Quote:
Originally Posted by kay
There were a couple of articles in the Garden a year or so back about packets of mixed flower seeds. The general view, both of the original article and of the comments selected for publication, was that mixed packets are naff, that flowers look better in drifts of one colour, and that iff you want a variety, you should separate packets of the colours of your choice.
Well, that's all very fine in a large garden (and I agree with it entirely in that context). But if you have a pocket handkerchief garden, the situation is very different. I could make a very tasteful bed in a selection of two or three related tints. But that would be the only colour effect in my garden, and I would have a a lot of left over seeds from my two or three packets. If I get a mixed packet, then I look at every plant individually, and I can spend half an hour going round my garden rather than seeing it all in one glance.
I can almost hear the shudders from here as you all imagine a garish totally tasteless hotchpotch! But the point I'm making is that, although you can draw inspiration from anywhere, if your source of inspiration is always recommending to you things that are really only practicable in a much larger garden, you can start to feel "I don't really belong here".
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These days, gardening is as susceptible to changes in fashion as clothes and interiors. Additionally, like it or not, in the UK at least, gardening is a class thing and social class snobberies are often disguised as taste.
As the owner of a small garden myself, I feel that its size forces me to evaluate plants more carefully, because each plant has to be worth the space it takes up. The lack of space means that I have to put more thought into using visual tricks to fade the boundaries and emphasise the plants, as well.
I like Gardeners' World because its entertaining
I don't really get much from it inspiration-wise.
I have purchased some hardy geraniums from a Mirror Reader Offer. The same plants from the same supplier, were available via more upmarket newspapers - at a higher price !
A Lidl leaflet dropped through my letterbox yesterday. From Thursday, Lidl will be selling several varieties of 'luxury orchids' for 9.99 each. So potted orchids which were only seen in House and Garden-type houses years ago can now be bought by people on benefits. I think that's good, myself.