Oh, I love your pictures. I planted crocosmia this year. Yours look great!

Hmmm....I must say that I love the look of my garden when the first spring flush of roses happens. It is very grand looking. However, this year what tickled me pink is a honeysuckle serotina 'florida' that I had planted about three years ago. It was never really happy in any spot that I put it in. It refused to grow and barely bloomed. Finally, I ripped it out by it's scrawny neck, plopped it down in the back of my flower bed behind my roses and buddleia, wished it the best of luck and promptly forgot about it. Imagine my surprise this spring when I noticed a very happy, rapidly growing honeysuckle reaching for the lattice to climb. I love the scent and a very determined hummingbird has already found the flowers way down there. Perfect!
~Melissa

Nell,
This is a great thread - I'll be coming back to read everyone's responses. I love your crocosmia - I bought some for my other house but it didn't make our first winter there.

I think what gives me the greatest pleasure are the little things. Seeing the birds at the birdbath and feeders - finally! (I didn't think we had them here in this town!) ...Being able to look out my bedroom window and see the harvest moon coneflowers blooming. ....Seeing things I've grown from seed blooming this year or dreaming about what will bloom next year.

I have a new garden from scratch this year in a yard that had no flowers or landscaping at all - and had these huge ugly overgrown bushes right in front of the house. And now I have five flower beds in front and everything is blooming. I can't tell you how happy I am when I'm outside puttering around! :)

Estelle

I have to say small joys. Each morning I go out (before the heat) to see what is blooming or changing.

Nell your crocosmia are wonderful! (and RED :-)

I'm a big picture person myself. I'm trying to redo my beds so that the big picture makes sense, and then all the little vignettes will add to the whole. I try to have the overall design have the proper shrubs and large perennials and foliage to hold it all together, and then make "clusters" of blooms so I can focus on different areas in different seasons. That being said, I just love seeing something bloom for the first time in a season (the first iris, the first lily, the first dahlia, etc.) and really get joy from individual blooms.

Nell, I think livin easy is the prettiest rose. Does it have a nice scent?

I think the small joys for me. Especially, in the spring when everything begins peeking out and I notice that my clump of, whatever it may be, has doubled in size. That makes me do a little jig! You should see me when I get a new basal on one of my roses...scary!

Shawna

Definitely the small things bring the greatest joy:
- It's the small birdhouse tucked into just the right spot.
- The scent of honeysuckle when the humidity is high.
- The butterflies feasting on my cosmos and lantana.
- Watching a cardinal give flying lessons to her babies.
- Observing Lizzie, a large lizard that lives in our holly bushes, sunning herself on our sidewalk.
- Geckos clinging to a screen during the summer waiting to snag a mosquito.
- Watching plants emerge from seeds obtained from our CG seed swap.
- Picking a bouquet of flowers from my garden and giving them to someone, just because.
- Picking a large sprig of rosemary and handing it to the person grilling outside. They make great basters!
- The thrill of seeing something emerge and thrive, that I thought was dead.
- Smiling to myself when I see my sons ( ages 19 and 22 who claim to be completely disinterested in my garden) sit outside and just chill. An even bigger smile when they choose to entertain friends in the garden!

I feel so happy to have observed and done these things, and also to have experienced so much more than I could ever write. They are small things, but they have touched my heart.

Perfection is in the details. :-)

Marilyn

Being a plantaholic I think the thing that really thrills me the most is actually looking at a plant combination that catches my eye as I walk through my garden, thinking, you did good girl, that one you don't have to dig up and move.
The Daylily 'Smoke Rings' nestled in a swath of purple Campanula poscharskyna and the edges of a winding path a tangle of yellow Welsh Poppies and bluish Aquilegia alpina blooming there little heads off at the end of may. I think it's things like this is what brings the smile to my face, plus, watching the plants and plants that I have grown from seed (my greatest treasures) grow that I have received from friends rather than the overall picture seems to be what it's all about for me.
Having the overall garden come together in harmony is something that has escaped me as of yet, but I'll keep working on it. So many of your gardens have taken my breath away, all different, all so very beautiful in their own right. I just come to gallery on this forum when I need to brighten my day.

Annette

Boy, Nell, that's a hard question for me to answer. I guess I have to say that for now it's the big picture that does it for me. I'm concentrating so hard on winning over so many different areas and rescuing them from the weeds, trying to turn this space into my idea of a real yard. Each time DH comes along with his tractor to help me accomplish something I've been thinking on for several years I'm just giddy that's it's FINALLY happening!! I love my plants and get a lot of joy out of looking over a nearly completed bed that is finally filled with blooming plants but for now I don't really notice the finer details of what's in there growing and blooming. I'm certainly not yet able to take much notice of what works together color wise or texture wise. I have to say though that I'm getting older and I'm looking forward to the time when maintenance and just smelling the roses is what will give me the most pleasure. I'm loving the fact that, for a moment in time, I can now go outside and just sit in a chair and look around me and get a real feeling of satisfaction for what I have accomplished out there so far.

MeMo

Hi Everybody.

Big picture for me. Just to step outside and wander along the paths with beauty everywhere I look. It's never hard work but always pleasure. I find different views to take my breath away daily. I often wish I could put my arms around the WHOLE garden and hold it close.

Libby

I think you can have both... all the vignettes unified by repititions in scale, texture, foliage color, bloom color echoing from bed to bed. Been working on restoring big old gardens for over five seasons now; moving, dividing, respacing, taking out, adding to, etc. - this year I can look out any window in my house and think to myself that this is finally making some sense and coming together. From a distance I can almost grasp the whole as being greater than the sum of its parts, but close up each plant or grouping makes a statement of its own.

Nell, this is an interesting thread. I love your crocosmia. I haven't tried that down here. There are so many things that just won't take our heat and humidity.

I'd have to say it's the small things for me also. It's a joy to go out in the mornings when everything is fresh. You never know what surprises await you.

I love all the butterflies flitting around. The sound of the cardinals and the mockingbirds' song.

The perfume of roses and the different jasmines. The scents of herbs as you brush up against them.

The way the sunlight spills its' light throughout the day.

Rain, wonderful rain, as we were in drought conditions and now we've been having some doses of liquid sunshine so that everything is growing like weeds.

One thing is, I don't really have a big picture as our gardens are really little garden rooms. So, I have hallways from one space to another.

Love reading everyones' responses.

FlowerLady

What a great question. It's going to be a few years before I gain the knowlege and skills to accomplish a decent bigger picture. Even if that ever happens, I suspect I will still get the biggest thrills over the smallest things.

Today it's because the little smoke bush that had been struggling for over a year is actually looking perky for the first time ever, three days after I moved it to a new location out of the direct wind.

Yesterday it was seeing a bloom on my teeny-tiny Radar Love clematis.

Last week it was finding out that the foxglove I moved out from under the calla lily didn't croak from the transplant.

A couple of weeks ago it was finding an S-shaped cosmos that had been buried underneath some nasturtiums; I moved it to it's own space, where it's now straight and growing like a weed... and has three blooms on it, with more to come.

The hummingbirds give me small thrills everyday.

Nancy

For me, it's mostly the little things...the butterflies perched on the butterfly bush, the watermelon vine trailing along the fence, the sunflowers that are so cheerful, (that the birds planted for me, in perfect locations!) The fragrant herbs tucked among the flowering bushes, the birds enjoying the birdbath, picking fruit in the back orchard...the persimmon tree that finally has fruit on it! They are large, plump, abundant, and promising. Spreading my homemade compost in the cottage garden and watering it in is one of my greatest pleasures. The plants look so happy afterward. I love how it all works together, the seeds reseeding, the manure from my pig and chicken which makes the compost pile heat up, the beautiful effect all of the plants, energy, and time have when put together. When I drive in and look at my garden from my driveway, I feel very fortunate, and am amazed at the beauty.
Stephenie

Small things bring me the most pleasure. The little creatures (birds, geckos, butterflies, dragonflies) in the garden are very entertaining. And, I also do the daily morning and evening walk to see what's blooming and what the deer or bunnies might be munching (that's more of an experiment than a problem).

As for the big picture, I like the fact that all these gardens around the house make it look like a loved home. A place to stay forever.

Cameron

More often then not the small things excite my senses. I have most of my plants in containers because I am a renter, so watering is a daily pleasure June through September.
I love to come home from work and tend to the plants relying on my care. When I see a thirsty plant like my smoke bush or corkscrew willow and I give it a drink I love to come back at the end of the evening to see that it has swelled in my absence. Or when the impatiens wilt, are watered, and reward you with blooms for your attention. I love catching a whiff of something sweet on the wind and moving from plant to plant until I find the source so strong I feel like I an drinking it in, (thank you buddleia.) I love the dew reflecting the soft morning light when it seems the cypress are glowing from the inside. Or how about noticing that a potted plant has, at last, become established, (can't you picture it stretching out like a cat after a nap.) I feel so proud after I mow the grass. Not only because I have completed a chore, but because it makes the other plants all seem immediately larger!
There are times of the year when the grand scheme falls beautifully into place, however; and to look upon the area where, when you first began there was nothing more than a green canvas, and now it seems Renoir has paid a visit and added his helping hand to the landscape. These are the times when, after toiling all day, you finally look up at sunset and your hard work is set aglow by the setting sun. The colours of the world do not vie for your attention but join hands... and bow for an ovation from the worker of the field. He or she gasps, smiles, and is at peace with the ebb and flow of Earth as she spins to allow life to proceed for our neighbors.
These occasions do not happen everyday or because we think we need them to... they must therefore be adored as gifts from God.

---Keith L.

I guess I'd have to say the small things because my "big picture" hasn't really come into focus yet. (I hope it will!)

I started gardening this patch only a couple of years ago...let's see, this is the third summer? And we moved in January or earliest February. There hasn't been a lot of time to amend and build the soil - considering what I started with. And then, I've never really started with a totally clean slate before. There was one flowerbed here when we came. It was filled with weeds and some perennials - some of which did not even appear the first year. I have found it much more difficult to create that "big picture" from scratch than I thought it would be. I can't afford to just buy truckloads of plants so my "starter" perennials tend to stand in isolated glory. Eventually - I hope - they will get big enough to divide and start to make a real impression.

In the meantime I crave and treasure every blossom and every healthy looking plant. I do despair over the strange things (I'm going to post about some of those soon) like plants of the same kind, started at the same time but one is twice the size of the other. What am I supposed to make of that? (Gardening does keep you humble, doesn't it?) But if they will grow and especially if they will bloom, they have a big place in my heart and I don't mind getting down on my knees to see them better.