While I was digging in the front garden this afternoon it occurred to me that there are different types of gardeners. I am sure that this is not news to you but it was quite a revelation to me. There are those who enjoy the processes of gardening : digging, pruning, making compost. Other gardeners enjoy the nurturing involved : sowing seeds, pricking out, hardening off. There are the plant collectors who love plants which are new, rare or challenging to grow. I don't like digging, I am ruthless with plants that are idle or sickly and I don't feel the urge to have an auricula theatre so where do I belong? I think about gardening a lot but I am not sure that is an acceptable category. I enjoy design, using colour and form, making exterior space, so perhaps I am a landscape gardener on a micro scale. In other news the Hydrangea 'Annabelle' is covered with flower heads and is going to look spectacular soon.
I think my favourite bit is the nurturing and the anticipation - I don't collect the rare but am fascinated by them - I used to enjoy the preparation, digging etc. when I was young and agile - but I guess my favourite bit about garden is the overall effect I have created and trying to keep it that way.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I don't have a love for hydrangeas but that flower head you have shown looks unusual to my eyes - is it a less common one?
It is Hydrangea 'Annabelle' which has green-white globe heads and I hope will look very striking in July if I can keep it watered.
DeleteI'm like you, Alice. My favourite part is definitely the thinking, creating and admiring (or otherwise) the results. But I also love a bit of sowing (the anticipation), potting on and planting. And I like pruning – very therapeutic.
ReplyDeletePruning is part of the Dark Arts and makes me anxious. I was considering a wisteria this year but Pruning. So no wisteria.
DeleteI'm a sitting in the garden with a nice cup of tea, or a gin and tonic kind of gardener..............
ReplyDeleteI see your G&T and raise you Pimms. It is all fruit and vegetables. Also flowers if you include borage.
DeleteYou hit is exactly. I am a shape, form, atmosphere kind of gardener. I do the process for the outcome, hate digging and am not at all interested in plant collecting. I often grow great swathes of things because I love the impact they make. I think about my garden a lot but when I am in the company of plant collecting gardeners or those who are very good at the whole craft and process I often feel a bit of a fraud.
ReplyDeleteWhoops, should have read it through. I meant you hit it!
DeleteOh! I am so glad that you also feel a fraud - I thought that it was just me having constant anxiety attacks in my dark corner of Imposter Gardener Syndrome. But things grow in the right places (sometimes) and flowers open so that colours coordinate (sometimes) so we ARE gardeners!
ReplyDeleteI like ALL of it, which doesn't mean I am good at any of it, especially the planning and thinking about colours. I am just relieved that anything I sow sprouts and doesn't go the way of all slugs and if it eventually flowers I am delirious with pleasure. And Annabelle is an absolute beauty, I am on the lookout for one, The Garden House at Buckland have some superb specimens.
ReplyDeleteThe more I garden, the more I am absorbed. Technical stuff seems alarming but once you have done it and seen the results it is just common sense. I wish that I had more space to experiment but for now I will carry on learning in my little garden.
DeletePS I will not hesitate to flaunt my Annabelle in due course if she is suitably superb.
PS this post says 3rd May, I had to think twice!
ReplyDeleteLosing track of time here in the Shire
DeleteI'm not sure what sort of a gardener I am either. At home I garden for the feel of the space around me and for scent too, and at the allotment it is all about taste. I don't dig, not even at the allotment, I loathe pruning, especially the wisteria which I have to gear myself up to do and I'm not interested in collections of anything. I've arrived here via Sam's coastal plot and I'm looking forward to reading more.
ReplyDeleteWelcome! Grab a cushion while I tell everyone else to budge up. Sam sends the most interesting people so I look forward to getting to know you.
DeleteYou sound like me especially the wisteria confession. At least you have a wisteria - mine has not yet made it out of the garden centre.