Gardeners have strange habits...

...but not as baffling as non-gardeners garden habits...

It has been said that Britain is a nation of gardeners...there is even a book by that title.  True, we have a climate ideal for gardening.   Not too cold and not too hot, lots of rain so maybe that is why there is an image that everyone is a gardener and knows lots about it.

I don't think this is true.

I live between two non-gardening neighbours.  Neighbour on the left is an immaculate home-owner.  He puts us all to shame with the non-stop washing, polishing, painting, tweaking and so on.  He has silk flowers in the basket by his front door.

He does have growing plants, some lovely trees, but by his own admission, he inherited the garden he has when he bought the property...all he has added are a few Cordylines.

Cordyline

These he cares for with the same eye for detail as his home and cars.  In winter they are protected from the wind and anchored so they won't snap in the gales we get, and if there is snow or frost forecast, he wraps them in bubble wrap.  All this is genuine good gardening practice ....

BUT...

I couldn't believe my eyes this afternoon when I saw him cementing round the base of his Cordylines with great care and precision....I didn't like to stare...or ask...but I will have a jolly good look and see if I was seeing right when he goes to work tomorrow....

Why would he cement them in?

Poor trees.

The other neighbour on my right.   Well they have no sense of gardening at all.   For most of the summers I have been here the most they do is mow their grass and vast crop of dandelions about twice a summer.   Until last summer when they put up a fence and gained some much needed privacy...now they mow their grass and dandelions once a week.

However the front garden has flowers in it.   Quite attractive ones.   Wooden ones.

Wooden flowers like these.

Equally I am sure I am a complete bafflement to both sets of neighbours with my gardening habits.

I import dirt and bags of poo.  But I pick up and dispose of dog poo.   So I must appear to be a bit of a poo freak.

Not to mention the times Leah and Jonah run round the garden yelling "Poo Marnie, more poo here!" at the top of their voices.

I talk to the plants too...and the dog...and probably to myself....I photograph the plants but here is a funny thing I read about one gardener...I can very much understand and relate to this...

Taking pictures gets me strange looks from my neighbours as well. The other day there was a weed with white flowers that I didn't recognize and I took a picture. It was on the fence line between me and my neighbour. He must have thought I was being anal about the weed because when I came home from work, he had pulled it up!
Other than that, I am always looking into other peoples yards to see what they are growing and it drives my teenage daughter nuts...I will slow down when driving by a yard that catches my eye and she will tell me to quit stalking the neighbourhood plants.

But possibly they will think that not only am I a woman of strange habits but the dog has them too.

Seren smelling the roses,
they are beautifully scented.
Bridge of Sighs Rose.

Now that is what I call a dog with good taste!   Even if everyone else thinks she is weird.

She does pull up a few plants still though...she is only 6 months old...hopefully her gardening habits will modify to being more constructive than destructive as time goes by.   But I don't think there is much hope of the same being said for my non-gardening neighbours, left or right!

D tells me he is super-busy in his garden.   He is building a greenhouse....making modifications to the foundations of their house...there is a new baby...the boat has to go in the water...busy, busy, busy...

A sent me this picture of him being extremely busy.

D being very busy in the garden

I know, it does enhance the gardening experience if you take time to enjoy it too...seriously, that is very important.   It must not be all work and no play or relaxation to enjoy the labour of your hands (back, knees etc).

My busy in the garden this week has not really been much.   I trip to Dorset interrupted the week and the rain too.  Today I got back in there and planted out the courgettes, re-potted the fig tree, made up a few hanging baskets and a pot or two...all from plants I had over-wintered in the greenhouse or propagated.

Mostly the poppies and things that were lovely have 'gone over', but the roses are still doing their best to outshine everything else...and succeeding.

Dog rose by the greenhouse.
Don't you love their little open faces?

The Marguerits are prolific, like weeds.   I must cut a big vase full.   It will encourage them to have a second flush of flowers later.

Leah loves these Marguerites

Potatoes on the left.

The sage is another plant that is busy feeding the bees at the moment.   Sage are one of my favourite herbs - I use them a lot and the flowers are wonderful too.

Sage and Marguerites

Everything is growing now.   Tomatoes.   The melon is a monster.  The rain and the sunshine have accelerated the growing - especially of the weeds.   I have to pot up all the pelagonium cuttings I took.   Not one of them failed so there are loads to go around.   I'll give some to Chris and smuggle one to DnA...he of the garden-busy in the garden-swing....

That's all for this week folks...I'll leave you with this...which one are you?

Chat to you again next week.   Have a good one.