On 6/12/06 17:13, in article , "K"
wrote:



"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote
And of course given that some gardeners only have a pocket hankerchief
sized garden then they have more desire to fiddle and change things as
they have less work to do and more chance of getting bored than those
who have a big garden.

That's an interesting concept. My experience is that most subjects
become more interesting the more you know about them. And in a small
garden, where you can keep on top of the work, there is the opportunity
to get to know the detail in the way that wouldn't be possible in a
larger garden.

It's not necessarily so much a 'desire to fiddle' as the opportunity to
do things in a more 'hands on' way. For example, I can hand weed our
paving, which I couldn't do if I had a large expanse, which means I can
spot the dianthus and harebells and leave them be, which I wouldn't be
able to do if I had to use a herbicide.

Yes, I think Farm1 made a really good point there. But I would say that you
can get to know the detail in a large garden, too but you just can't get to
deal with all of it with quite such immediacy. A sort of priority order has
to come into managing a big garden.
I certainly do think that people with large spaces just can't get too worked
up about minutely scrupulous weeding because they'd spend their entire lives
in the utmost frustration. OTOH, weeds are green and providing most get
hoicked out as often as possible, the garden will go on its merry way.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/