Wild" garden vs. tidy gardens which do you prefer pt 2

I would say at an average it has been around 100-105 this summer. It is cooler this week and what a blessing it is. The high today is supposed to be 95, but now it is only 80 degrees. (if it would only last)

I'm go for the plush "overgrown secret enchanted garden" look...lol...

Overly kept, and overly manicured gardens with their geometric shaped balls, triangles and strict circles look very unfriendly un-natural.
-T

I'm with you seedpicker - we lived in a NJ neighborhood where everything was sheared into geometric shapes and loaded with chemicals to "control" things. A good round of weeding can vent a lot of negative emotion, and that's control enough!!

I definitely agree!
think a garden is definitely an expression of the garden owners personality.

A garden with a natural earthy feel, tends to portray a more relaxed, easy-going person, whereas (how do I say this...)an overly manicure yard portrays someone who has to maintain and exercise a lot of control.
-T

I've aways had "wild Gardens". My last neighborhood was as anal as they come. Geometry-or "meatballs across the front" only please. I actually had the cops called on me for daring to grow campis on my wood fence. (The hummingbirds loved it)and Planting beds near the curb! OH My God! Huge Sin that one. I love living in the country now- it is a neighbor hood with 1 & 2 acre lots-but as long as you keep the ditch clear what you do is your business. Ginger

Ginger-
I was trying to not use "that word", but thank you for saying it for me, lol...
-T

.....yeah Ginger I know what you mean by Anal...the property managers tried to cut my mimosa tree down because its frounds was growing over the fence and they didnt want the roots growing under the building. little did they know that cutting the top part of the tree made it grow faster and thicker....now I got shade for my hostas...:)
sylvia

Well I guess "they" are everywhere! I wanted to plant corn all around my perimeter for privacy because I was tired of "pruning" advice, or suggestions that I mow on the diagonal like everyone else. My yard was neat, just colorful, and the plants looked organic rather than mechanical.
Corn would have been legal, and what a great privacy fence!
(Although maybe they would pass an emergency measure against farm crops)

Then when an arborvitae died, i was just going to spray paint it green and keep it - it would've been the perfect plant - never throwing out ugly stray branches that needed to be cut back into shape!!
Now I'm on 13 acres and I feel decadent.

Maybe I'm breaking the trend here, but I like meatballs! I like a garden to have good lines and shape, but then be spilling out of those constricting patterns. So I guess I am anal and wild!

I like clipped boxwood, and tried a couple of years ago to make chicken topiaries out of my meatballs, but I haven't clipped this year so they are VERY straggly. I like Barnsley House, Rosemary Verey's garden, which has knot gardens and allees, and a potager...If I could, I would love to have a lot of structure, by way of evergreens, topiary and hardscape; then add the flowers in and around it, weaving through. I DON'T like Versailles or places where it almost looks fake.

But just because I like them a bit manicured, doesn't mean I can keep mine that way! My real garden is very wild. I can't keep up with that and my 4 year old too! I wish I could have one of the gardens I describe, but even when my little girl is away from home for a few hours, I never spend enough time to make it look good. Too lazy I guess. If I posted pictures you would all feel very good about your gardens, and think of them as very neat, not wild at all!

The one thing I don't do is tell other people what to do in their own yards. First of all they would laugh in my face and tell me to kindly remove the dead plants, and rip the weeds out of my gravel driveway! I grew up in the most overgrown yard on the street. That's probably why I yearn for structure, but it is also why I would never tell anyone what to do in their own place. Had enough of that in my childhood.



This message was edited Jul 27, 2005 4:30 PM

I would love to do topiary. I remember ages ago seeing hedges clipped to look like horses jumping over them in a fox hunt. That I think is like living sculpture, and just fascinating.
A long line of just square sheared yews, which is the suburban thing, might as well be concrete boxes!
I have seen beautiful knot gardens, but they are designs in color and texture.
I guess in the short time
I have to create, I go for big color and texture, a big old party so to speak.
You know, it may also be that in a short grwoing season, things don't GET too out of hand either, before it snows!!

I started out wanting a cottage garden , A big party, like you say, but it was too hard to have a big party ALL the time, so now I like green a bit more.....

I know that topiary sculpture! It's at Longwood Gardens I think.

This message was edited Jul 27, 2005 5:13 PM

I have been lurking - I confess... I laid out my gardens to be very neat and tight rows... and then they kinda changed slowly into the unplanned mess they are today.. Got to tell you the unplanned look I now enjoy is really stunning to look at and I like it better now that I have keep it!

...you want to see wild? here is wild! I have this friend of mine ....who takes care of a ward of the state person (mentally challenged) to come over saturday and pull that Popolar tree out the ground ....[yes, he actually yanked the darn thing out ...roots and all!] move a lot of big pots to the back area....so its looking good now. But Lord did I pray for Vioxx!..my back and hips hurt so bad ...demostrating how to move things for two hours! I should kept half of those twenty bucks I paid him... for myself!
Sylvia