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White giant calla lilies bloom in a large tub on the gravel walk leading to the greenhouse. |
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Fragrant white Chinese wisteria tumbles over small shrubs along the long walk. In so many ways, spring in our garden is spectacular - like a Disney movie with smell-a-vision. |
Many of you have written me telling me to relax a little about the messiness of the garden here, so I am trying to listen to you. And you know what? It's not easy, but the more I visit the other gardens of friends who have full time jobs, I start to get it. While the more I visit garden blogs I get pissed off ( really? So perfect?) Now I think I am starting to see what you are talking about. A gardeners garden is often like an artists house. Messy, imperfect, but perfectly interesting. This garden is a wreck - as you will see, but while some may see only imperfection, others may see curious plants and an interesting life. Take your pick.
In an effort to help me overcome my obsessive habits such as bitching about having no time ( I mean really, who really does have free time today?), I am going to pull the curtain back a bit, and show you some of the back stage scenes around here. I would imagine that many of you are experiencing the same bits of anxiety and pressures around the volume of tasks that seem to build up over these first few weeks of nice weather - new plants arriving in the mail, and from what seems to be an endless parade of plants from plant sales, nurseries and garden centers. Those seedlings that you started ( really? 65 Zinnias? 35 Dahlias? 128 tomatoes?), plus the pile of mulch that just doesn't seem to be reducing in size, trimming of hedges, containers that need to be planted before all of the good plants are gone from the garden center - it all can seem overwhelming.
Breath. Relax. Breath, exhale. Oh Elsa, you perhaps had it right - "let it go". Most of us garden only on the weekends - perhaps an hour after work, but that usually means simply watering the pots and containers. I think I am starting to understand that most garden bloggers try to focus on design - an ideology of perfection, but really, it this 'interior design' approach really what gardening is about? I admit to you all that I get caught up in the image and perception part of the gardening equation as much as those on Design Sponge or Apartment Therapy do. Hey, perfection is nice - we all need inspiration, but sometimes a little dose of reality helps too.
OK, HERE IT COMES
Yet the more I struggle with lack of time and the realities of gardening, I realize most people struggle with the same issues. Much of what we do simply is not pretty or perfect. Sometimes our meals look like fast food. Sometimes our fashion looks like, well, we picked it off of the floor. More often than not, much of what we experience day to day is something else other than perfection. I still beleive that a gardening blog should have more inspiration than reality in it, since who would really want to read, let's say a cooking blog where all they make is fast food - yet who doesn't want to see what Julia Child's kitchen really looked like on the days when they were not shooting in there?
The truth is - gardening is not all white hydrangea hedges and clipped parterres of boxwood. It's not always tidy topiary trees, airplants and mossy letters on brick walls spelling out 'peace'. It's usually more dirty - kind of what a house it really like inside, when company isn't coming.
I acknowledge that the designer inside of me really can't help it most of the time- he wants to make it all perfect. I mean, it's just a little tip of the camera, a different angle, crop out that doggie squeaky toy, try not to get that tilted fence post in the shot of the greenhouse which for some reason (laziness) will never transform into a fence. And if that three panel picket fence will never transform into a fence in one years time, how will those 14 panels of lattice leaning on the old fence transform into a fence?
Then, there is the mulch pile - 12 loads a day, and it doesn't seem to get any smaller, still, I have to remind myself that 6 tons of pea stone arrives tomorrow as well, and that is no lighter! Chicks are in the studio under lights, almost ready to move outdoors but the fence needs to be completes in the coops as well - oh, and Joe ordered ducklings that arrive this week as well. Not to mention 7 flats of tomatoes, and far too many annuals that need to find a home in the garden somewhere - what was I thinking?
Yet why is it that when I visit other plant people's gardens, they are rarely in any better shape than mine is? OK, sure, there are plenty that are far more perfect - such as those that I visited in Michigan two weeks ago on the NARGS tours - but I have to believe that not all gardens are such perfect places. Even ours sometimes looks nice, such as when we have a garden tour scheduled, but it takes planning and lots of hard work - hired help even, just to get it looking halfway decent. Most of the time, a random visit here will shock one if one expects perfection. Sure, I can choose the best camera angles, but believe me, there are only a few tricks one can do before things start to repeat themselves ( how many times do you really want to see the front of the greenhouse and that martin house?).
Long rock paths such as ours need frequent weeding ( by hand, on rubber
mats so ones knees don't get damaged). Then they will need a refresh of
pea stone, not a job for the weak and spindly of us. We try not to use
leaf blowers, weed killer or weed wackers around here - so in many ways,
we garden as they once did back in the olden days. Not very practical
at all, but at least it's a work out, right? It just takes longer, and
becomes more of a chore over time. We do this, while our neighbors grind
away at their perfect green velvet lawn every Friday with every known
electric and gas powered took known to the big box store. No wonder they
have time for jet ski's, motor cycles, a pool and parties.
And people wonder why we never go to the movies?
Thus I am allowing self seeded white river birch to grow and mature, as well as some white pines - all interplanted with either native kalmia (Mountain Laurel) and some similar (yet imported- genus such as hybrid rhododendrons and magnolias as an understory. Layering like this already has worked in part of our garden, and now I am trying to introduce it to other parts of the property, but the results are more challenging - especially the intermediate period when it just looks like weeds and weed trees are growing.
So -- if I am going to try and not get too upset over being behind in my chores - the mulching - the planting, then you perhaps can take a breather too. Enjoy this spring. I mean - who cares if the puppies and the dogs have torn up the entire garden, leaving what amounts to a dust bowl effect just one week before a garden tour? I'm trying not to care as much. Really.
And people wonder why we never go to the movies?
Thus I am allowing self seeded white river birch to grow and mature, as well as some white pines - all interplanted with either native kalmia (Mountain Laurel) and some similar (yet imported- genus such as hybrid rhododendrons and magnolias as an understory. Layering like this already has worked in part of our garden, and now I am trying to introduce it to other parts of the property, but the results are more challenging - especially the intermediate period when it just looks like weeds and weed trees are growing.
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Baptisia looks fine in the front, natural garden. |
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....but really, it looks like this. Complete with dead spots in the lawn, un-pruned Asian pears, and a lovely stack of lawn furniture arranged in a fire pit. |
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As I said, it's all in the angles. And in the plants. |
So -- if I am going to try and not get too upset over being behind in my chores - the mulching - the planting, then you perhaps can take a breather too. Enjoy this spring. I mean - who cares if the puppies and the dogs have torn up the entire garden, leaving what amounts to a dust bowl effect just one week before a garden tour? I'm trying not to care as much. Really.
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