Day 17--Stalking Other People's Gardens

“Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.” -Alfred Austin

Some folks like to people watch, but me, I like to garden watch. Wherever the children travel with their to and fro, I'll look for a new place to walk and garden watch. Neighborhoods are a great place to wander--the best ones have a good mix of the sublime and the dysfunctional. I prefer eclectic neighborhoods where the houses don't all look alike and the outside of each home tells its own story. A person's yard can be a window into what they value or tolerate, what they find beautiful or useful.

Some approach their yards very structurally. These types like gates, hedges, fences, edging. You may step here. You may not go beyond here. The tree lives here, the bush is shaped just so, and their flowers are delegated to a few posed pots or bed. A sense of security and order characterizes such yards. I imagine dinner will be served on time there.

However, taken to an extreme, this type of gardening can feel formulaic, constrictive. It reminds me of my grandmother's relationship with plants. Her entire garden consisted of a single plant---a bonsai tree. The miniature tree lived in a dish surrounded by white pebbles on a shelf under their carport. I suppose it grew very very slowly, if at all. Sadly, it always looked the same to me. She loved her little tree, and I loved her, but that's not my idea of gardening. I like to see things grow and change. I like a little drama in the garden.

Other families approach their yards whimsically. They prefer colorful lawn ornaments, statues, and found objects. I confess to being a bit of a lawn ornament snob--there are very few I'd allow in my own yard. Most of them try too hard and end up being a distraction from the plants. Though lawn ornaments are often over-used--especially when there is a big clump of them-- there are times when they are just right.

I must admit a soft spot for this "so ugly he's cute" turtle.

"The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway." -Michael Pollan

Although there is room in a yard for a bit of quirk or contemplation, it should be subtle. Who likes being hit over the head with either? The plants and flowers should be the main dish and the ornaments like condiments...a little goes a long way.

I love the way the overtly evangelistic and the overtly new age mix in Asheville. It keeps life interesting. It's good to have an opinion, though I'm not sure the yard is the most effective forum.

When walking any neighborhood, there are those yards and homes that you wonder about. Their yard art consist of forgotten or neglected objects from their real lives. Who lives there? What burden lies heavy inside? The grass grows up. The objects accumulate. There is an air of neglect, a sense of lost control. I feel sad about such places--I long to approach them, but honestly, I'm afraid of what might meet me on the other side. I quietly go on my way instead and wish them better days. Sometimes I'll pray.

"Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get." -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Best of all are those gardens where everything works together to create a greater whole. Walking unfamiliar places means you can stumble upon these as a gift. They make the walking worthwhile. They invite you to stop and linger. They hold out a promise of sorts--an invitation to a different, better place...

"What I've always found interesting in gardens is looking at what people choose to plant there. What they put in. What they leave out. One small choice and then another, and soon there is a mood, an atmosphere, a series of limitations, a world." Helen Humphreys, The Lost Garden

“A garden should make you feel you've entered privileged space -- a place not just set apart but reverberant -- and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.” -Michael Pollan, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education

“One of the pleasures of being a gardener comes from the enjoyment you get looking at other people's yards.” -Thalassa Cruso, To Everything There Is a Season