We bought this house from a lovely couple who’d raised a family of their own here, and I swear love oozed from every nook and cranny. It’s homey and peaceful and somehow feels like getting away even when you’re right in the middle of it all, which is a pretty good trick when you think about it. Our family has lived here six months now and it’s official.
I suck at gardening.
This isn’t a huge surprise for any of us. I’ve never claimed plant skills, indoor or out. I detest yardwork, a fact that’s not helping things around the mailbox – it’s getting a bit wild out there. I cringe a little more each time I pass the vast array of weeds on display from our driveway. All this is bad enough, but did I mention we bought our house from a woman with exceptional gardening skills?
That’s right. This yard – our yard now – has been a colorful display for years. Trees, flowers, and plants bloom in spectacular fashion year round. It’s lovely. It’s also fair to say it’s slowly falling apart under my watch. There’s a very Darwinian botanical experiment going on out there, and survival of the fittest is the name of the game.
So if you’re driving by and see some landscapers reworking that front flower bed, pulling up a hundred weeds and replacing the remnants with a much simpler arrangement of bushes and trees…let’s just call it a win for curb appeal.
Our gardening skills sound on a par. Sure Dad is looking down on me with much displeasure – he was a gifted gardener who always had an immaculate patch. At least I can blame the Amazonian backyard look on the dog…..
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Yeah, I’ve got more than a few talented gardeners in the family line who are probably shaking their heads over me. What can I say, the green thumb gene skipped a generation.
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It’s always good to be aware of ones weaknesses.
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Yep. This one falls solidly in the seek advice category.
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I’m almost to the point of survival of the fittest, but I hold out hope that I’ll get my flowerbeds back into shape one of these years. I’ll let you know when that year gets here. In the meantime, it looks ratty out there and I know it. No curb appeal here.
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Yes! I say solidarity. If we ALL go for wild & rambly then it becomes the new chic.
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I’ve never been good at “plants” either…I have the original (perhaps) ‘brown thumb.” People kindly and misguidedly will give me plants too. Finally a friend with a really good sense of the absurd got me the following little sign to stick in my latest ‘victim’s’ pot: It reads: I tried. It died. Yep. So I pay someone to come weed my ‘garden’ and this year I had them plant bulbs out there. In my experience (and hopefully) bulbs will bloom each year, spread and get to be big huge honking beds of the plant (I favor lilies) and it takes very little on the part of the ‘gardener” to have a nice effect. OF course one SHOULD weed those beds, and thin out the plants once there’s a lot of them, but meh. I say do what’s best for YOU!
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Ah, bulbs sound like a garden-deficient girl’s dream!! I’m sure there are things out there that better fit my skill level. We just need to find someone who can advise us on it.
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Try low maintenance evergreen shrubs, that may work for you.
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Ooh, good tip. Thanks!
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This is the first time for me actually having the time to garden and while it looks a little worse for wear, I am enjoying it. I am opposite than you as I would rather be outside trying to garden, and fail due to my brown thumb, that inside. But we all have our ‘drathers’ as my mom use to say.
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And thank heavens we do! I adore looking at nature so it would be a real pity if everyone hid inside like me!!
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Gardens are beautiful and a lot of work, which I no longer care to do. Which means my “gardens” now truly are a case of survival of the fittest.
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I might be less concerned if that mulch bed wasn’t front & center out there. 😆
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Gardening is not everyone’s cup of tea. I can’t sit the way someone tending to a garden has to do my performance is limited to telling others what to do. Not a successful formula for a beautiful garden.
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I’d like to think I’d do better in a more temperate climate – it’s so blasted HOT here – but that could be wishful thinking.
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Weather plays an important role in outdoor activities.
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It absolutely does for me. Some folks don’t mind the heat but it’ll keep me sidelined.
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Those folks are the hardened gardeners. Not everyone is!
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