Sunday, September 6, 2009

Please, I'm begging you


Don't ask me. Just don't ask me to design a maintenance free, drought resistant, disease resistant, deer proof garden. It simply does not, and cannot exist. You think that I'm joking, but I've had it happen, more than once.

Oh, and when your garden gets 2-3 hours of sun a day, that's not full sun, in fact that's not even what we in the trade would call part sun. So don't lie to me and tell me your yard is really sunny on the days I'm not there. And watering does not mean standing with a hose and nozzle attachment and sprinkling water on the leaves. Plants don't take in water through their leaves, so that water is merely evaporating off into the universe. It's no surprise all the plants died.

And last but not least, Miracle gro,that electric blue liquid or crystals, is not organic. You can use it if you want, as I'm not the boss of you. But no, I don't recommend it (great, now I'm probably going to get sued by Scott's).

Can you tell that I'm frustrated by clients who want their gardens to look they belong in Better Homes and Gardens? It's probably the main reason I pretty much threw in the towel on the gardening design biz for this summer. If you want to have a beautiful garden it takes work, either by you, or hired hands but not by me. I've got my own gardens to take care of and am doing a sucky job at that. It also takes a lot of time. Gardens if they are designed properly in their first year don't look great, which is a shame. The well designed border leaves room for the plants to get bigger before needing a complete re-design, or major maintenance (splitting, moving, etc.). That "cottage garden" style that so many people want is a look that I adore, but oh so difficult to take care of.

Thanks for letting me rant. I feel quite a bit better now and am contemplating working on my fall planters.

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