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The Gardener and his Garden — 41 Comments

  1. Your post is great! Is always great to see how we reflect on our path and see how much we have grown. I can still see my little garden when it still had only one plant only two years ago.

  2. I enjoyed the pictures of your garden through the season – so beautiful. I will never become professional – the more I garden, the more I realize I don’t know.

  3. Many thanks Alistair for the link…sadly, or perhaps happily, as we grow older we realise we have forgotten more than we ever knew but by that time we have instinct and intuition to fall back on…which is just as well sometimes!

  4. Mark and Gaz, thanks for your comments, I always enjoy my visit to your site to see what you are getting up to and of course to enjoy your wonderful garden.

  5. I think you are a professional already in your own right Alistair, just looking at the way your garden has matured 🙂

    A lovely and insightful post that I agree with!

  6. Really enjoying reading your blog! I grew up in Aberdeen and now live in Canada, in an even harsher climate. I’d forgotten the challenges of gardening in the North East of Scotland, and it’s fascinating to contrast those challenges with those I’m facing in my garden on the shores of Lake Ontario. I’ve just recently started a garden blog, mostly to help me document my progress from year to year, so that I can learn from my mistakes instead of repeating them from season to season. Check it out at http://mymimicomaison.blogspot.com/

  7. What a fun journey! I was thinking a lot yesterday about what I did when I first started gardening. It wasn’t a terribly long time ago but it is still hard to remember when I used to try to plant cosmos seeds in rock-hard clay and wondered why they never grew very tall.

  8. Hi Alistair – a nice resumee of a gardeners progress through the pitfalls of ignorance. Have just about cured myself of the pick a plant you fancy and hope for the best! Always a pleasure to stop by and see your garden as well as try to remember all the plant info you provide. You’re a blooming good garden blogger too 😉

  9. You are right they do think us crazy…I know many of my neighbors do…I have learned to ignore them almost 🙂

  10. Yes Donna, I agree gardening is fun although many people would think us crazy. My brother always says, its like watching paint dry, nothing seems to happen, you wait and wait and end up disappointed.

  11. How wonderful and true your post is…I love so many styles that when someone asks my style I am hard pressed to answer…this blogging has put me in touch with so many new styles of gardening and gardeners to learn from…I love your gardens and will never be a professional either…I learn constantly and am never afraid to keep trying…this will be my second year at the veggie garden and what an experience that is…so your words of wisdom are great…get out there and just try…risk failure for the fun of it…after all gardening is fun…

  12. I think the older I get, and the more fanatical a gardener, the more I experiment. I still hate failing, but it does spur me on. I love your last sentence, ” there is no reason why you should not take pleasure in what gives them great delight.” I think that is one of the things I love about blogging, you get to share in other’s triumphs and disasters, and even if they do grow something you hate, you can still enjoy their enjoyment and sympathise when they lose something precious.

  13. No need, my comment finally showed, but not my little jeep avatar. I guess it was a WP issue since I did not get the reply email. Though you were being modest, since you always comment back. LOL.

  14. Thanks Christine, I am almost enjoying the blogging as much as the gardening, well maybe not quite. I do go over it again and again and make changes when I think that makes you sound like a right smart arse Alistair.

  15. Thank you for the kind words Donna, however unless we earn money from an interest then we are of course amateurs.

  16. Haha, Alistair, you described me to a tee in your summation of “The Beginner”.

    Your gardens is in a word, BEAUTIFUL! I am so fortunate to be learning from you and the many other Gurus I’ve “met” on Blotanical. Thank you xxx

  17. By the information you write and images of your garden that you post, you have moved well beyond amateur status. There are many fine bloggers with so much to offer, yourself being one of the best.

  18. Naw Diana, you are still too young to be forgetting, and have I really said tree pruning in late fall, I am even forgetting what I write. I will probably sort it out.

  19. Larry, I should think 5000 Dusty Miller is too much even in your garden, I wonder which Dusty Miller it takes its name from. I am looking forward to seeing your garden in Summer again.

  20. Hi Alistair… as I was perusing your post and thinking about how lovely your gardens are, I was surprised to see the link to my blog… thank you! I still am really impressed with your begonia/dusty miller combo, so I bought a package of Senecio cineraria which we call dusty miller. Turns out every one of the 5000 seeds (which was the smallest package I found on short notice) germinated! I hate disposing of perfectly good plants, but these are a bit too many! I’m going to be combining the rose colored “big” series fibrous begonias with red foliage along with the silver plants. I think they should do well about the gazebo as it is difficult to get water back there for touchier plants. Our night time temps are finally above freezing so we are on the road to Spring ‘busting out all over’ Lots of rain in the forecast as well and I’m grateful for it. I am off to transplanting… the high school young people are coming for their prom pictures in late afternoon and it looks like the weather will actually cooperate. We enjoy being able to provide the site for photography as it is a simple way we can ‘give back ‘ to the community. Do take good care… Larry

  21. Tree pruning? Late fall – I do hope not.

    And SOMEONE has been taking the plant names out of my memory. I used to look at my plants and know who they were. Now I sometimes struggle, and give up.

    Gardening, blogging, a new language. They keep moving the goalposts. You think you know how to … and then you find a whole new layer to learn.

  22. Alistair, I don’t think anyone has ever said anything nicer about me or anything I appreciated more. Thank you. I was especially taken by your insightful comment in the first paragraph: “Gardening was an experiment, you were only ever going to learn by your own successes and failures.” Almost everything important I have learned about gardening has come from trying things, experimenting with plants, changing what I have done, and especially failing and killing plants. There is no such thing as a green thumb, just a love of plants and gardening and a will to persevere. Carolyn

  23. b-a-g, just a little fun post, already I find by your posts and comments on them that you are well and truly a gardener.

  24. Alistair,
    According to your criteria, I can claim to be a “fully fledged amateur”, but then that would put me in the same category as you! I feel comfortable with the title “no longer a complete novice”.
    Thanks for linking to my blog, and thanks even more for your support & advice from the beginning.

  25. Great post. And like you said, most of us will find ourselfs in the Amateur category for the rest of our lives. But once your hooked on gardening, there is no turning back.

  26. Your garden is gorgeous! Loved when you said you were surprised with how much you could recall – then as you got older, you started forgetting! haha I’m there! It is very nice of the professionals to spread their knowledge. I look forward to checking out all your links.

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