A lot of dirt has been kicked up by Garden Rant's recent guest post titled The Dark Side of Grocery Gardening by Robin Ripley of the Bumblebee Blog. I doubt that it was Robin's intention to discourage newbie gardeners with her critique of unkempt veggie gardens, but it prompted a large number of comments, both pro and con.
Movie , literature and art critics are free to critique and we use their assessments but if a garden designer rants against what she sees as veggie- gardens- gone- bad then she's accused of discouraging new gardeners. I don't think so.
There's way too much instant gratification in our society. It seems that no one makes mistakes and if they do get caught , don't take responsibility for them. I hear ad nauseum " good job " from mothers whose kids have done nothing more than what they should have. What kind of job will they do when they grow up and their "helicopter " mom's not around to praise them ? Anything like the sense of entitlement that many of our young have today ? We need to allow for mistakes, otherwise we'll think we're perfect. What ever happened to " you only learn from your mistakes? "
I was green before green was ever cool. Veggie gardening used to be the "stepchild " of the gardening world, now its trendy. We raised cash crops of cotton, corn and peanuts and grew all our own vegetables and meat on our farm. Planting was always precise - too little and you went without, too much and you weren't able to take care of it.
Never plant a garden too big for your wife or husband to tend to is an old Southern saying. When my 3 kids were young and I had a full-time job it was all I could manage so I had a low-maintenance landscape that required little of my attention. When the kids got older I returned to gardening but kept it to just what I could manage as a weekend warrior.
As renown garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence proclaimed : "Every garden demands as much of its maker as it has to give. But I do not need to tell you if you are a gardener, that not any undertaking will give as great a return as what we put in it . "
I don't have OCD but I dislike clutter and chaos in my home or garden. I find a big difference between a lovely meadow and an overgrown patch of weeds/flowers. I've critiqued some landscapes on my blog before that were unkempt and gaudy and have gotten comments asking " What's wrong with that. ?" " Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are " -Alfred Austin, English writer.
As Emile Zola said " The artist is nothing without the gift - and the gift is nothing without work. "
As an artist and garden designer I work hard at my craft and I like to think that my home and garden reflect that. I am by no means perfect but as Aristotle said We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
I want everyone to know the joy of gardening as I do. A garden is a delight to the eye and a solace for the soul according to an ancient Persian. And so it should be.
Don't hate me because I'm beautiful -
Trees and Shrub in Sweet Garden Chicago
Trees and Shrub in Sweet Garden Chicago
Long Shots of the 2009 Makeover
at Sweet Garden Chicago
Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago
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