By the mid-1980's independent garden centers were being replaced by big box stores. Later, HGTV was on the horizon. Then, lifestyle & garden magazines photographed 'fashionable' landscapes. Martha Stewart 'perfect' landscapes..
Niche Gardens catalogue arrived yesterday. In watercolor, the gardens of my mentors thrives.
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Their gardens aren't perfect, they are better than that. They are real, fabulous, nurturing, scruffy, fragrant, inviting, attractive to birds-friends-family-insects.
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My mentors created gardens emanating grace.
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Gardens without irrigation systems or chemicals. Flowers & food grown in abundance with ZERO fanfare, NONE. It's just what they did, along with sewing, cooking, raising children, working, being active in church, playing bridge, being on the board of the local garden club, & taking care of a man.
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It's odd. The camera does not like the gardens of my mentors. In close-up they photograph beautifully. Take a picture of the garden, above? Not. It wouldn't make it into a magazine. Not 'perfect' enough. Too scruffy.
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Last year I gave up trying for the Martha Stewart Living perfect landscape. Why did I ever go there? My garden is the garden of my mentors. Woman powered, excepting when I need a hired man. (They are superior to husbands, they don't ask, "Why?")
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Something odd happened. Before an open garden last year, all floofed, poofed, ready for showtime I walked my garden paths. I began to cry. Big tears, big sobs. Why? I was finally back in my grandmother's garden. HOME.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Watercolor, above, Elizabeth Ellison.
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Mail@NicheGardens.com or 919-967-0078.
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And Martha Stewart? Soooooooo proud of her. She created an industry & makes money from traditional women's work that wasn't honored in the past. What Martha Stewart does? My grandmother did it all, & spoiled me while doing it. I am humbled by her generation.
9 comments:
This was a lovely post and tribute to gardens and gardeners of the past. Before I got online about 10 - 12 years ago, I was happy with my cottage style gardens. Then I started seeing all the gardens online and felt mine were inferior, that I had to work, work, buy, buy, buy. Make sure it all looks just so. Gardening started to become more of a chore instead of a joy
The last few years I've been getting back to how I want my gardens to be for me and enjoying my humble/jumble/cottage gardens more and more. They make me feel happy and at peace.
DH and I are also a couple of 'junkers' and have been the 40 years we've been married. We can't stop now. We have quite a few rescued treasures in our gardens and home.
Your posts are so inspiring, and I thank you for your blog, your down to earth ideas and am glad to have found you.
I love that watercolor.
FlowerLady
I really appreciate the work and effort that goes into a "perfect' garden atmosphere. But the imperfect garden is the one that houses children, critters and jewels carried in on the wind.
I think your Grandmother would be proud, regardless ;0)
Lynea
Tara, these are gardens with soul. Created with love. Gardens that have witnessed our joys and our sorrows.
The 'perfect' too styled landscape we see so often in the magazines really lack that essential element.
I love this post.
"Back on its golden hinges the gate of memory swings, and my heart goes into the garden and walks with the olden things."
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Oh Tara! I've read all your blog posts & I have read most of all your books, but THIS is my favorite article! Don't get me wrong - I love the other writings & have gleaned much information & inspiration . . . . but this blog post touches my core, all the way to my DNA, as you say!
I'll be 60 in April & what you describe here is what I love about my mother's & aunt's gardens! Even my grandpa's garden fits this description, because my grandma left the legacy of her garden w/him when she passed on.
I will print this out & keep it for inspiration & reference while we make plans for the gardens at the cabin in the woods. Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your heart full of love & common sense!
I am so glad you have safely arrived "home".
BRAVO tara!
this post spoke to my heart and soul.
my grandmother had a garden that looks like the watercolor. at her knee a love of gardens was sown. today i am a landscape designer and i wished she had lived to see her inspiration.
notice how private gardens in england, opened to the public, display their soul, flaws and all? here we expect perfection.
debra
Thank you for sharing these feelings with us. The cottage gardens, your Grandmother's garden all show a love of the plants, the Earth the critters that enjoy the garden when we aren't looking...It's as much of a work of art as Martha Stewart garden, some maybe more.
I often put pieces of my pottery that may have broken in the kiln into my cottage garden so that I can love them in their new form.
Tara , what a wonderful post. I too love the scruffy garden.
I think the term is perfect for the vintage gardens we all love to remember and try to achieve in our own homes.
Really special thoughts. Can't wait for to more.
best~*~kelley
what a sweet and perfect post!
Just like homes...I like a garden with imperfections...happiness and soul.
My great aunt (my maternal grandmother's sister) was Martha before Martha became Martha. In the city (small town) she gardened a city-block full of trees and shrubs, edibles and chickens. She had a water faucet (my great uncle worked for the water department!) in the middle of her working garden and all around it she placed rocks and planted mint inside. The rocks helped keep the mint in bounds and when you stopped to get a drink of water in the hot sun the water would drop on the stones and smell of mint. One little detail. The whole garden was like that small moments created for pleasure while the work was being done.
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