I'm reading these lists, and while some of the "hates" mentioned aren't on my favourites list , ( and I am a novice with a capital N) , at this stage I'm delighted with anything i plant / sow thriving rather than limping along surviving. That includes french marigolds ( semi double red and yellow) ...and a whole bunch of yellow snapdragons. I really like the ( try-hard or otherwise) cheeriness of yellow. As it happens , the yellows are in amongst a lot of green ( my OH doesn't share my general love of chaotic colour), but I think I'd like them even if they weren't.
I'm popping in again to say that as well as liking all flowers I like yellow, including King Alfred daffodils and lysimachia. I love yellow roses, daffodils, primroses, rudbeckia, marigolds, coreopsis etc. but it depends what you plant them with. I like soft beds of pink white and blue where yellow would look awful. I like bright jewel beds with colours that zing where yellow would look good.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
I think it's both volume and solidity. It's raining at the moment and looking out of the window there is quite a lot of yellow to be seen: Doronicums, Welsh poppies, buttercups, some of the dreaded Lysimachia, there's a yellow rose on the house wall by the back door, but the colour is scattered, none of it is solid. Even Lysimachia has a green ruff between tiers. And in between there are lots of greeny yellows: loads of Alchemilla, which I love, lime green leaves on welsh poppies, hostas, a yellow conifer. These all act as modifiers and link plants, tying it together and, along with the green backdrop, making the transitions comfortable.
There is a lot of white around at the moment too, especially in the wilder parts: cow parsley going over, ground elder (though I am gradually removing those flowers so it doesn't seed), hogweed, elder, white roses, and I find as I get older I appreciate white more and more.
Later in the year it will be browns and oranges linking yellow to red and purple when the Crocosmias and Heleniums get underway and the dahlias are at their best and the foliage and the light starts to change. Blocks of colour seem more bearable then somehow, as we prepare to hunker down.
I've been gardening for so long and there is still so much I have to learn, still so much I haven't got right and so many plants I want to grow and so much I have to do to get there!
It's raining really hard now, which is a blessing as the plants really need it and it lets me off watering, but when it's dry enough to do things again the grass will be 6 inches taller!
I've been gardening for so long and there is still so much I have to learn, still so much I haven't got right and so many plants I want to grow and so much I have to do to get there!
It's raining really hard now, which is a blessing as the plants really need it and it lets me off watering, but when it's dry enough to do things again the grass will be 6 inches taller!
I could have written these words myself! I am currently enjoying the sound of rain on foliage after many dry weeks. Imagine a garden that never changed or evolved -- we wouldn't get the pleasure from it that we do when constantly surprised and inspired. Yes, also disappointed and challenged, but the joy of a garden is in the positives we gain from it, which remain in the memory longer than the negatives.
I think all good gardeners evolve along with their plots as experience grows and tastes change and some of us move on to new gardens with different soils and climates.
I started gardening seriously in the early 80s when OH and I bought our first house together. before that it was window boxes, pts and houseplants. The range of plants and seeds available in those early days was really quite limited but has increased exponentially since then as has awareness of the environmental impact of sourcing and using certain materials, chemicals and plants - all factors which drive a change in tastes and habits.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I'm reading these lists, and while some of the "hates" mentioned aren't on my favourites list , ( and I am a novice with a capital N) , at this stage I'm delighted with anything i plant / sow thriving rather than limping along surviving. That includes french marigolds ( semi double red and yellow) ...and a whole bunch of yellow snapdragons. I really like the ( try-hard or otherwise) cheeriness of yellow. As it happens , the yellows are in amongst a lot of green ( my OH doesn't share my general love of chaotic colour), but I think I'd like them even if they weren't.
Agree - I’m currently in the “if you survive, I like you” stage of gardening!
I think all good gardeners evolve along with their plots as experience grows and tastes change and some of us move on to new gardens with different soils and climates.
I started gardening seriously in the early 80s when OH and I bought our first house together. before that it was window boxes, pts and houseplants. The range of plants and seeds available in those early days was really quite limited but has increased exponentially since then as has awareness of the environmental impact of sourcing and using certain materials, chemicals and plants - all factors which drive a change in tastes and habits.
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Imagine a garden that never changed or evolved -- we wouldn't get the pleasure from it that we do when constantly surprised and inspired.
Yes, also disappointed and challenged, but the joy of a garden is in the positives we gain from it, which remain in the memory longer than the negatives.
I started gardening seriously in the early 80s when OH and I bought our first house together. before that it was window boxes, pts and houseplants. The range of plants and seeds available in those early days was really quite limited but has increased exponentially since then as has awareness of the environmental impact of sourcing and using certain materials, chemicals and plants - all factors which drive a change in tastes and habits.