Keeping it beautiful

We live in a semi-surburban area, with houses on either side of us close enough to hear the neighbor's arguments :-).  Unfortunately, we have an HOA so need to keep things appearing orderly.  I'm currently trying to turn our eyesore of a hill into my little slice of heaven (aka Hemel) while at the same time keeping it attractive.  So far, I have wild huckleberry, prolific basil, invasive blackberries, four lavender plants, a flailing rosebush, some bulbs that I have yet to identify but are beautiful when they bloom once a year, a couple of madronas sprouting (that the local electric company isn't happy about), scots broom that I'm constantly trying to remove because it crowds out the others, strawberries, a brush pile, a "stream" of rocks, and a few other things.  I'm trying to keep it orderly, but nature isn't necessarily orderly.

Suggestions on maintaining a neighborly standard of "beauty" while using good practices would be helpful.

Luckily HOAs are pretty much unheard of in Canada, but I do try and keep things looking nice for the neighbours in the front yard.

An undyed cedar mulch from the local sawmill makes a great weed barrier and keeps the moisture in. In the front yard, I mix about 50% attractive low water needs perennials with 50% edibles.

What makes a traditional garden look nice? Symmetry, a variety of heights, colours, and textures, repetition of elements, mass groupings. Oh, and keeping it weeded and avoiding dead looking plants.  You can do all these things with food plants.

My tips - make it look deliberate. So my rhubarb goes well with the hostas and looks like it's there for texture. Herbs can also look deliberate.  I flank the front steps with two tomato plants for symmetry, then have a few more standing alone elsewhere. I put a few peppers in, and then sometimes run a row of colourful lettuce as a border on the garden. I then trellis peas and beans on a string trellis on the front porch. Red runners don't do well in my climate, but are both ornamental and tasty. A purple podded pea is also tasty and ornamental. Echinacea, rudbeckia, sedum, roses, hollyhocks, irises, etc round out the beds - I try to have at least two things blooming all the time, but don't quite manage it.

The most common requests from clients when I was working as a gardener had to do with plant shapes, clean borders, and getting rid of anything dead. I spent a lot of time edging beds or re-aligning rock borders. And so much time staking and re-staking plants.

Keeping edges clean and plants pruned or trained into pleasing shapes make a garden look tended. Pruning or staking a plant is a signal that it's there on purpose and not a weed.

I struggle the most with deadheading because I usually want to keep the seeds. Just the other day the neighbors complained about me leaving plants up even though the flowers are over on our shared border. I explained that they are tubers, not flowers (sunchokes) and until they're brown, they're not coming down.

Rocks, logs, sticks or driftwood make clean, easy borders. Catie's suggestion of mulch is probably the easiest way to keep things looking pretty in between plants. If it's a steeper hill, mini terraces would be pretty.

It might be a good idea to study your HOA agreement to be sure exactly what the rules surrounding gardens are. There could be rules about kinds of mulch or kinds of stakes or trellises or heights of plants. Each agreement seems to be uniquely strict. For less pretty things, like maybe the brush pile, you might get less complaints by adding a sign highlighting the function and benefit like "this brush pile serves as habitat supporting such and such...". You may look into getting certified as a butterfly or pollinator garden if that's a thing where you are. If it's for the bees, people would hopefully be more forgiving on appearance.

If you are on good terms with your neighbors, it might be nice to ask them what their favorite colors of flowers are, or if there is a plant they particularly hate. Most people don't seem to care, but the ones that do care will let you know. Since they will be seeing the garden everyday and potentially would be the ones complaining, it might be good to get a heads up on their pet peeves.

You have been given some great advice and suggestions.

Years ago, I found one of the most beautifully landscaped yard.  Though it was not in an HOA, it would have qualified by most rules. The owners were happy to give me a tour and explain what was growing.  The amazing part was that this yard was edible.

What was even more amazing is the fact that their yard was a very traditional yard with a lawn.  They had turned the "flower beds" into "vegetable beds". There were vegetable beds on all four sides of their home.

Maybe the pictures here will help give you some ideas:

https://permies.com/t/143914/Edible-Yard-Visited