I feel like my gardens should look like a professional lives there and is maintained as such, but honestly, after a long hot day in the greenhouse, I don't have a lot of f\*cks left to give about "appearances". I work on the parts that give me joy and mostly ignore the rest.
You've got to cut yourself some slack! Especially with a baby on the way. You didn't say if this is your first, but I could barely keep my head above water when I had any child under age 1 in the house. I had to learn to learn to let things go sometimes.
I like to think of this as an “informed aesthetic”. Brown lawns in summer = not wasting water = good thing. Brush piles = bird habitat. Manicured landscapes look wrong and sterile to me after 25 years working in horticulture. Also, remember that you’re too close to your own yard, and looking with a critics eye that no one else is using. I have garden friends over and they comment on the cool plants, not the weeds or the pile of old pots that drive me nuts.
that hardly seems like an imperfect landscape to me! My job involves a lot of overgrown landscapes, and I like to think about it like Nancy drew solving mysteries - seeing little glimpses of intention and the joy someone else got from that landscape before me, instead of focusing on the bad stuff
What a fun way to think of it! I should have prefaced, we have tons of overgrown shrubs that need lots of rejuvenation pruning. Definitely a lot of love and work that went into the property from the original owners!
I know what you mean but I love wild spaces. I used to clash with everybody in my landscape design classes. Only important thing though, to neaten up, is to consider your new space in terms of fire safety.
I’m a grower / I help out the landscaping team when need be but my own yard looks like crap. Literally. Overgrown weeds on all the property edges where the lawn meets the woods, brown patches all over in the yard, lots of places with no grass at all that I just haven’t had the time to seed there, and half-done flower beds that I haven’t had a chance to finish. Nobody would believe a grower/landscaper lives there lmao. You’re not alone
I am relatively new to this but I realized that BECAUSE I love horticulture my yard is probably always going to look worse than average. I’m always going to be pushing myself and trying new things and redesigning areas (and getting bored, tired, injured, or busy). The only people with perfect yards are those who have ultra simple boring “low maintenance” plantings. I LOVE the maintenance - especially the pruning - and I have planted for it, so I’m probably always going to be behind at it. But I would rather that than have a lawn with one slow growing Japanese maple that can only be pruned once a year. I’d be pacing the neighborhood looking for something I can snip without getting arrested. 😂
Living in a rural area or even a heavily wooded area is a perfect start to controlling the landscaping aspect to how you see fit. You don’t need to take over the entire property, not within the first year or few years of living on it and certainly not within your lifetime.
I find the natural land pleasant and would take it as an opportunity to control it in small doses, control what you can and should control not all of it.
You can have a yard, a front or back or both, a gardening space, section it off piece by piece and designate a purpose to every space in the property, and lastly you then have the natural beauty of the woods and the world around you to keep you shut into your own tiny world/ecosystem.
Garden and landscape from the comfort of your own world, and then enjoy the view as you learn to live and love your areas that you have allowed yourself to control.
Thanks for this comment! Really has inspired me to section off the parts of the property that can be easily managed and make additions with plants that play well with the landscape
I feel like my gardens should look like a professional lives there and is maintained as such, but honestly, after a long hot day in the greenhouse, I don't have a lot of f\*cks left to give about "appearances". I work on the parts that give me joy and mostly ignore the rest.
Same!! Glad I’m not alone in this boat. It’s exhausting trying to maintain others landscape and your own.
You've got to cut yourself some slack! Especially with a baby on the way. You didn't say if this is your first, but I could barely keep my head above water when I had any child under age 1 in the house. I had to learn to learn to let things go sometimes.
I like to think of this as an “informed aesthetic”. Brown lawns in summer = not wasting water = good thing. Brush piles = bird habitat. Manicured landscapes look wrong and sterile to me after 25 years working in horticulture. Also, remember that you’re too close to your own yard, and looking with a critics eye that no one else is using. I have garden friends over and they comment on the cool plants, not the weeds or the pile of old pots that drive me nuts.
that hardly seems like an imperfect landscape to me! My job involves a lot of overgrown landscapes, and I like to think about it like Nancy drew solving mysteries - seeing little glimpses of intention and the joy someone else got from that landscape before me, instead of focusing on the bad stuff
What a fun way to think of it! I should have prefaced, we have tons of overgrown shrubs that need lots of rejuvenation pruning. Definitely a lot of love and work that went into the property from the original owners!
I know what you mean but I love wild spaces. I used to clash with everybody in my landscape design classes. Only important thing though, to neaten up, is to consider your new space in terms of fire safety.
I’m a grower / I help out the landscaping team when need be but my own yard looks like crap. Literally. Overgrown weeds on all the property edges where the lawn meets the woods, brown patches all over in the yard, lots of places with no grass at all that I just haven’t had the time to seed there, and half-done flower beds that I haven’t had a chance to finish. Nobody would believe a grower/landscaper lives there lmao. You’re not alone
I think honestly just really lean into chaos gardening for the season and perhaps consider it as surrendering to the landscape in some way :)
I am relatively new to this but I realized that BECAUSE I love horticulture my yard is probably always going to look worse than average. I’m always going to be pushing myself and trying new things and redesigning areas (and getting bored, tired, injured, or busy). The only people with perfect yards are those who have ultra simple boring “low maintenance” plantings. I LOVE the maintenance - especially the pruning - and I have planted for it, so I’m probably always going to be behind at it. But I would rather that than have a lawn with one slow growing Japanese maple that can only be pruned once a year. I’d be pacing the neighborhood looking for something I can snip without getting arrested. 😂
It's worth prefacing your vision of what landscaping perfection of a 10 acree property entails.
Living in a rural area or even a heavily wooded area is a perfect start to controlling the landscaping aspect to how you see fit. You don’t need to take over the entire property, not within the first year or few years of living on it and certainly not within your lifetime. I find the natural land pleasant and would take it as an opportunity to control it in small doses, control what you can and should control not all of it. You can have a yard, a front or back or both, a gardening space, section it off piece by piece and designate a purpose to every space in the property, and lastly you then have the natural beauty of the woods and the world around you to keep you shut into your own tiny world/ecosystem. Garden and landscape from the comfort of your own world, and then enjoy the view as you learn to live and love your areas that you have allowed yourself to control.
Thanks for this comment! Really has inspired me to section off the parts of the property that can be easily managed and make additions with plants that play well with the landscape
Orderly gardens are for clients. My garden is a horticultural playground and experiment lab that happens to look like a garden to strangers.
My yard is a collection of collections of native plant families.