Help me love my garden please

[piskieinboots]

Right Pisk....now look here......

Yes'm - all good

[piskieinboots]

are you feeling down anyway, or is it just the garden?

No, or rather no more than anyone else at the onset of cold stuff - it really is just the garden.

Sounds like you're having a bit of a S.A.D time of it.

I've oft been told I am sad - do they mean the same thing

I've moved (too!) often, I have always coped well with it, I always get stuck in and plant, sow, grow, trim, build - I have never felt like this about a garden - odd innit

[Two_Sheds]

No... it really is just the garden.... I always get stuck in and plant, sow, grow, trim, build - I have never felt like this about a garden - odd innit

I've been feeling like that about my front garden.
Everyone else in the street has bare lawn, bits of conifer dotted about, busy lizzies in the summer... I'm aiming for a wilder, looser style with shrubs, grasses, and no lawn.
I was really happy with how it was coming along, yet after criticism from Himself (too messy) his Mother (those violets are taking over) and his mate (yours is the worst garden in the street, mate) I have mentally gone on strike with it. I'm really doubting my ability to make a nice garden - maybe I do have really awful taste after all

[piskieinboots]

....I'm really doubting my ability to make a nice garden - maybe I do have really awful taste after all

nope, not buying that one!! Your ability is beyond question and taste is subjective

[taff]

I'm really doubting my ability to make a nice garden - maybe I do have really awful taste after all

ignore them, no-one else has a blue shed, who wants a manicured-within-an-inch-of-it's-life-easy-to-look-after-and-boring front garden. It takes time, something that most people who want an instant garden forget.

[Two_Sheds]

no-one else has a blue shed

I don't now: the new one is 'sage' but the blue one is my avatar and always will be

[piskieinboots]

Shall we start up a support group for disaffected gardeners - twirls, crunchies and flakes will be needed

[Hilary B]

TS, don't let other people's conventionalism put you off what YOU want from your patch!
If you want violets taking over, and a 'messy' (by some folks' standards) garden, that is none of their business, they can go look at someone else's boring patch of plain green!

[Two_Sheds]

I know Hilary, I know. It's just put me off for a while (only one person's ever said they LIKE my garden, and that was a boy in my Gardening Class). I'll be back at it in the spring.

This apparently is how a suburban garden should look (April 09)
This is how it looked 3 months later after I'd dug up half the lawn
This is how it looked this afternoon (bit tatty, it is winter)

- - sorry to hijack Piskie's thread, but she reminded me how important it is to keep taking photos of your progress - -

[Hilary B]

I know Hilary, I know. It's just put me off for a while (only one person's ever said they LIKE my garden, and that was a boy in my Gardening Class). I'll be back at it in the spring.

Well since all I've seen has been bits on here, I can only say that the description (including the criticisms) sounds like something I would LOVE!

[Two_Sheds]

Ah, just browsing through the before & afters. I feel better now

April 09

an hour ago (the same patch, but photo'd from t'other end)

[susieq100]

I really like it 'messy' - it isn't messy .... it's interesting. There's loads to look at and colour and texture. Places for insects and birds too. Ignore the gainsayers ... what do they know!

[lizzylemon]

Seems to me Taff, and couple of others may have been close to the point. From my own experience of living in rented accommodation all my life, knowing that a move is so close takes the wind out of any gardening sails for sure. We all know it's a long term commitment, or at least one longer than 18 months for sure.

I always used containers which I moved with me. B*gger the boxes, as long as I had my pots I did always lust after Preannuals I must confess but brought splashes of colour with annuals as they're so cheap to come by these days.

Open and exposed sounds interesting. Maybe a sea scape inspired planting scheme with loads of peddles, sand, architectural plants and stuff like that. Or maybe a Japanese 'Zen' Glade for summer contemplation

I would find a running article about how to tackle a passionless garden very interesting and helpful. On top of the a house that needs carpets and decorating from roof tile to floor flag, I have a garden with one half solid clay and the other solid chalk - lacking inspritation? Yep I reckon me too

[taff]

Ah, just browsing through the before & afters. I feel better now

see? they're mental, you're not. nuff said....

[Headfry]

ok this may be a little radical but its just another way to look at it......So, its not your garden at all - you have been hired to design and 'work' this garden.
In other words try not getting 'involved' with it, step back a pace or two (a la 'horse whisperer' style - a garden whisperer?) let the garden come to you.
Try thinking of it as a 'case study' see if by distancing yourself and by not forcing yourself to like it you may actually get to like it if seen in a different light.
This is your 18 month case study / project you have been hired to sort out this garden - it needs your help!


Big hugs I know how you feel! my garden is mostly ROCK!