Comments on: our gardens after we’re gone

By: DryStoneGarden » Blog Archive » The Garden Now That We’re Gone

DryStoneGarden » Blog Archive » The Garden Now That We’re Gone — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:30:12 +0000

[…] while back, James at LostintheLandscape did a post titled Our Gardens After We’re Gone, musing about what might happen to his garden if or when he is no longer stewarding it. TownMouse […]

By: 2012 end of the world

2012 end of the world — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:19:10 +0000

A friend of mine mentioned 2012 last night to me and it's the first I heard about it so I jumped on here out of curiosity. I think it's kind of sick and sounds like a bunch of skeptical jargon. I choose to live every day like it is the last because let's be real, WHO THE HELL KNOWS what is going to happen or when it's your time to go on. The past is history, the future is a mystery and now is a gift, thats why it's called the present. It's not healthy to sit around and trip out about when you will die. Stop wasting your time you have now. 2012 end of world - some truth about 2012

By: Elephant's Eye

Elephant's Eye — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:34:30 +0000

Linked back to this post today.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:57:04 +0000

Hmmm. Thinking about it this way, as if we’d all been abducted, is easier and more interesting than the probable reality that the next people who will live in our house won’t be gardeners, and it will probably all go back to grass at best, weeds at worst. But some of the NE natives are burly enough to hold their ground. I’d like to think that it would go to milkweed, goldenrod, Joe Pye, fleabane, and aster, but a more likely scene would be a sea of evil yellow Pastinaca sativa, wild parsnip.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:54:19 +0000

hi James, good morning, i visited earlier even before your next post, so please bear with my 2nd comment. haha. To reply again to your reply to mine, i am not actually attached that much to my garden, because i am an absentee gardener. I just let my mother do whatever she wants in the garden. Before, i actually dont like her style because whatever she put, grows. The perfect example of “Green Thumb”. Whatever i prune she plants later. So i just let go and let anything, because i am absent, i just try to appreciate and just call it The Biodiversity Garden. Now i appreciate the butterflies and how the plants put to use “survival of the fittest”.

By: lostlandscape

lostlandscape — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:58:14 +0000

DGG, like you say, I'm sure there are a few of my plants that view me as the overbearing parent that's always keeping them in line, cutting back an enthusiastic shoot, or hacking back and entire season's worth of perfectly viable seed pods before they have a chance to spread everywhere... Pomona, I think you're in an interesting position, where you're the pioneering mythical First Gardener for your property. For most of us it's probably more along the lines of trying to make our gardens work in relation to what earlier gardeners did. You're where you have to decide how to fit your tulips into the woods. To me it'd seem to be at once really exciting and really intimidating. As far as the manzanita, I'm just beginning to realize how many lovers of this genus there are out there. The fact that most are infuriatingly slow growers adds to their cachet as being special plants. (And OF COURSE they're special plants!)

By: Pomona Belvedere

Pomona Belvedere — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:36:48 +0000

What a thought-provoking post, James. As usual.

And a lot of thought-provoking comments as well.

It made me think about reasons why we garden; the mania for growing things can stem from many roots. In my own case, I was aiming to fit things in with the woods; I’ve spent more time hanging out with wild (not necessarily native, as we know) plants than gardening. I think my tulips and other mediterranean bulbs would survive; they’d break out of their pots and many would find seating in the native soil where they would gradually establish themselves. Most of my other stuff in pots would croak for the reasons you mention. The infant moss garden would mostly revive with winter rains. The natives I’ve added would be partly destroyed by invasive grasses and partly survive; I’ll have to check Lenz and Dourley to find out which ones!

I’m glad to hear that ice plant has been found to contribute to erosion and property damage. I’m not anti-iceplant as a contained plant, but don’t like the way it’s taken over beaches and all kinds of other natural habitats.

I loved getting to see the Del Mar manzanita, as I’m a closet arctostaphylos fan and didn’t know about this one.

By: Dirty Girl Gardening

Dirty Girl Gardening — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:28:48 +0000

Hmmmm, my garden would probably be happier with me gone… no more doggies playing tug-o-war with the jasmine vine — or opps! too much mushroom compost on my roses again!

By: lostlandscape

lostlandscape — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:30:50 +0000

Jess, lots of thoughtful things in your comment… I may have underplayed the possibility of trouble the ivy would cause. The slope I showed with the iceplant also has ivy and Bermuda buttercup, a triple threat of obnoxiousness that could take over more of the garden. My local canyon has areas of sprawling iceplant mixed in with taller natives poking up through it, with smaller spots of ivy and buttercup.

Skeeter, it sounds like you consider your grandmother’s garden a defining characteristic of her old home, and I can definitely see that. A garden can express basic human needs for order or variety, and at the same time it’s the incarnation of the gardener’s personality. Remove the gardener, and the personality vanishes. What’s left? A garden? Or a wild assortment of plants?

By: skeeter

skeeter — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:33:49 +0000

Such a sad topic to think about. I was just talking to someone else on another blog about how sad my Grandmothers house now looks after her no longer there to nurture her gardens. In a Nut Shell; her once beloved Rose Garden, hundreds of Bulbs, Veggie plat, etc. All Gone with the wind. It looks as though a Garden Club Member never touched the soil. Such a sad thing to my eyes that I rarely go by the house. I so wished I had dug up the bulbs if nothing else… Sigh…

The idea for the Vinyl Records is cool. I could never part with our Vinyl’s at this point but will keep that idea in mind when I am ready to take the plunge!

Scooter is a cute Fur Baby…