The Life Of A Garden And Its Gardeners

I read with interest an article in the Times Online from the UK. Gardening in the UK always fascinates me. Gardeners there have long been in tune with making the most of small plots of land and making them shine. Those across the pond have made urban gardening and adaptable gardening into an art form.

But this post by James Alexander-Sinclair was very thought provoking.  Mr Alexander-Sinclair is an accomplished garden and landscape designer.  He also writes for many journals and newspapers in the UK and Europe.

Mr Alexander-Sinclair described how our gardens go from the anticipatory stage where there is only just dirt and hope.  We add soil, till in nutrients, carefully plant seeds, hope, water and wait.

Then we reach the new baby stage in which we're delighted when anything grows well, "These yews have only been in two years and see how they flourish”.  And our garden evolves as we do with plants coming and going, and moving onto new locations.

Our garden reaches the petulant teen years when some plants grow well and the rest are doing their own thing. We shake our head wondering what has happened. But like all stages of life and gardening, we and the garden move on.

Our plants show a certain maturity as some firmly establish their roots and places in the garden.

We trim, we tweak.  Adding annuals to the mix for a spot of color or a slip from a friend's cherished perennial  collection. The garden grows and changes.

I've taken the liberty of having James Alexander-Sinclair sum it up:

A happy garden will always be a work in progress. Things should always be ebbing and flowing; plants come, plants grow; insects breeze about; birds arrive, fledge and leave.

It is a busy and thriving metropolis without the inherent transport problems.

Forget Samuel Johnson’s famous remark about London: surely it is more apt that the man who is tired of gardening must be tired of life?

And I ask you, "Is your garden happy?"

All in a gardener's day,

My thanks to James Alexander-Sinclair and to the Times Online-UK for sharing the original article. And to Susan H "Mommy of 9" for the photo.