curb appeal - and not the completely shaded backyard - that ultimately drove the Sagor family’s decision. 

So do the two cedar garden beds really enhance the home’s curb appeal? We think so. 

And the Sagor family sure seems happy with the prominent placement of their new organic garden.

But ‘appeal’ - like beauty - is a very subjective thing. 

And curb appeal might be guided by some general framework of standards - some precedent of what’s accepted as appealing from the curb.

Beyond these too-often nebulous whims, though, curb appeal is judged solely by those looking on from the curb - the very judge, jury, and executioners of curb appeal itself.

The right pair of pink flamingoes might work wonders for the curb appeal in a mobile home park. 

The wrong color on the third story shutters could be a curb appeal disaster in another part of town.

So do the two 4’x8’ cedar garden beds really enhance the Sagor family’s curb appeal like we think they do?

Have a look, and decide for yourself.

But we both know that the answer could only be an emphatic and thundering, YES! YES! YES!