2024 Landscape Budget Discussion

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Hi All, Thank you Landscape Committee for all your hard work! Thank you, Louise for resetting my username and password…took all of 30 seconds. Best, Janet

Well done Landscape Committee! We also think the APN front looks bad, but is a waste of money weeding and mulching for vehicle parking. Mulching the rest yearly will look better and help with less frequent weeding sessions. Not sure monthly is enough. Are we locked in once we pick a weeding time-table?

John and Pat

Yearly mulching may make it acceptable to weed monthly.  The front entrance has not been mulched since spring 2022. Once we pick a weeding frequency for the year, it is unlikely that we will be able to weed more frequently that year because of budget constraints. However, if we find we need to weed less frequently, then the remaining funds will be rolled over into the 2025 budget.  Thank you for your comments.

-Louise

Landscape Committee....thank you for following up on this.

As mentioned in Ricks email, we feel very strongly that the weeding, mulching and maintenance of the island and reduced front area should be hired out and NOT depend  on volunteers which is not a fair sharing  of the work load. Only way to share it evenly is to include it in the budget. We would fully support $280+ per resident in the budget for this purpose and would recommend that in year 2024 we add some cushion to that which if not needed could reduce the next year budget.
We would support the larger budget amount to keep the entire front weed free, but the majority should rule on that issue.
Rick and Scooter Bridgman

Mary and I support Rick's recommendations wholeheartedly.  We have such a nice neighborhood that it's seems a shame for the entrance to look unkempt.  There are many developments on the Cape that maintain a well manicured entrance.  We should do the same.  First impressions are important when it comes to selling our homes at some point.

Hi Neighbors,
FYI, the ballpark weeding estimates in the 2024 Landscape Budget Discussion are based on monthly weeding.   I want you all to be aware that up until now I have been weeding the island at least weekly and sometimes more often to keep it looking good and to avoid a massive crop of weeds that I find harder to deal with as well as unsightly.   (If anyone else is weeding the island that I don’t know about, please let me know so I can thank you!)  Different seasons produce a different variety of weeds, some easier to pull than others, some that grow back faster than others.   I try to get the roots so there isn’t as much growing back.   Heavy mulch helps too.   I would say I spend, on average, an hour a week total, sometimes in two half hour sessions, sometimes 15 minutes a day every other day.   It depends on what time I have available and what the island requires that particular week.   My point is that I do it often and that way it always looks nice and never becomes an overwhelming chore.   It’s hard to say how things will look with weeding just once a month.  

I am adamantly opposed to using chemical weed killers.   The collateral damage they do is unnecessary and very harmful to pollinators which we should all be doing our best to preserve and help thrive, not to mention the dogs that walk on the street who should not be subjected to chemicals either.  

Lauren

In regards to Laurens post about the weekly weeding, I believe the 2024 budget also provides for new mulch which has not been done for a while and that should reduce the frequency of the required weeding. Thank you Lauren for all your work, but you should not be solely responsible fore weeding the Island.... Rick Bridgman

Dear Abby Road Neighbors,

I agree with Tom there are many lush, manicured entrances to neighborhoods on the Cape.  However, I believe on investigation you will find those neighborhoods have installed irrigation and have dedicated landscape services as well.  I know of one small neighborhood (13 lots) where Kenny installed irrigation with meters at the entrance and the island.  The irrigation and landscape costs are billed back to the HOA.  Perhaps we could have done that years ago but that is not where we are now.

As a result, the Landscape Committee has designed the current entrance and island using drought tolerant plants specifically because there is no irrigation. Watering is only required during extreme drought.  No watering was required in 2023!

We should hire a landscape service to maintain the small areas at the entrance to Abby Road and the island—they would determine weeding frequency, amount of mulch needed, etc.  Perhaps some neighbors could ask their current landscape service (i.e., McNamara, Washington) for a verbal quote so we could get more information concerning the overall cost.  I know the Landscape Committee asked for help with this.  Also, we would insist on no chemical weed killers.

The area in front of the stone walls along AP Newcomb should be allowed to naturalize as requested by BCT.  This appears to discourage parking by neighbors and idling by delivery trucks.  Given time this area will blend with the rest of AP Newcomb. I feel it is not Abby Road HOA’s responsibility to maintain this area—that responsibility belongs to the BCT.

Regards, Janet Poli

Again, thanks to the landscape committee for all of their hard work.  The island looks amazing.  The entrance, however, needs some work.

I am not proposing anything more than taking care of the weeds and mulching the immediate entrance and the area along A P Newcomb.  Nothing more than that - no additional plantings and certaintly no irrigation.

As far as cars parking along A P Newcomb, I rarely see that happening.  So, to me it's not a concern.

While the area along A P Newcomb is the BCT's property, to me it's no different than the Brewster easements along all of our properties that we all maintain and, in many cases, have planted shrubery and perrenials.  

Mary and I are likely more sensitive to the appearance of the area because our house is the first one as you enter the neighborhood.  But I can't help but think that a nicer looking entrance overall would help boost our property values or at least the desire of would be buyers to take a closer look at our homes when they eventually do go for sale.

Regards,

Tom

The Landscape Committee will be closing discussion on this forum on September 15.  We are in the process of obtaining quotes so we can update the budget estimates and send two proposed 2024 budgets to the Trustees - one for the Current Landscape area, and the other for the Expanded Landscape Area.  We will be requesting that the Trustees call for a vote on the budgets during the  annual meeting.

Thank you to all who participated.
Louise
Lauren
Deb

P.S. Here is a blast from the past!  The island from three years ago: (Thanks for the pic, Lauren)