Jenn, I have gone through this too, somehow something pulls me back into the garden though but not without a major change of direction (usually). The first time was after a blight struck the majority of my antique rose collection (I had hundreds) - only about a third of them survived. I began exploring Plumeria and acquired about a hundred of them - but then remember the freeze last winter? - many casualties despite being wintered under the eaves of the house.... Then the wind knocked down three dead trees that had served as supports for ramblers and suddenly I found myself with a blank canvas for another garden. I spent many happy hours pouring over books, catalogs and internet research in planning my new venture, an edible landscape including some trees to shade my house (I chose flowering Japanese cherries , Prunus mume and blireana). Next came acquisition and installation (luckily it was bareroot season), learning to graft, prune, train and trading scionwood - but as always the problems cropped up. Squirrels raiding the fruit trees and breaking grafts, flowering cherries barely growing let alone providing any shade at all and with energy to spare I ran out of room for any more. Now I am facing a move. My next garden will be planned around ease of maintenance. I vow to be a selector and not a collector but who knows if that will stick as I realize I have serial obsessions. My friend Tony Kienitz wrote a book on gardening in which he recounts a elderly man who limited his garden work to 20 minutes a day. It sounds like a good idea with the right garden plan and leaves time for other pursuits and interests of which I have many. Ed, I thank you for your article, I especially liked your observations on the parallels of marriage and gardening; I hope you have a happy continuity. Gardening is great therapy but it (in my case anyway) is solitary and can therefore be isolating. Too much of a good thing...well you all know the end of that sentence. As with everything else, balance is key.

Another Secret Garden reader here. It was my all-time favorite children's book, and I read many. I am living my mother's dream. She grew up in the country, but moved to NYC when she got married. She missed gardening, and would take me on walks to find wild flowers under train trestles and other spots here and there. When I was a child, "a house in the country" was the ideal. My parents planned to move back to what was then rural New Jersey, but my mom died (from cleaning a rug) before that could happen. She had just turned 38. So I was raised in the city, but for the past 35 years have lived in an old farmhouse on 31 acres. My mom probably would have designed better gardens than I, but I enjoy doing what I do for both of us.

My grandmother on my mom's side, my dad, and my aunt. My mother's mother was very keen with houseplants and loved to garden when she could. She was rather good at it. When we had to move her into an apartment she had the first level and every summer I'd go with her and my dad or sometimes my dad would just take her to pick out and plant her pots up and every summer she'd have the prettiest porch by far. My dad always likes being outside and always gardened, he we'd always have a cutting/victory garden in the summer. My love of plants just took off from there at age 14. I'm 21 now am I'm landscaping my cousin's front and backyards it's rather fun.

I will add photos some time this week. My SIL and I actually made it to all 10 gardens open on Saturday and Sunday - quite a marathon that made me realize I could never go on one of those week-long garden tours! There were 6 on Saturday, but several were close to each other, plus 4 completely different ones on Sunday. We were starting from a bit north of Keene, NH, so it was possible to do them all following a circular route each day. Many of the gardens had at least some garden rooms, and most had water in some form as well: manmade ponds and tiny fountains mostly. We noticed some stunning pots of tender perennials and annuals, comfortable looking seating areas, and wonderful views since most were hillside sites. The tall Phlox and panicled Hydrangea were in full bloom in an incredible range of colors for the Phlox and size and shape for the hydrangeas. There was an abundance of various tall grasses and native perennials as well: tall sunflowers, ironweed, sneezeweed/Helenium, and Joe-Pye weed among others. I really enjoyed the wide range of well-grown woody plants, ranging from 100's of evergreen and deciduous rhodies to probably every variety of European beech known to humanity to beautiful conifers in an incredible range of size and shape.