Well, I don't neatly fit into any of Ms. Maurer's categories.
I'm an artistic, nature lovin' collector in a rural garden full of power tools,
perennials, annuals, evergreens, critters and a few weeds.

Nell

Nope. Can't fit into a category either. I have a lot of flowers that attact a lot of wildlife, but that's the flowers not me.

Besides, we're all cottage gardeners or else we wouldn't be on this message board. :)

Libby

Collector yes, I love the informality of the cottage garden, this type of garden suits my personality to a tee but I refuse to be pigeonholed into what some think a cottage garden should look like.
I take what I like from all styles of gardens and after much constructive staring I usually come up with a plan of how I can fit it in my garden :o).

Annette

Ummmm Annette, constructive staring IS a garden style. :D LOL!!!

I never worry what others think a cottage garden should be. And I never try to fit into someone elses definitions. A garden should be the gardeners own art work and nothing else.

Sierra

My friend on more than one occasion would remark that he felt uncomfortable in my upper garden (w/stone courtyard, boxwood, ect). Everything was "too perfect", it wasn't; but he meant the trimming, edging, straight lines, swept stones. He couldn't relax. In the orchard garden, he was more at home among the hodge podge of vegetables, flora and fauna. I understood completely, I do too - it depends upon my mood which bench or wicker chair I sit in that afternoon.

From reading books and looking at photos, I think I know what an English garden should look like and what an old fashioned cottage garden should be, but I always end up planting my own interpretation. As Sierra mentions.

I am more of a collector than any of the others....but I do try to do lots of flowers that attract birds and bees and other critters.

I use my power tools, including a large riding mower with garden trailer; string trimmer, shredder, hedge trimmer, chain saw, and tiller.

I am not a neat gardener, no rows in my beds.

I could create a questionnaire, run cluster analysis analytics and then we can attach labels to the groups! :-)

Once again, I'm not one to fall into any one category. Give me a venn diagram with overlapping areas of concepts.

Sometimes I accidentally create a row.
I use a hedgehog power trimmer but I love to tinker daily in the gardening
I do weed as I go
I crowd bulbs, shrubs, annuals, grasses and perennials
I default into planting what will survive my climate and the deer. I don't want to lose sleep over protecting a plant.
Sometimes I rush things by buying large plants because I'm already retired and want faster results than if I had a lifetime ahead of me.
I use a lot of hardscape, but I don't think of myself as a landscaper.
I use organic fertilizers and bug deterrants. No deer deterrants.
I have a butterfly garden and I plant what is attractive to birds and such. Certified Monarch Waystation and NWF Backyard Habitat.

Cameron

Hm - I have to admit, I usually think of collectors as being what she calls specialists - people who collect lots of certain types of plants. I would never have thought of myself as being a collector, but I do have a lot of different types of plants in my garden.

I'm probably a combination of collector, designer, farmer, and nature lover...

Sierra said: "I never worry what others think a cottage garden should be. And I never try to fit into someone elses definitions. A garden should be the gardeners own art work and nothing else." I'll second that.

Wonbyherwits, your post makes me curious about your business background: "I could create a questionnaire, run cluster analysis analytics and then we can attach labels to the groups! :-)"

I think it must be a very difficult task to pigeonhole a gardener ... aren't we, by nature, a rather diverse and ever-changing lot? We grow and learn as our gardens grow and new options, goals, concerns come to our attention. Heirlooms vs. genetically modified, organic/sustainable gardening, water-wise gardenting techniques, environmentally-friendly ... wildlife friendly ... native plants vs. exotic and/or invasive and, since this is supposed to be just a "hobby", of course we keep our expenditures on it to a minimum (hehe), so are always looking for ways to achieve our dreams with minimal impact on our wallet (especially these days).

An interesting article, however, and thank you, lvtgrdn, for sharing it.

I am a bit of each, myself, having learned the basics from my uncle in his "hobby" 1-acre organic garden in the 1950's. Neighborhood gardens and glossy printed pictures embellished the dreams over the years. Sheer determination and a degree of innocent ignorance with a dash of faith got me through the challenges in our first (and still current) home - poor, sandy soil, flat lot, plenty of shade, absence of any truly interesting - and suitable! - plant material. In such a case, one begins collecting, determining which plants are able push the boundaried and adapt to the situaion and which are not. The collecting and experimentation continue, with recent additions of herbaceous and woody native plants, plants to attrace benenficial insects, support wildlife. Some areas are given over to the garden of my dreams: roses and other shrubs tumbling over a white picket fence, with a variety of perennials and bulbs to provide blooming color February through November. But just to the left of the gate, as the garden approaches and turns the corner to run up the side property line in dappled shade, it morphs into something different, but complementary (I think), made up predominantly of native plants...some unusual: I never knew I could grow indigo here! Just don't like power tools - too noisy. A good morning or afternoon with hand tools, weeding and freshening a trenced edge, with birds, insects and breezes for company, is time well spent.

Thank goodness this hobby still embodies the independence of style, thought and spirit, as well as technique, exhibited by its practitioners.

Sue ~ That was an interesting little article. I'd have to say I fit into the artist, collector nature lover catagory.

***

Artists, collectors and nature lovers enjoy the process of gardening. They garden because they like the feel of the earth and the smell of the flowers and the sound of birds singing. They have varying degrees of tolerance, but in general their gardens are unkempt, cluttered and inhabited by a host of creatures. They prefer to be outside, so they willingly spend the extra time required by hand tools. They welcome visitors, but love to be alone in their gardens to work and putter and enjoy.

***

I do use a lawn mower, a weed wacker and an electric hedge trimmer. I stay away from chemicals for the most part.

I agree with Annette and Sierra:

Annette ~ I love the informality of the cottage garden, this type of garden suits my personality to a tee but I refuse to be pigeonholed into what some think a cottage garden should look like.

Sierra ~ I never worry what others think a cottage garden should be. And I never try to fit into someone elses definitions. A garden should be the gardeners own art work and nothing else.

Gardening is unique to each gardener and it shows in each garden. For the most part I think gardens are created with love, a love of growing things, a love of colors, textures and scents, along with love of birds and their song, butterflies and other creatures that visit our gardens.

Happy Gardening whatever your style ~ FlowerLady

Oh, forgot to add: I use a big Toro Zero Turn mower (my retirement gift to myself, after walking the entire property for 25yrs), a self-propelled walk behind mower for around the garden, electric hedge trimmer or hand loppers for the privet, hand pruners or scissors for the boxwood, my little 6" wide spade for almost everything else. And a 5gal.bucket.

Two years ago, I bought a fancy hedge trimmer called a "Garden Groom Pro" for the boxwood, cuts and sucks the trimmings up into a bag. It works, but it's a PITA to drag around, plug falls out, bag comes undone; eh, I use it once or twice in the early Spring and then it's back to the scissors.

I never fit into any one category of types of anything, either. I think the article was kind of fun, but didn't mean to sound like I took it seriously, that everyone should fit exactly into her categories, or that cottage gardens should all look one way or another.

Sue

The article was really interesting to me, lvtgrdn. I'm always reading and looking for books/articles on gardening and haven't read anything similar to this before.

I suppose I'm a collector first, then an artist, and finally a nature lover. I love the "creating" part of gardening, which some non-gardeners don't understand.

I have a friend who, while supportive, misses this. He says, "Why do you put more plants out there? You will only have more to water. You already do too much." OR, "If I had a rose, I'd would want it sheered into a box shape." He likes flowers in rows with everything in it's place. Not me! My flowers are everywhere. My garden meanders. There are hidden plants and bugs and lizards and all sorts of things in my garden. It doesn't follow any rules. (Do you suppose there is some Freudian meaning in this for me? Wild, passionate, & defiant???) It's just so cool!!!!

The bugs, birds, toads and lizards love me because I plant a lot of native food-bearing plants, but I do this more out of necessity since so many things won't grow where I live.

I identify strongly with what agardenstateof_mind said:
"Sheer determination and a degree of innocent ignorance with a dash of faith got me through the challenges in our first (and still current) home - poor, sandy soil, flat lot, plenty of shade, absence of any truly interesting - and suitable! - plant material. In such a case, one begins collecting, determining which plants are able push the boundaried and adapt to the situation and which are not."

Thanks for this thread.

Thanks, redthistle. I want to come meander in your garden. It sounds wonderful! I'm jealous of you, with your toads and lizards!

What fun timimg. I just posted a thread on my blog that talks about what wildlife I have in my yard. I have some books on providing for wildlife that I need to read over the winter, so maybe I can draw in a toad. We don't have lizards here that I know of, but my son has some as pets. LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: A Corner Garden

Interesting article but I'm not sure I can define my style of gardening easily. I think my style is more "laissez faire serendipitous"! I've done and still do some propagation, have tried landscaping but am not structured enough to continue on that strict path, perhaps slightly artistic because the esthetics of gardening are important to me, definitely a collector altho not in the sense of amassing a great many varieties of the same plant, absolutely a nature lover and while I chase the deer out they do end up eating my plants in the fall and it doesn't bother me (much!). They are getting very tame, they don't even move when I yell at them so I've taken to clapping my hands but I think I'll need a bullhorn soon. I once found an orange lizard who had overwintered in a bag of topsoil - it was the neatest thing and most unexpected in our cold climate. I love to see the toads and almost mourned a huge grandaddy one which had gotten himself run over in our driveway. Our birds now have a feeder on a 6' post and ditto the birdbath so the outdoor feral cat we feed can't get them.

This is why the Cottage style garden suits me and why my personal style is not easily defined. I'm just a gardener with a love and passion for it.

I realize these questions can be fun if we keep it light as in reading daily horoscopes. This is a fun group of friendly gardeners and I hope spirits aren't dashed by labels and categories.

I think I'm starting to have a gardening identity crisis! LOL

Agardenstateofmind -- I am retired from a long career in technology that included being an applications analyst programmer (statistical analysis), IT manager, software product manager, marketing strategist, R&D performance analyst, process consultant and probably a few other things. Gardening is my escape from that world!

Cameron

I am a cottage/plunker/collector/well c**p, where can I put this style.

Kathy

Behind the house -- no question, I'm a farmer, although my neighbor the real farmer would laugh to hear me say it, with the machinery and rows to prove it. But that's OK, because, in fact, I'm farming flowers, where the name of the game is lots of flowers with as little labor as possible. I don't hate all bugs, though.

Near the house, I like the beds full and varied and I think I'm sort of a collector/landscaper with a cottage bent there. No doubt this is why I'm here in this dear forum.

Overall I'm definitely a farmer-type by nature, but I hope it doesn't get me shunned around here. :-)

ThinMan

Last night I watched a documentary on a 4yr.old artist named Marla and how the art world was going gaga over her paintings and analyzing them. Very interesting. But what caught my ear was what the mother said at one point about her daughter and painting:

"I'm hoping that when other people begin to put place such importance upon her art, she doesn't lose the fun in it."

I immediately thought gardens and how we plant and tend them. The joy and sometimes ignorance of helter skelter planting the way it pleases US; can be dashed by a sudden awareness brought on by books and other people that, "red doesn't go next to pink; that's too tall there; that won't grow there; too many this, too many that OR now that everyone is looking I must keep everything neat and clean and proper - then we lose the joy and innocence. Now, I probably haven't expressed this right. But do you sorta understand what I'm trying to say?

Schoolhouse you hit the nail on the head, exactly what I mean when I say I won't be pigeonholed. IMHO that's what so neat about cottage gardens, all of ours are different in many ways but they still exude the informality and that certain charm you won't find in other types of gardens. There are no rules to follow, YOU plant what you like, the color combinations are ones YOU like.
I think mixed borders look better if heights are mixed not graduating in height from front to back, but hey, that's only my opinion. My garden is a place where I can relax, do my own thing, plant what I like, where I like and it's also a place where I have a say on what's going on and better still have the option of changing it if it ain't working LOL.

Annette

In case anyone missed this, and thought I was promoting this article as hard and fast, and trying to pigeonhole you, I have copied and pasted what I wrote part way through this thread:

"I never fit into any one category of types of anything, either. I think the article was kind of fun, but didn't mean to sound like I took it seriously, that everyone should fit exactly into her categories, or that cottage gardens should all look one way or another."

Sue

lvtgrdn,

I will spend some time looking at your blog this weekend. I love reading about/seeing other folk's gardens.

I agree with Schoolhouse about not losing the joy of the garden because of the influence of a book or a person, but I think most of us are confident enough to know that if we like it, that's what matters most. (I have a very close friend who honestly thinks my garden is ugly, but I really don't care.) We also may or may not fit into a certain gardening style, but in the last analysis, it's all good.

I believe each garden--even with the exact same plants or with gardeners who have similar gardening styles--is as varied and unique as the gardener. How boring our life and garden would be if we all followed the rules and grew all of our plants in a rigid textbook fashion. I think few of us do that.

I plant what I like and what will grow. I'll bet everyone else here does too.

I am a nature-lover. My yard is a nice variety of canopy trees, understory vegetation, and tons of flowers and grasses, most of which are native. This attracts an incredible amount of birds and other wildlife. I have spent $3K on treework and many hours of hard labor to remove non-native invasive plants. (The trees were mostly Norway maples - the rest some of the worst woody invasives in northeast.) I'm organic, except for herbicides that are used judiciously on certain invasive plants. I LIKE bugs. I get a little thrill when I see a snake, toad, or tree frog. About a dozen dead tree snags stand in my back yard, to attract the woodpeckers and provide nesting sites for birds- which they do!

I am also an artist and have a degree in art. "Constructive staring", using color and foliage, making things out of natural wood, placing a rotting log here and there, etc. The front gardens are more formal than the back, and my favorite gardens are in the back! The only power gardening tool I own is a push lawn mower that's 20 years old (but own LOTS of power carpentry tools.) I am a major putzer.

I'm a little bit of a collector, pertaining to native plants only. I successfully propogated 46 native species from seed this year, and have plans to obtain seed for dozens more. I will probably count and detail the total native species growing on the lot someday.

It's kinda fun to define and categorize (maybe that's the scientist??), but that is secondary. Another wild, passionate, and defiant gardener here!

Sue, I really enjoyed this article. I would have added one more category, though, but I would have called that one Collectors and the Collectors in the article Cottage-type gardners or people who grew anything and everything in an exhuberant fashion. The new category would consist of people who are collectors of plants, but particularly all the newest cultivars on the scene of gardening. If there is a new echinacea, they have to have it. They have all the perennial geranium cultivars on the planet. However,the heirloom varieties and older cultivars are no longer of interest to them. I have seen a couple of people like this, and their gardens are full of all the new untried varieties--a horticulturist's dream.

It's fun to see where we fit into any one or more category. Thanks for sharing this article.

Pat

How funny! I guess you would classify me 80% COLLECTOR, 10% ARTIST, 10% NATURE.

Thank you for the fun article.

Edna