Diary of a Gardener - Gardens are a reflection of you
My stack of magazines is growing. I love magazines. Some are for crafting and creativity, but most are garden related. Most magazine articles pertaining to gardening are not helpful to Florida gardeners. There should be a footnote at the bottom of the pages that mentions this plant or gardening style only works in zones as far south as zone 8b… that is none of Florida. I have found a few that have pertinent articles and lately I find creativity in the designs and color patterns. It is helpful to see what is happening in other parts of the US, what are the trends, etc. Being a landscape designer, one of the hardest parts of my job is telling someone “No, none of those plants will live in your landscaping.” So many of our residents are part-time and have no idea how hot and humid and hard the summer is on our plants. They see hydrangeas and peonies and have perennial gardens and Japanese maples and want to replicate that. Sorry, but none of those will work. Not in the traditional sense anyway. My goal is always to find replacements for plants our northern friends love and use those in my designs. The point to me mentioning magazines was I saw a quote this week I found so important. “An ideal garden is subjective it’s a representation of your personality.” I forgot who said it or what magazine it was from so sorry to the author.
A garden is subjective! It is a representation of YOUR personality. Yes. Yes. All this, yes! I could scream this from the roof top over and over and yet I drive down any street in Sarasota and 90% of the homes have the exact same plants as their neighbors. It typically looks like this: Croton, schefflera, Cordyline, Croton, Fern, Bird of Paradise, bromeliad, tree. Over and over. It is no secret that all the plants I just mentioned are not on my favorite list of plants. I have, however, added these to landscapes and many people love them. They are easy, very friendly to take care of, require little water and look good most of the time. They serve a purpose, but they do nothing for our native habitat, wildlife, or creativity. But if that is your personality then yes you should use all those plants. Do not let this plant snob talk you out of it. What plants I like, someone else does not, and vice versa. We are all allowed to like what we like and plant what we want in our landscapes, except for invasive plants. I will not get on that soap box today but know I am watching you plant that and shaking my head in disappointment.
My garden is not the type of garden most people want. It is busy, with medium to high maintenance, very colorful, many unusual types of plants, a mix of natives, roses, tropical and perennial flowers. I get to have a full sun garden and a shade garden. I love my garden, finally. It is beaming with flowers, colors, and textures. It is a representation of my quirky personality. I do not like to conform to the status quo and my garden reflects so. One of my friends calls it whimsical and eccentric. Most people just stare at it because there is so much to look at, you are not sure what to watch first.
Planning my garden has come in stages. Stages of lack of education, lack of space, lack of the ability to have self-control of my plant collection and now has some cohesion and planning vs my paint splattered look of the last several years. It is the way I want it. Your garden should reflect how you want it. Unless you live in an HOA, which still many will allow you to plant certain plants to your liking, you get to highlight your home’s landscape exactly how you like.
That is an ideal garden. A garden you love, you want to sit in, you want to look at, you want your friends to see. It is the garden you want to work in (or not), the garden you want to take pride in so therefore you take care of it, carefully inspecting your investment. You have a new spark lit inside of you drawing you to the garden full of new plants. Occasionally you find a bird, bee and hopefully butterflies gracing your garden with its presence. You find wildlife love it too, even the bunnies who eat your coreopsis. They found the new salad bar in town unfortunately. They are cute little creatures and must eat, but I never enjoy finding they have eaten my zinnias. The ideal garden is the garden you love. Period.
So, as I said many years ago, I do not care who likes my garden, I like it and that is all that matters.
