Handyman in Whispering Pines, Port St. Lucie

Two kinds of street in one neighborhood

This area isn't one thing, and that trips people up. Much of it is older Port St. Lucie platting, and plenty of those lots have no association at all, so what happens in your front yard is nobody's business but yours. Inside that, there's also a smaller pocket that does have an association, with a clubhouse and a pool — and there, it very much is somebody's business.

Which one you're on changes how we approach the job. On the association streets we plan planting and any hard edging around what the rules will actually allow, because pulling out an approved bed and redoing it is nobody's idea of a good afternoon. On the rest, there's nothing at all stopping you doing what you actually want out front, which is usually the first thing worth saying to somebody who has assumed otherwise for years.

Some of the lots in the older sections back onto canal. Those get the water-edge treatment — planting chosen to hold a bank rather than slump into it, and an edge built to stay put through a wet season.