As I mentioned yesterday I had a visit from another garden blogger to my garden. It’s not often that my garden gets company and I’m always a little nervous about the things someone might see. Like the loads of Johnson Grass invading the beds (all the beds) or the currently unkempt nature of certain areas of the garden I just haven’t gotten to dealing with yet. You probably realize this but with the blog I can control what you see which often results in me putting the garden’s best face forward. I can censor the weeds, the overrun areas, and the plants that have died (every now and then one does!). I do share the bad on rare occasions but it’s human nature to want to share the good and not so much of the bad. Of course the garden blogger who visited shared some wisdom with me – people want to see that kind of stuff, all of it! The good with the bad and how we as gardeners deal with it. It’s not always intentional as sometimes I get excited to show all the cool stuff and just forget about the bad. There are a lot of really neat plants and flowers that are doing fantastic in the garden and it’s hard to break away to show the stuff that isn’t doing so well. I also think that sometimes we consider our gardens as unfinished or as a “work in progress” and are hesitant to invite people or show others until it’s acceptable in our own minds (I’ll post more on that subject later).
The garden blogger also shared another important aspect of garden blogging: a picture doesn’t always give you the whole picture. Standing in someone’s garden that you have only viewed through a computer screen looks much different! Some bloggers take a lot of close-up pictures that you just can’t get a great visual perspective of the entire garden while others show a good selection of landscape shots. The choice is unique to each blog and blogger but it’s truly impossible to convey exactly what a garden looks like through a few pixels with accompanying text.
Every time I meet another garden blogger I always come away with more ideas and a greater understanding of how this whole blogging thing really works and why it’s fun. It’s not always about the information, but it can be, it’s not always about the people, but it can be – mostly it’s a combination of both and how it all fits in with the garden experience. We learn a lot from each other and have fun while doing it!
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| Left to Right: Naomi and Tina (In the Garden) |
Tina, I want to thank you for the conversation, your visit, and the banana tree on Saturday and I hope to one day stop by your garden! Thank you Naomi for tagging along with Tina and bringing the St. John’s Wort (it’s already planted)! (and you’re always welcome to weed in my garden!)
I’ll add the rain garden picture below for a larger garden perspective!
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| Rain Garden, Naomi and Tina, Vegetable Garden and Garden Shed |
Great post and that is how I am. It is easy to edit your photos or take them from creative angles to eliminate the weeds and other unsightly things you don't want others to see. I do the same thing. I didn't know that gardeners want to see that but that is good to know!
How fun to have a visitor! And to get to share plants! I always look forward to sharing my 'real' garden! So much of your time and energy goes into it, it should be shown off!
We all do the same things on our blogs. Show what delights us and inspires us. Occasionally share a problem or disappointment. It is simply whatever we feel like, which is the beauty of blogging. There are no rules.
I usually show what has awed me about my garden and believe me, I don't stand in awe of the weeds! LOL. If you came to my garden right now, you'd see a lot of them, but not for long. I generally keep good control of those, but I've been so busy with work this spring and when I wasn't, it was pouring down rain, so they've gotten a good start.
It wouldn't bother me to show the ugly stuff though. We've all got it! 🙂
It's so nice to meet fellow gardener's. So glad that Tina got to visit. Naomi seems to be a great traveling partner. That make it nice.
Hey Dave-perfect post! I prepared mine today and will post it tomorrow. I truly truly believe folks want to see the good with the bad because unless you are superhuman NO ONE has a perfect garden. Just look at some of your comments above-we all have issues. Blogging may make it seem like our gardens are perfect but come on, weeds grow, plants get too big, they die and when we see those picture perfect gardens on blogs it sometimes makes us wonder what we are doing wrong with our own. Even in picture perfect gardens you'll find a weed or two. I've been on lots of garden tours and there is truly not one tour that there wasn't at least one weed in the garden. So relax. But let's get real, deep down it is nice to see the same weeds in other gardens that we occasionally have. Notice I said occasionally? Because with as big as your garden is you barely had any weeds. Naomi will get a kick out of this post. btw, she weeds and prunes in my garden too:) You see we are on the same sheet of music already! Come visit anytime and in the meantime I'll see you on the blog! Hugs to you all!
Garden Bloggers are the best and friendliest folks~It is a bit nerve racking to have one visit~when all the unfinished messiest parts of my garden are there to be seen! I met two of the nicest gardeners at the Perennial Plant Society tour this weekend~We talked about the need for tours to include 'real' gardens occasionally! I might let them visit next year. When the messiest parts are looking a bit better;-) gail