Note to self – after visiting ridiculously sweet gardens for three days, prepare yourself for the mother of all let downs when you get home.
My gardens are LAME, or at least I can’t get that thought out of my head after visiting numerous gardens in Dallas last weekend. I feel like I committed infidelity and I can’t look my own gardens directly in the eye. They can tell I’ve changed and they are walking on egg shells around me. They can smell the nectar on my shirts and I think they have footage of me sticking a dollar bill in the soil around a Limelight Hydrangea. I wouldn’t call it a one night stand, really more like a weekend fling, but I will deny deny until I die.
OK, seriously, add in the fact that Fall has arrived and my gardens look like … um … there is a scientific name for it … oh yeah … crap. There are phrases bouncing in my head as I try to sleep each night:
Plant in greater drifts
Add more and different containers into the beds
Focal points
Get more creative
Structure, structure, structure
Interesting note – I had to make the list above an odd number or else the shaking wouldn’t stop. OCD or good garden design principle?
Anyway, the garden design mess is for me to work out. I now give you photos from my tours and I won’t even bother with any comments, the pictures describe it all. Enjoy.
Wow. to the pictures. just wow.
And odd numbered list! so funny! you’re killin’ me!
This was hilarious, as always. Great photos. At least you came back with lots of ideas…I felt this way just seeing vegetable gardens in Vermont. Those folks really know what to do with broken tree branches.
Very funny! I, on the other hand, came home and asked my garden for a divorce. But we’re getting a little counseling and I think we might be able to work things out…
Hilarious. But I know the feeling after seeing gardens in Buffalo. You get home and feel inadequate. You want to do up ALL the ideas that inspired you. Well, anyway, your photos were great and I can bet you came home with loads of ideas. Maybe not the floating pumpkins though…
Yes, the photos are great, and I’ve felt the same after visiting other nicer gardens, but in time I realized that my garden is just that “MY” garden and while it may not be as creative or laid out as nicely as those I’ve seen, I have to remember a couple things..
1) This gardening thing of mine is a hobby, which means I don’t have a full time staff who tend to every weed that needs to be pulled, every branch that needs pruning or any other task that needs to be done.. It’s my hobby and it will be done when I have the time.
2) My garden is my own, it’s the result of my own blood, sweat and tears, and yes, I’ve experienced all of those too! SO, I take the good with the bad.
3) Our prolonged hot, drought weather conditions has done nothing for our gardens except for maybe the sedum that loves it like that but for the 99.9% of my garden they would have enjoyed me pulling out the hose just a little more.
4) If it weren’t for the things that need to be done, changed or redesigned I think I’d be bored with my garden.
It’s all in the eye of the beholder.. we make our gardens the best that we can with our knowledge, the time we have to dedicate to it, the plant material we can use to avoid deer, etc, and keeping within our zone, of course, money always plays a factor in there too as if I had more money would I get a full time gardener? No, probably not, but I’d buy some really cool gardening structures or make them myself, I’d add a pond, a million new plants and ornamental pieces too.
So, rather than looking your garden over with a critical eye after seeing the masterpieces, look at it with satisfaction cause those other gardens don’t have the hand or footprint of John Markowski in them… 🙂
Very Funny Blog! Love the pictures too!
I am going to have to give Leslie a BIG AMEN!! What you said is right on the mark, we do this for ourselves, we don’t have all the help that a big garden like that has. Yes, they are inspirational, but totally out of the realm of possibility for us mere mortals.
What a funny post! Loved the tour of where you went, and some fresh design ideas, and may even pinch a couple. The dollar bill and lists in odd numbers….hilarious! I think you may have found your vocation in life dirt digger….and don’t knock your own garden, it looks pretty good to me, and as it’s so massive can’t be that easy to work in.
Hey man, you know what they say about cheating….why go out and have hamburgers when you can have steak at home?
Oh wait *squints* Those other gardens ARE full of steak.
You better get yourself a good divorce lawyer, because your plants are piiiiiiiissed…..
Too” funny! It’s good that you’ve come back with a since of humor about your garden shortfalls, I can relate.. I have felt the same as you once I’ve visited other gardener’s lovely gardens,
However once I’m done criticizing myself and having a good laugh, my inspiration kicks in and I’m off to new goals and ideas to make my garden even better than before.. ” I hope”
That’s the thing I like about visiting other people’s gardens, it gives us new ideas and inspirations….
You have inspired me to change my views about Joepeye weeds.. I wasn’t sure if I liked them or not but when I saw them featured here on your post in your lovely garden I made up my mind about them and will add them next year.
Thanks for the Inspiration… ~ Vetsy
Great photos and commentary once again! I think most of us feel that way about our gardens when we have seen others, I know I do. My garden is often in a state of flux, this needs moving, that just doesn’t do well there, or this plant has overgrown its location. Sometimes the plant is just not doing its job and gets ousted! In fact, I have one in mind for that category right now!