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The rewards of idleness
I never got round to clearing spindly teabag-bound B&Q trailing geraniums out of my porch. I left them because they had a couple of flowers. Over winter, their roots must have escaped. The foliage is lush and there won't be any room for anything else in the troughs this year.
It made me ponder. On this site we usually ask what to do .
My question is: when is it a good thing to do absolutely nothing?
In London. Keen but lazy.
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I agree, sometimes I think we do too much and take over from Mother Nature too quickly. I know that I'm a ' fusser' , but I'm gradually learning to step back a bit and let some plants try and sort themselves out before intervening and they usually do!!
I find those 'teabags' restrict the plants, I always remove them before planting.
I enjoy weeding but have too much garden to keep on top of it all the time. When I do get around to a 'neglected' bit of border there are always new free little plants that would have been disturbed or killed had I been a more frequent weeder.
I think part of it is the size of peoples' gardens. Because mine is really too big for one person, I tend not to notice minor problems, or do anything about them, as I have too much else to do. Those people with tiny gardens that are keen, often seem to inspect every plant daily and then try to micro-manage every tiny bug or blemish, as they want it to be perfect. I know mine can never be perfect in that way, and in any case would still look relatively untidy as I prefer a relaxed style and lots of shelter for wildlife
I once had a half barrel with a climbing rose and a clematis. The clematis "died" but I couldn't be bothered to remove it from the roots of the rose so I just left it.
3 years later, it came back to life.
I like plants (and gardens) that thrive on 'benign neglect'
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Same happened to me with a clematis, Hosta. But I fear I'm going to lose it again as my fence has developed a wriggle in the post right beside it
Dove you have described my garden to a T! However I have found that troublesome weeds thrive on neglect too.
Keeping off clay soil and lawns in winter, leave them alone or you have work to do repairing in spring. Love seeing self sown plants such as Primroses, Nigella, Snapdragons and many others appear. They manage to come up in places I would not have thought of and often look "better" [probably a more apposite word for what I want say but can't think of one} in their spot than ones I have planted do.
Butterfly. I've been thinking about what you said and you're absolutely right.
My front garden is smaller and I am often guilty of micromanagement whereas the back is probably a bit too much for me to manage so laissez-faire rules there ( oxymoron?)
I often do nothing B3....
I like the front to be tidy as others can see it, but I don't want to spend any more time out there than I need to. The back is also tidy except for the things I have still got to do, and I can't do them till the building work is finished in May/June. I guess I let things go more as it's a work in progress.
I'd agree with B'cupdays - a big garden has more 'unkempt' areas but if they're further from the house it's less of an issue!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...