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I always have liked being in a garden, but the gsardens have
not always liked me. Sadly, I used to kill everything.
And I do mean everything. Even cactuses. We're talking
serious Black Thumb Devotee here. But when I moved into
my current house, the yard was practically bare, bordering
on depressing, it was so empty-looking, especially in contrast
to the walk street I live on which is filled with houses
that have beautiful gardens. (Every year there is a walking
tour of the "Best of" the neighborhood gardens for charity--so
when I say beautiful, that's the level I mean!) It's so
inspiring to have that around, and I wanted to come home
to a yard as bright and colorful as the ones I passed on
my walks and skates around my neighborhood.
I
quickly realized that unlike Julia Roberts, probably the
most celebrated (and wealthy) of all the creative types that
inhabit my neighborhood, I was not going to be able to hire
a team of gardening experts to get my yard in shape for me.
So if I wanted a yard that looked great and made me feel
spectacular every time I spent time in it, I was going to
have to figure out how to do it myself. So I started at my
local nurseries, did some ordering from catalogs and went
to a couple of garden sales at UC Riverside and the Huntington,
and over the next few years, my garden started to take shape.
Stil;l,
most things at first did not make it. Whenever a plant was
in the "Danger
Zone" I'd
run crying (via phone) to my friend Stephen who runs the
UC Riverside Botanical Garden and ask him with pleading deperation
for an answer to what at the time seemd like my personal
curse, " What
do I have to do this time to save my plant?" (I'm an
actress, and I'll admit, I can be somewhat dramatic at times.)
So,
one
day, as a plant of mine lay dying, we were talking and
I asked him, "C'moiin. Be honest. What would you do? His
answer: "Rip it out and get a new one."
I
was like, "What?"
"I
said, I'd rip it out and get a new one"
"Really?" I
said, convinced that sounded far too easy.
"Really."
"You
kill things?"
"Sure," he
said. I kill things all the time."
I
was stunned. You should see this man's garden-all 5 acres
of it (admitttedly partially tended to by his Dad, but still,
fruit orchard included!) not to mention the gardens at UC
Riverside, his personal cactus & succulent collection, and
the indoor orchids.
"Oh
my God." I said. Then thought for a second. "You
know, what? That's so freeing!"
That
day is the day I decided to let go. And you know what?
Ever since then, mostly everything I have planted has lived,
with only a few exceptions, many of which were experiments
with plants outside of my zone anyway.
Why a cottage garden? Well, I'm a Sagitarrian, and as such
I like things that are different and I like to experiment.
I wanted bright colors, and to be able to cut my own flowers
to bring in as much as possible. I also am a sucker for scents,
so some plants are there just because their fragrance is intoxicating!
I also needed to leave room to grow my veggies, but have found
ways to mix some flowers in to add some interest here and there
to break up all that green. Cottage gardening allows me to
cater to my ecelectic tastes in a random style that suits my
sign! Plus, I have a difficult yard in terms of how light hits
during the day in some spots, and to be able to grow all the
plants I like and have them thrive, they need to go where the
conditions suit them best, not where they look the most ordered.
Maybe it's rebellion from my mother being a neat freak a little
too, but that's OK. Besides, who can resist delphiniums?
Pictures of my garden are here:
http://www.caryn.com/links/garden/vegflowindex.html
And
you'll find more photos of things from my garden scattered
throughout this site on the individual plant pages, as well
as many recipes on how to use the bounty of your own garden
in surprisingly original ways!
Hope
you have fun on your virtual visit! Enjoy!
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