I suppose this is a mea culpa. Spring is a notoriously busy time for gardeners (and artists! (*1) what with buying plants, planting seeds and plants and digging out dead and dying remains of last year's gardens. When I checked my last posting, I realized it was from two weeks ago. I don't think I've ever gone this long between spurts of words.
So I am illustrating my blog with attractive pictures of what's happening here in our garden-in-progress. I mowed the lawn yesterday (beautiful weather!) and the beds- some of which I have actually weeded and edged!- are set off to perfection. Add in the misty, overcast fog of this morning and you have what looks like an English garden. Just in time for the Queen's millionth birthday or something jubilee-ish!
So while running around multi-tasking and generally moving at warp speed and trying to do everything at once, I have stopped occasionally to muse on those weird individuals who do absolutely no gardening at all. I remarked to a fellow plant-enthusiast with whom I was out purchasing horticultural delights, "Look! There's one of those exotic houses perched on a wide expanse of green lawn with nothing interrupting it! How... unusual!" Indeed, I was tempted to snap a picture to immortalize the sheer brazen nakedness of their landscape. How do they resist the urge to plant? To fill that void up with flowers and shrubs and trees... I see it as an unrealized opportunity; I guess they see it as an E-Z care, no-brainer on the order of polyester no-iron sheets or microwaveable plastic-wrapped meals. In my mind, I am laying out garden beds and designing magnificent borders. But the inhabitants of these unadorned houses are the first to exclaim, "So much work!" when they see our gardens...
Yesterday, every machine in a three mile radius was bellowing their song: weed whackers, mowers, chain saws, back hoes... nice weather and work to be done! The immediate next-door neighbors joined in with several work men accompanied by several large pieces of equipment shoveling and pushing and grading. I thought, "Hey! Maybe they've spied how lovely our yard looks and have decided to plant more attractive shrubs and ornamentals!" But what actually transpired, after the dust had settled and the workmen had departed, was that they'd had foundation plantings removed. The front of their house (*2) was stripped bare and you could now see the railings of their porch. Ironically, Bob and I had recently admired (from a distance) how pretty their full blooming red and white azaleas were... no more. Gone! I imagine they didn't want to prune or dead head.
In an abstract way, sort of like trying on some one else's glasses, I try and understand the urge to remove plants; to Marie Condo your garden... make it tidier, emptier and easier to maintain. But I say you can have it. I want abundance, fertility, over-blown, stuffed garden beds bristling and brimming with flowers and foliage and bugs and butterflies. Nature abhors a vacuum... and so do I!
(*1) In my own defense I am in 4 shows at present. that was a lot of finishing/getting ready/delivering to do, along with installing garden delights. I need an assistant.
(*2) And (sorry!) their house is bland and not much to look at. Now it's even more anonymous. Sad.
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