We know gardening is creative. We visualize how those purple petunias will look with those yellow marigolds, how that pretty pink beebalm will look with that white Angelonia, or how that huge fluffy Boston fern will look by the front door. But how would you classify your gardening style?
Mad Scientist Gardener
Some of us, however, have a little bit of a mad scientist gardening style in us and can’t resist experimenting in our garden. Have you ever found a strange seedling in your garden—and left it there to see what it turns into? Or have you stuck a cutting in a glass of water to see if it would root? Have you ever stuck a sweet potato in a glass of water to watch it vine around the window? Or cut the top off a pineapple to root it and see if you can grow your own?
I’ve been known to do such things. I have an unidentified seedling in a pot on the back deck. It gets watered and fed along with everything else—even though I don’t know what it is. I also have two pots that I filled with acorns this past fall. I intended to occasionally toss a handful or two out over the winter for the squirrels, but they sat by the tool shed and were forgotten instead. Now, some of the acorns have sprouted—with no soil—and I’m watching them grow, curious to see how they’ll do in a potting medium that consists of nothing but decaying acorns. And I have a pineapple plant summering outdoors on the deck.
Mother Nature Loves to Play Garden Baseball
Sometimes, Mother Nature throws us a curveball, and we have to figure out what to do with it—or about it. We may run into a rainy patch, sweltering weather, or deer that suddenly show up and eat many of our plants. And yes, that happened to me. We never had a deer problem here (off Robious Road) until they built Costco and bulldozed down hundreds of acres. Now we do. One reason I planted herbs in my flower and vegetable garden is that deer don’t like them.
The End Goal – Happiness About Our Garden
But the goal is the same—to be happy with what we see when we walk around our yards. My yard is a patchwork quilt of grass and clover, with flowers nestled in my vegetable garden (they attract pollinators!) and herbs in my flower and veggie gardens (companion planting).
My next-door neighbor spends a fortune on getting rid of clover (which I love) and has no veggies, but then, it’s his yard, not mine. A neighbor across the street is happy with just flowers. She has almost no lawn at all.
Who Are You As a Gardener?
Who are you in the garden? Are you an artist? Or a Mad Scientist? Or, like me, a bit of both?