The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

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Happy New Year y’all!

Like most of my fellow plant lover’s, I have made my gardening New Year’s resolutions for 2011:

I vow to include my children more in the gardening process

I will stay on top of the pruning, especially those perennials that require it for size control

I will grow even more of my own food and do it in a sensible way

I will dig like a champ, put my body through complete torture and revel in the pain 

I will continue to incorporate more and more native plants

I will admit defeat to the deer

I will do my best to stop and “smell the roses” more often

There was to be an additional resolution, but after I typed it out, and after some reflection, I realized I felt exactly the opposite way about it:   
I will do my best to only buy a plant after it’s requirements have been fully researched and if  I actually have space for it.

C’mon now, who am I kidding? Sounds great and all but that ain’t happening, EVER. And I honestly believe there are a number of reasons why it makes sense to be completely spontaneous and reckless:

  1. When I bring home a plant and have nowhere to plant it, it forces me to get creative and come up with a unique solution. Combinations I never dreamed of are born and more often than not, I am thrilled with the results.
  2. I can remember purchasing a Carex and after getting her home, learning that she wasn’t reliably hardy to zone 6. It forced me to find an appropriate micro-climate out in the yard and she has thrived to this day. I like to think of it as forced innovation.
  3. More forced innovation – if I can’t find room in the ground, I often resort to adding the perennial or shrub to a container as a temporary home. This gets the creative juices flowing and more often than not, I’ll add more plants to that container and a new combo has been created. 

Maybe it’s the fact that I have this blog and it’s fun as hell to share my stories here, but I cannot wait to take more chances and get more creative this upcoming year regardless of the consequences. I am going to treat my yard and gardens like one big laboratory.

Dr. ONG 

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7 Responses

  1. John I’m looking forward to your garden ideas in the New Year! I agree with growing more native plants and incorporating more veggies..those are grate resolutions that I too” intend to put into action in the New year. See you in 2011.

  2. Well, Dr. ONG, I certainly enjoyed this list of resolutions! As always, I look forward to your future posts and your innovative planters. Happy New Year!!

  4. Great resolutions! I am a big advocate of gardening with children. It may not seem to make a difference to them when they are young but usually carries over into adulthood. I planted a garden with my children every year and they were pretty complacent about taking care of it. As adults, they are both avid gardeners.

    I also have a micro climate on the south side of my house, seems like at least a zone 7 and the rest of my garden is zone 5. Happy New Year!

    Eileen

  6. Dear ONG, I was about to make a similar resolution about buying new plants and I’m SO glad you’ve talked me out of it! Like you, I like to experiment and enjoy the garden most when I try to recapture that feeling of playing in the garden. When I was little, I loved having my own little patch where I mostly killed stuff shifting it around on sunny days. I also enjoyed helping Dad, he would dig and I’d riddle out the stones and weeds. Happy days.

  7. I love the last resolution…I could never stick to it either….thx for great reading and learning 2010…looking toward 2011 and all it’s possibilities!!!

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