Like you, I prefer to chalk it up to creativity... but I keep wondering whether my garden would actually look better if I would just let the darn things grow for a while before I move them. Maybe I'd have a jungle by now if I could just leave things be! :)

That's the fun of gardening! I love to tinker, sometimes I just go out to pick little weeds, rip off browning leaves, move pots around, collect JB's. I'm weird about color also. I dont have one spot of orange anywhere in my garden-just cant stand it. Dont care for the chocolate or black foliage either. With the weather being the way it is this year (VERY dry) I havent been planting anything. But I water front and back every day. Think I need a crew just to help do that! Times like this is when I dont want to expand anything. Then Spring comes, I go hog wild and forget all about that! I wouldnt be happy without all my flowers. They bring me so much joy.

Jen

I moved across the street from my old house last year and I look at the front of my old garden and think how nice it looks. I never thought that when I lived there!! My "new" house had no gardens so I have since added 7 gardens. I am only happy with the vegetable garden because it's not there to look pretty. Sigh.

I too, am never satisfied, im to the point now, that I can not possably dig up any more of my yard for new plants, and it is driving me crazy. Time to move to a bigger yard! I can not stay off the computer, or out of the nurseries around here, and Im often found at Lowes, or home depot. I buy things and they are sitting in pots cluttered up on my deck. I think I have a problem! At least its a healthy addiction! LOL! -Jessica

Hmmm. Yesterday I went out to take a break to enjoy the garden. It turned out that the wind had broken off my Little Joe Pye Weed, so I thought the Russian sage would be a perfect fit. So I moved it. Well, to balance the garden, it would be more perfect to have another achillea on the other end. So I moved it. Well, the yarrows looked like they were now spaced too close together. So I moved one. Okay, so now I had my shovel just primed up. I really didn't like that big clump of chives right in the middle of things, so I divided it and put it all over where I thought I "might" like it. Oops, there was a volunteer alyssum that I could use next to the retaining wall. Oh yeah, that Joe Pye root might still take off, so that went into the ground somewhere else, (I forget where). I think I might have been in a frenzy about then. Came in about 4 hours later--dirty, sweaty, and oh so happy. Obsession?

I'm satisfied on the "microscopic level" as it were. I love the way my 'Little Grapette' daylily is loaded with blooms this year, & I really like how well Phlox 'Laura' is doing after I moved it last year. On the "macroscopic level" I hate how they look together! I didn't realize that they'd bloom at the same time, so close together & look so AWFUL! :-) I have to go out & take a photo.

The "TRUE" gardener is never satisfied...

I've found my kindred spirits! Or should I say, my fellow addicts? ;-)

I can relate to everything being said, and it feels good to know I'm not alone. My excuse to myself is that since I've only been in this house for 2 summers now I am still deciding on the best place for everything... but I know that I will forever be planting and replanting, never quite content with leaving things be.

I'm pretty sure my neighbors secretly think I am crazy with my multitudes of plants, and seeing me outside daily with my gloves on and a shovel in my hand, but it's actually what keeps me sane.

How many of you gardeners are under the sign of Virgo? I find the "never being satisfied" a typical Virgo trait, which has it's good points and bad! Just ask my husband - how many times can we paint the bathroom before it's the perfect shade? :)

I thing gardening is my way of balancing the "perfectionist" side of being a Leo.

In a way, I am always wanting to change things, visualizing how a plant might look when it blooms, or if I move it over there, or what it will look like when it gets so much bigger next year and fills out...or what color the flowers will be on the seedlings that have seeded themselves...etc.!

So in a sense I am sometimes not satisfied because I'm looking forward to the beauty that I imagine and will emerge at some point in the future.

However, for me gardening is really useful for relaxation and de-stressing; and to create wildlife gardens for the birds, pollinators and insects; a spiritual connection with nature; and enjoying the incredible beauty of nature's creatures.

So sometimes I suspend the critical mind telling me that this and that has to be done or thinking things like "Oh won't that milkweed look pretty when it blooms". Then fully relax and be in the moment and enjoy the beauty of the gardens *just as they are*. There is always something beautiful to look at and interesting and delightful to watch.

And then it really IS satisfying.

I am a Pisces nurturing my creative side. At least that doesnt sound too insane : )

Jen

I'm a Virgo, too...the sign of the perfectionist! My husband can't understand why, after I've planted a perfectly good flower bed, I find the need the following year to dig things up and move them around. He'd much prefer to do something and then move on. We decorated the family room 15 years ago, it's done, why are we doing it again? Gardening is a process, not an event. It's too full of wonderful possibilities - I love the chance to explore all of them!

The only garden "regrets" I ever have, are when I get so busy with the spring work that I forget to pick a bouquet of tulips or lilacs for the house. Its then I realize I have to take a breath and appreciate the moment.

NO, no, no. I do not want to rip things up and move them around. argh. In nearly all of my beds there is space for annuals and that is something one can change on a whim. That way you can satisfy that need for new experiences each year. The perennials stay pretty much where they are, save for being divided or moved due to a change in the exposure when trees/shrubs around them mature.

Now, that being said, the need for more plants is never satisfied. It's a given, and a shared compulsion of all gardeners.

I actually like the look of our gardens more each year as they mature and become part of the intrinsic landscape here. We had a lot of ground to play with and at first didn't put too much thought into what went where. Now each addition we plunk into the ground has been thought out a bit more and it helps to keep it a permanent resident so it doesn't have to be moved. BTW, I'm a scorpio.

I think Terrene voices my perspective very well. I try to avoid moving perennials around but will to keep things thriving. Having said that my yard/garden are surely a canvas that wants to change not just every year but at various points throught out the season. Probably why I keep adding beds! My husband has even accepted the obsession to the point he is willing to start prepping a rose bed for next year that I had not articulated the need for yet. He said he could tell by some of the catalogs I've been reading and mumblings overheard (while pacing the garden) that more roses would be purchased next spring.

So please don't feel alone. I tell my husband often that instead of gardening I could be hooked on something like Italian handbags or gambling and he had to laugh and agree taht we can enjoy the fruits of this addiction.

Kate

This question was brought up to me last evening over dinner.

When we bought our house 5 years ago, I saw the opportunity to have the garden's I always wanted. There were numerous plants to already work with, plus numerous messes for me to tie into before planning and planting could be done.

Fast forward 5 years. I've installed border shrubs in front, a driveway garden, border beds all around the front yard, side walk and drive way, and cleaned out the mess on both sides of the house and replanted.

In the back I installed two privacy fences, three ponds, cleaned out the remaining side area, installed beds under a huge hickory tree and huge long property bed, brought in BAG BY BAG tons of stone for paths and a drainage area, what seems like tons of blocks to do raised beds, re-plantd the grass thre times because it's difficult, and planted so many plants, I now need to be very careful when planting in spring, because I can't remember where things are. I have decided that I simply must use discretion when buying stuff from now on. Each year I plant at least 16 pots front and back, and plant only minimal annuals throughout for color.

Every time I look at all of this, I really can't believe that my constant tinkering has exploded into a project that is really quite something (I had people photographing the front gardens the other day, so I guess I'm doing something right, plus I was hired as a gardener in March).

In the end, I guess you are right. We are all a constant gardener always moving things, ripping things out that don't look good, planting things, cutting things back, etc. etc. etc.

SG

Aside from the fact that from May to September, I can never get supper ready on time, and my house could do do with a REALLY good cleaning, I don't think I have too much of a mental disorder. Hmmm. Except that last night we got back from the cottage too late for me to go out back and greet the ones I missed, so not only did I dream all night about my garden it was the first thing on my mind when I woke up this morning. Took me about 4.5 seconds to get dressed, make a cup of tea and fight my way past 2 hungry cats to the back door. Once outside, even with a cup of tea in my left hand, I was even able to dig out a whole bed of tri color sage that I'd been pretending to like for the last few months, and replace it with the normal sage, and find a new home for some Cosmos that was supposed to be 4 ft tall and ended up being 18 inches.

I find I need the constant moving, creating, adding garden beds, getting used to a new plant, dreaming about things I can't have... i love it all.

But I have to mention something. One day about a month ago I actually found time to sit there in the middle of the garden and just relax and enjoy my surroundings without a critical eye. It wasn't easy to get into that mental frame, but I tried it again a few days later and it was very pleasurable!! Since then, I've been doing a bit less fiddling and more sitting. The good part is, it's all GREAT :)

This was an interesting thread and had me thinking. Here are some of my thoughts...Gardens are living. They are growing and changing all the time. We also garden in an environment that is unpredictable and can undo all our carefully made plans. We have a hard time keeping up with our garden. We may concentrate on getting one area the way we want it and by the time we are done with that, another area is needing help.

Add to that the fact that until you have personal experience with a plant in your yard, you really have holes in your understanding of using it. I have not been able to visit other gardens and often I will choose a plant and plan it into the garden simply by a description and photo in a book or online or in a catalog. Given that fact, the result of planning this way is that there is always a surprise. Something about a plant that you didn't understand. These surprises often indicate a move would be beneficial for the plant or the garden design. There are so many variables with growing plants, how can you expect to get it right the first time every time? I think this is what gardening is. I like to imagine that the more experienced you are the more frequently you can get it right the first time. Although I keep waiting to be that experienced. [g]

Besides that, getting it right might mean right for now. [g] Next month or next year, you may be tired of looking at the same two plants next to each other and have a better idea. That is just human nature.

I think it is because of these facts, that I have to find satisfaction in less than what I want. When I am working on one project and planning two more, I could easily look around and be disappointed with how my garden is looking at any given moment. I have done that, but not often. I find that when the overall design is not where I want it, I still find great pleasure in just growing plants. The whole process brings pleasure and the individual plants bring excitement everyday. I can't wait to get outside and see if the CasaBlanca Lilies are open yet, etc.

Something else that effects my satisfaction is a certain level of acceptability for me. It is not well defined and I haven't thought it through, but I can feel it before I can even think about it. It is stressful to be below that level and I feel myself winding up to fix it. When I am off schedule with the vegetable garden, or the weeds are getting away from me and the lawn is browning from not enough rain. Some of these things are fine and expected, but if you have too many of these situations going on at once, you are out of your comfort zone and you have to bring it back in line.

I find myself getting out of that comfort zone often due to our circumstances and it does get overwhelming and takes some of the pleasure out of the garden at those times. But when it gets like this, I try to break it down into smaller projects and try to keep as many areas of the garden in the condition I enjoy them in as I can. Sometimes that is only one. [g] If I have at least that ONE area looking the best it can look at the moment, then I can be patient and keep working on the areas that are not, and still keep my satisfaction level pretty high.

I like to kid myself and others sometimes that gardening is a hobby, but I think it is more a passionate lifetime avocation that takes more of our time and attention than we like to admit. :-)

pm2

Pam_whit, I agree, it IS all great. Whether I am in a reverie, visualizing what I want to do with a garden the next day or the next year, busy digging a new bed or moving a plant somewhere, or enjoying the beauty of something in full bloom, it is all WONDERFUL!

Very occasionlly I do feel a little overwhelmed when there are too many plants in the pot ghetto or the weeds are running rampant. But it's not that bad in comparison to the stress related to the rest of my life.

Gardening is a creative process that will probably never be finished. And I don't want it to ever be finished. Truth be told, I'm not sure that I could ever really enjoy life to its utmost if for some reason I weren't able to garden and connect with nature.

Prairiemoon, no doubt about it, it's not just a hobby, it IS a passionate lifetime avocation, going on 20 years now.

I am a Leo (July 29). I would never move a plant just a few inches. I enjoy leaving perennials alone & allowing them to mature...plants like hosta & daylilies are so rewarding when allowed to grow unmolested by a shovel for five years. I do divide plants than benefit from the effort such as echinacea, rudbeckia, etc.; but, then I refresh the area they were growing in & replant in the same spot...usually. Once in a while, I'll make a very poor decision & end up with a combination that just grates on me like fingernails on a chaulkboard. I have one of those now...a simultaneously blooming clemetis & a daylily. Ouch! I'll move the daylily after it has finished blooming but won't divide the clump (it's 3 years old). Most of our perennials are planted around a skelton/framework of trees & shrubs so that as we age & can no longer take care of so many perennials it's easy to edit them out without losing the garden's structure. I don't have ANY beds devoted soley to perennials. When we started these gardens four years ago, I also made the decision not to "collect" plants. With these new gardens, I'm planting in drifts of the same plant & enjoying the results tremendously. I'm using the "repeating" concept all around the property & also pleased with the continuity & cohesiveness it has brought to the entirety.

We are much more satisfied with these gardens that we've been with previous properties we've owned. Perhaps, being in our fourth decade of gardening has mellowed us? I also find that I'm returning to the "tried & true" rather than this year's latest introductions. We're also relying less on flowers & more on foliage & texture than in previous gardens. Not only are we finding it less work but more peaceful...possibly to our aging sensibilities? Winter interest is another consideration we've given considerable thought to this go around. Our climate here is much milder than in NH. We're in the garden March-January plus the design of this house is such that our gardens are visible from indoors. So, even during the coldest part of the winter I want to look out on a pleasing garden framework.

Are we satisfied? Basically, yes...we are. Is there more to do? Yes, much! But it's because we've only been here four years & haven't worked our way around the property not because we want to change what's been accomplished. During my morning garden tour today as I was deadheading the daylilies, I noted that the garden is maturing (just like me). The hydrangea hedge is full, lush, & each plant touches the next. The rudbeckia planted in front of the hedge are entwining nicely & peeking their bright yellow flowers up through the almost artifical-looking blue of the hydrangeas. Across the grass path from the hedge...the 'Shasta' daisies are standing over 4' tall this year & carrying 87 open blooms with dozens more buds waiting in the wings to follow. (They will need dividing next spring for the health of the clump.) The self-seeded 'Johnny Jump-Ups' at their feet made me smile...just like they're supposed to do. As I walked down the hydrangea hedge, I glanced up & saw the five 'Blue Angel' hostas that have grown huge from pampering & being left to grow in the same location for four years. They encircle a white pine & the leaves are just almost touching each other this year...next year, hopefully it will form a continuous ring around the tree.

Overall, yes we are satisfied. (DH & I garden together as buddies.) One of my biggest joys as a gardener is watching the garden mature. As it does, it takes on a life of its own rather than the contrived one I planted. A seedling here...a seeding there with me just providing cultural care. It seems more natural...more a place of refuge than anything I could create. If I moved my plants frequently, I would lose that which takes nature several seasons to develop &, to me, that would be a lose.

Tricia

Boy Tricia, that describes exactly what I've been trying to do with the grounds over the years. My husband has just hit seventy and spends most of his days outside, on his behind in the garden beds, or on his tractor attending to them. None of my beds are just plants. I started a decade and a half ago putting the bones into the design with trees and shrubbery and every bed has forethought put into it as to how easy it will be to maintain in the future. We have acreage and our display garden covers three of them. I have finally convinced my husband to buy into my drift theory but it was a hard battle. He's a onesy-twosy gardener and the confusion of large gardens with that much visual activity going on can be overwhelming. I like the garden room concept, but there should be some continuity.

Gardeners need to understand that they are working with four dimensions, time being one of them. As different seasons approach the whole panorama of our landscape changes with the blooms. It can go from pastel and soft to to burnt orange, gold and striking. I use a lot of foliage and structure of trees and grasses, and evergreens for winter interest as well. We also incorporate food and forage for birds and wildlife into our plans.

Ditto liking the shift from "contrived" to mature. Mature gardens are timeless, they should tell the mind that they could have been here forever. Just when my plantings get so mature they become lush and almost decadent (ie the azalea blossoms nearly occluding the front porch steps) and the vining plants overflowing the terraces to the point they dance along the ground below...........just when I am loving it so much.........I catch him with the pruners. Gardening "buddies" can be an interesting concept.

Tricia and Calliope...

I have been trying to develop a low maintenance garden as well. I have shrubs in all my borders and probably have just about every low maintenance, well behaved plant I have found on a list. [g] I am looking forward to a mature garden having had to rip out 120 ft shrub border 4 years ago and start over, I have a very young garden right now.

Do you take any photos of your gardens?

pm2

OH yeah. But, that is a dangerous question. It's almost as much of a trigger is asking if you have pictures of your grandchildren. LOL.

We have a three-year old digital camera that doesn't take nearly as good quality of photos as I see on the Forums so I'm a bit embarrased...also, I can't figure out how to post a pix beyond using the "Name That Link" feature at the bottom of the posting box. So, I'm photo challenged!

One of the plantings we've done that I'm the most pleased with is our Japanese hakonechloa grass hedge. We used gallon-size plants & put in thirty-six. They are about $22/pot in my area. Because of the cost, we planted this hedge over three years just finishing April '07. It's beautiful! The hedge snakes around our back gardens following a curving ribbon of grass leading to our brick patio & BBQ area. The grasses require absolutely ZERO maintenance other than a 6" mulch with 50/50 leaf moulde & composted manure in May & a haircut the following April. It brings color, movement, & texture to an otherwise difficult area (dappled shade just outside the dripline of a mature maple, white pine, & CO blue spruce). Behind the hakone grass hedge we've used azaleas in a combination of spring-flowering deciduous & evergreen. We've also used summer-blooming, deciduous azaleas, clethra, & daphne to add more color & the important fragrance. In early spring, Virginia bluebells carry the area until the hakone grasses reach their fullest growth in late May & cover the dying bluebell foliage. Across from the hakone hedge is a similar line of repeating plants; but this time we used Japanese Painted Ferns to form the border. It's a terrific color play against the golden grasses. So, there's nothing planted in that entire area of several hundred square feet that requires a darn thing from me other than cultural care yet it's colorful, has wonderful movement, continuity, form, & structure. The Japanese Painted Ferns have self-propogated themselves in the most amazing places...it's wonderful where nature decides to plant these ferns! For example, Ma Nature decided that my geranium 'Rozanne' needed to be snuggled with JPFs & proceeded to "plant" them. 'Rozanne' is stunning weaving through those ferns! Anyway, that's the type of concept we're using for these new gardens. Yes, I have some flowering perennials but they play a secondary role in the gardens. I believe they could be removed without much loss to the overall effect.

It's been more expensive planting this way so it's happening slowly. Larger shrubs/trees are just more costly than perennials but over the long haul I think our gardens will have more "staying power". We plant April, May, & the first two weeks in June...not after. Again, that's to keep the maintenance down. It's hard to keep things well watered in mid-summer heat so we don't even try.

Tricia

Sounds like you have really had some original ideas. Tricia..I hope in place of the next 6 plants you were planning on buying, you will get a good camera!! I would really love to see what your garden looks like. :-) You will love having a camera that you are happy with. I use mine all the time and have a great record of what my plants look like at different times, when they first bloom, etc....and for sharing. Are you sure you don't want to share the photos that you feel aren't quite up to snuff? I think we could get the idea of what you did and how it looks.

Calliope, if you have pics...the more the merrier. :-)

Another Virgo here, after gardening in the same place for over 40 years I only have two spots I'm completely satisfied with, well maybe a bit of tweaking now and then with these. I'm forever digging up, replanting, in other words forever playing musical chairs with the plants in the garden. If I don't think I've got it right....TRY, TRY, AGAIN seems to be my motto.

A......

That is a long time to have gardened. You are so fortunate. :-) But again, you are talking about 'completely satisfied'.
That is a whole different thing to me. lol I wonder who you could ask that would say they were 'completely satisfied'. I bet you would be surprised at how many gardeners would say the same thing that you just posted.

I am not completely satisfied with one thing in my garden! lol

Well, I've been lusting after plants now since late winter, planning the buying and planting of roses to start. I actually couldn't wait to plant, so I planted too early, before the last freezes; fortunately they all survived. Since, I've been ordering everything. I can't stay away from Lowe's or Home Depot-- they have really great, big beautiful perennials which I've been stocking up on. I've been ordering daylilies, roses, perennials, Irises online. I'm totally addicted to plants period! Just love to grow things. Gardening gives me tremendous joy. It's amazing to plant something and see it increase ten-fold and reward you year after year.

I agree, my only problem is that I don't buy annuals at all. All of my plants are perennials and im running out of space! It is rewarding though to have increase, cause I like sharing the wealth with family and friends. Just yesterday I was out weeding my garden and a woman stopped her car in the middle of the road put her flashers on and got out to ask me for some seeds from my bee balm. Since I have too much of it anyway that was cool with me. though I told her ive never grown it from seed, but it sure spreads like wildfire. To be honest ive never actually looked for any seeds on it, but I gave her some of the spent heads anyway. I also gave her some seeds from my crocosima. So I made her day. I felt good after that. -Jessica

I've got almost 20 kinds of berries (and over 50 kinds of fruit on a small sub-urban lot) and my wife insists that everything has to look "pretty" at the same time. lots of clematis and other flowering vines surrounding everything at this point.

I know I'll be looking through the catalogs next year for more edibles (though where-ever I will put them is beyond me).

Though I can claim that I probably spend less time weeding than the average gardener (plenty of mulch and just no room for the weeds to start).

~Chills

Ahh this thread has gotten quite interesting! My focus has also changed, and foliage and form are much more interesting to me than a specific flower. In fact sometimes flowers just get in the way of a composition. I'm trying to observe a rule that I don't buy anything unless it feeds wildlife or has multiseason interest.

Its always good to get other peoples opinions and yesterday I had a mature garden friend with a 4 acre shade garden come over to look at things with me. She has very little flower color in her garden because of the shade, so foliage and form is the focus of her garden - which has been nationally featured. The goal was to simplify my garden maintenance. OMG, what a great thing. I have about a hundred shrubs that all need pruning and care. That, and the maintenance on the perennial beds is killing me. I never, never get caught up and there comes a time that this kind of gardening is not satisfying. She suggested ripping out several perennial beds and replanting the mature shrubs elsewhere where they can achieve their natural size without pruning. Just the few suggestions she made would take at least 20 hours of serious labor out of my garden. Just one little example involved taking out a hedge of burning bush and replacing it with a bench set on flagstones and surrounded by the existing groundcover. 0 maintenance. Another was moving a giant bed of 15 cotoneaster that are the ultimate leaf catchers and putting them where they can grow and fruit to their hearts content and I won't prune them anymore or crawl around picking leaves out of them spring and fall. Also a large planting of chamaecyparis filifera that never should have been planted where they are and have to be pruned - move them to where they can grow unpruned. Nothing more beautiful than unpruned C. filifera aurea.

I loved your idea of the hakone hedge. I planted hellebores and hakone grass together - great 4 season combo if I do say so myself. Also, started a couple of long curving hedges of hellebores to define the edge of the woods. I just love going out to look at flowers in the middle of winter. Big gardens require a huge effort in the spring, but by winter I start getting antsy again to see something happening in the garden.

Please post photos. Do you know how to use Photobucket? If you upload to an account there, you can post photos or links easily.

This is a great thread. The short answer, for me, is ...
No, never satisfied. If I ever am, I guess I won't be a gardener any more! The whole thing is about creating something that is dynamic, not completely under our control, that constantly evolves. Love it, love it, love it.

Prairiemoon, please let us see your hedge! It sounds so interesting, I think I may have to "adapt" - read copy - your idea.

Even better than photobucket, google now has Picasa, which comes with software that will access your camera, create albums on your computer, and upload to an on-line album. You need a google account, which is free. It's at google.com, under More -> Photos. On your on-line album pages, you can click on a link that will create html code that you can copy/paste into a GW message, a small photo that is clickable and goes to the full-size photo in your album:

{{gwi:256189}}

Photobucket can't do that, as far as I know.

No plant is planted properly in my garden until it's been moved 3 times, at least.

I'm satisfied at the end of any day that I've spent in the garden. Satisfied with the work that was accomplished that day. Satisfied with the fact that progress was made towards achieving my mind's eye vision for the garden.

That said, I am not happy with all parts of the garden at the same time. We started landscaping our new home late last summer. It was my first time to start from scratch, so even though I had an idea what I wanted the end result to be, plants don't always bloom the color shown in the catalogs, or grow to the size listed on their tags. Plants that I thought would go well together, don't. So I AM constantly moving things around. Like someone said earlier, I would like to think that as I become more experienced, I will get it right at least SOME of the time, LOL.

Just yesterday, I planted two new plants, which led to moving three other plants. So as I am standing there admiring my handiwork, and feeling ... well, satisfied, my DH points to a section of another flower bed that is mostly small plants started from seed earlier this year, and said "Everything looks great except this area over here." Right there is the difference between a gardener and a non gardener. He just wants it to look "finished". I am in it not only for the end result, but for the process as well. Looking at that one section, I can see what I think it will look like once those plants mature and fill in the area. I see a work in progress ... he sees the empty spaces. Yes, I added some annuals as fillers this year, but hopefully by next year the only annuals will be the ones in pots on the porch.

Certainly, my vision for the garden will change over time, so there will always be something to do. Last year, when all we had was a dirt yard, I was miserable. I had lots of time for planning, but missed the physical and emotional satisfaction of the act of gardening.

I just noticed your post dtd...and I just wanted to let you know, it was tricia who had the hakonechloa hedge. [g] I keep checking back to see if anyone has posted photos. Is that a Perovskia hedge I see? Such an original idea. Very pretty! What made you ever think of it?

I second the request for a photo of the Japanese hakonechloa grass hedge.

:-)

lol

I'll have DH take a picture when he gets to Mystic for the weekend. I'm camera challenged! Now that the kind folks on the NE Forum have taught me how to post pictures...I just have to get DH to take some!

In the meantime, here's one he took last weekend. You can at least see the repeating use of the same type plants...in this case 'Shasta', huechera, geramiums, h. 'Blue Angel'.

{{gwi:256190}}

If you keep wandering on this grass path...just around the corner, to the right, is where the hakone grass hedge begins...

Tricia

Should have noted it's huechera 'Palace Purple' & geranium 'Biokovo'.

/T

Great photo, triciae - now about that hosta - what kind is that?

PM2 - I never thought of that row of perovskia as a hedge, it's just screening a seating area, about 12' long ... but thanks for the idea - if it lined the entire edge of the lawn, it would be *much* easier to mow ... LOL. I think I planted that when I first started buying plants in threes; of course they self-sow, so now I could easily have a dozen, maybe 2... yes a hedge is a great idea.

My plans are so far ahead of my actual garden that it might be hard to recognize the connection if there were images of both real and imagined gardens side by side. The beauty of the imagined garden is that everything is in scale, growing perfectly, in bloom (all the time), and there are no damn weeds. Oh yeah, the lawn is green too. I'd really like to live there, instead of here.

Hi DtD..

It's h. 'Blue Angel'. Five of them. Two are visible in the picture. They are getting gi-normous. They have swamped the corydalis that was lining their feet...the corydalis are now uh...'underpants'? Well, maybe...'bloomers' would be a better word, huh? lol You have to lift a 'Blue Angel' leaf & peek underneath to see the corydalis...guess I'll have to move those. It worked for four years though until the hostas grew out to the lawn edge.

Tricia

I HATE moving plants around. I don't have a lot of energy to begin with, and it's a challenge for me to get things planted when I buy them, much less to have the work of digging them up and replanting. However - does that stop me from overbuying every spring, and redoing a couple of beds every year??? No!! After I get things planted, and they've had a couple years to grow, I have a pretty good idea whether or not I like the way they look. And 9 times out of 10, some plants are too crowded, others have way too much space between them, colors clash, some plants didn't make it through the winter, etc. So there I go again. I drive myself crazy!!

Deanna

I'm with you, gardenfanatic. The list of plants that "need" to be moved is getting longer every day, but the chances of most of them ever actually being moved is getting slimmer at the same time.

Triciae, those hosta are fabulous. I wonder if that's what I've got out in my "woods" - I'll have to dig up the tags, they're around here ... someplace.

I started gardening 43 years ago and after 5 years it was looking pretty nice that we decided to invite some friends and neighbors to share the garden with. We have done ths almost every year since and if we thought the garden was lovely then can you imagine what it looks like today. Overall, I have a lot of satisfaction. But am I satisfied? No, I can't wait to see what it will look like next year and the year after and the year after when my 200 Trillium are 400. When my Stewartia is ten feet tall. When my shrub border has filled in. When all my native azaleas get big enough to bloom. When my Acer japonicum acanthifolium is 10 feet tall. When my Tsuga canadensis 'Cole's prostrate' is draping two feet over the rock wall. I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture.

I already added my 2 cents worth, but I wanted to mention something that probably applies to most, if not all of us.

My sister is a gardener too. A couple weeks ago she was moaning to me about how horrible her plants look and that most of them were dead or near-dead due to a heavy rainstorm, wind, dog trampling, etc. That this was the worst gardening year ever. A couple days later, I was at her house, and guess what? Her gardens were beautiful!

I think what we see in our own gardens, and what others see are two different things.

Deanna

definitely. I have only been gardening for about 6 months or so(I am 22) and I absolutely love to sit amongst my pots and babies and just relax. There is no order or form to my container gardening. no straight lines or black and white. therefore...it is always perfect to me.

Hello :-) Love your screen name! [g]

Were Shakespeare a gardener I am sure he would have siad, " To move, or not to move, that y dear greenthumbers is the question!" I am a Gemini - and frankly if I could blame it on the "other, crazier side" I would, or maybe its the voices..... alas, I think it has more to do with a theory that I have firmly espoused since first falling under the spell of perennial gradening.... your garden is an ever changing work of autoboigraphy.

How many times have you found yourself in the garden after a very stressful day of work? Did you move anything? Betcha did! Its a creative release, a way to make sense of the world around you, and what better way than to "create" something! Its as simple as moving a plant....why? The colour clashes with its neighbor. The foliage would look better next to one that is in the back of the border. My God, its not supposed to grow that tall! The reasons are endless, but I truly believe that we are simply presenting a glimpse of who we, not just as gardeners, but as individuals truly are! Rejoice in our creativity and untimately our uniqueness!

This post is toooo funny! My son told me not too long ago: Everytime you come in the house your hands are muddy. LOL! I thought it was just me, honestly. It's so nice to know that I am not the only one that is never satisfied.

Happy Gardening!

Brenda