Originally Posted by kay

I think there's a lot of truth in this (and I like Monty Don too). But I can understand the other side too. For example, 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".

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".