It’s time.
It’s time to pivot.
I’ve absorbed and embraced all of your feedback from yesterday’s post (thank you) and I know where I need to go from here.
I need to be fully transparent.
I need to get back to the roots of this blog.
I’m no expert; just a crazed gardener who more often than not gets it wrong.
So with that in mind, I give you the following video. It’s a tour of my entire garden. Nothing is hidden. I didn’t plan ahead before starting the video and I didn’t edit a thing. I just grabbed my phone, hit the record button and started walking.
I’m terrified to view it myself but I don’t want that to hold me back from sharing it with you all.
This is the basis of the blog moving forward. The struggle is real (tongue sort of planted in cheek) and I’m thrilled to share that struggle (and the successes) with you all. It will all be viewed from a much wider lens.
This will be horrifying yet real.
But fun.
Be kind.
Hi John,
You’re being too hard on yourself! Your garden is wonderful and of course it’s a work in progress – you have a full-time job and a family! And it’s a huge area to boot. I really enjoyed the tour and have been enjoying your blog for years. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I’ve learned a lot from you.
Joanna
Wow painfully honest! You are too hard on yourself. I have no kids and no real responsibilities besides my one full time job so I spend like probably 10 hours a week working on weeds minimum except in the dead of winter. And the crown vetch and thistles still get away from me. I personally love the bees and wasps for me insect and wildlife interactions is a HUGE part of what I am doing.
I think your pink flowering weed is a vetch.
Loved the tour and the honesty! And it made me feel better because I got back from vacation and my list of chores grew exponentially. Weeds…damn you1!
You could pay the kids by the bucket for how many weeds they pull???
Wow, your garden is much bigger than I thought it was AND nicer. Must be because you focus on individual plants most times. Glad to know I’m not the only one struggling to keep on top of weeds. I swear they grow faster than I can pull them out! Thistles used to be the bane of my garden until I did as you suggested and I snip them at the base…I’m nearly gone with them. YAY! Oh, and that weed is a crown vetch creeping into the irises. Yank them out BEFORE they drop seed, quick! Thanks for the tour!
Oh, I feel much better knowing you have trouble keeping up with the weeds too. I usually mulch in March before or as the perennials starts popping through, but I didn’t this year and I am forever pulling weeds now. As I have aged I have also learned I need a lot more shrubs and fewer perennials to care for. I’m probably going to work in more amsonia, itea, abelia and oakleaf hydrangea. You have also inspired me to try a fothergilla. I do love my flowers though and the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds that visit them. I really enjoy your blog, keep writing!
Oh my gosh. When I get home I’ll send a picture of the weed patch formerly known as my vegetable garden.
Thank you, John, for your bravery. We can all relate. What a truly lovely property you have to work with! I particularly liked the way you sculpted the shape of the gardens surrounding the house. And the contrast in greenery too. Since I do not live in your area this might be a laughable suggestion: Is there a ground cover that could be planted, once the weeds are pulled that would be more aggressive than the weeds in order to drown them out? It might take a few seasons of pulling/newspaper laid down/mulch to eradicate before planting. That is what I did here in California Zone 9b. And then, to my very heavy clay soil, I added some 1/8 inch red lava dust and incorporated it very well for aeration because I wanted to plant both natives, Mediterranean plants, as well as succulents, and then mulched with fir bark in some places and pebbles for succulents. Out here, always, water is a pressing factor. With true natives you don’t need to amend the soil at all, which is why they’re great but many are so huge that it becomes a juggling act trying to find and sync smaller natives with other more floriferous cultivars/hybrids and still address their low to moderate water needs (too much water will kill a native but too little and other plants will die), heat tolerance, full sun, all scaled to a small front yard garden, while providing the type of plants that attract pollinators for native bees, butterflies, birds. (I’ve learned that native bees can’t get their tongues into some of the hybrids, that their potency with regard to nectar has been reduced dramatically, and their leaf color has been genetically altered so as to be unattractive and in some cases poisonous to bees. . . . See? We all have problems. Enough about mine. You’ve done wonders and helped us all to learn from you. Many thanks.
I loved your video of your gardens, flaws and all. I can see some of your vision and it will be come to fruition. Your honesty is refreshing! I don’t feel so alone with my own garden struggles…..weeds being at the head of the list! Thank you!
Marilyn
That was so brave and I have so much respect for you for doing it. I know about taking close-ups. LOL. I know it wasn’t easy but I hope you do more of these. Thanks!
Wow thank you so much. I am overwhelmed about my 1/3 acre and I’m retired. This may have been hard and ego shattering for you. But I feel so much better. And if it counts for anything…your weeds are more attractive than mine. Collapsed conifers? check. Half dead trees? check. No deer, thank goodness. And your property is beautiful with the flaws. I love an honest look, the ones where it looks like the landscapers just got done irritate me.
Hi John,
Thanks for the tour of your garden. It’s beautiful! And it’s comforting to see that other gardeners share similar joys – the first bloom, nurturing our plants and watching their growth, dreaming of future gardens, and similar challenges – weeds, deer, too long of a to-do list and too short on time. I enjoy your blog and your honesty. Thanks!
Hi John. Thanks for sharing your garden. Love it. You have a good eye for design. I think your grassy weed that is taking over is Japanese stiltgrass. Highly invasive. Best way to control it is to keep it cut back so it doesn’t go to seed. It’s an annual but each plant can have over 1000 seeds. So don’t let that happen. Or pull it out if you can. Good luck!
I have been to your house a million times but I have never taken a tour like this. I am so impressed with your knowledge of every plant. I also realize that you have inherited my love of greens! Oprah loves bread and I love greens! Great job John!
I really enjoyed seeing the whole garden. Hope you do another video tour when more is blooming?
I have those same weeds filling in and taking over the big and small patches of bare ground spots amongst flowers and shrubs in a backyard/woodland area!! I have been stock-piling ajuga and thyme with the intent to plant them all after I get around to deciding where I will pull out the weeds and where I will cover in newspaper/ mulch.
And, why oh why won’t the deer and the groundhogs eat the weeds that fill up the garden, the lawn and the common ground adjacent? Despite best efforts to deter by planting only ” deer and rabbit resistant” plants, and accumulating a stockpile of various critter repellant sprays, it’s no good since they will have their way when I do not spray.
I echo everyone else who urges you to stop being so hard on yourself. In my opinion, our gardens require tweaking, always. Yours is audacious, stunning, and beautiful in its breadth/size for any one person to easily create and keep up with, especially for a fella who is also a father/husband/full time jobber/baseball fan etc etc etc
Great garden!! Thank you for the tour. It’s beginning to dawn on me that a lot of gardeners make new beds before knowing what plants are going in them. I call it hope. Touring your garden, I felt totally understood.
Wow, you have a huge area to keep up, and I would feel like such a failure if there weren’t any weeds. It’s amazing how much faster they grow than anything we plant, and yes, why don’t the deer and rabbits eat the weeds? Anyway it is a beautiful work in progress and while you are weeding, as we all are, you can be mentally planning what you will plant there. Remember always look back to see how nice the newly weed area looks, never ahead at all that has yet to be weeded and that will keep you goin forward. Thanks for the tour and an added thought all those weeds, if they are annuals, are good green manure if they are tilled in before they go to seed.
I like seeing the overall garden space, the sweeping beds, the beds in progess. We all like planning what’s next! Thanks for the tour. I like seeing the big picture, but please continue to post your photos of amazing combinations–they’re inspiring–as well as the up close pictures of plants. I came to your blog because of your posts on grasses and I’m still learning how best to incorporate those into my perennial beds. Tours of your garden through the months of bloom would be fun. And weeds? I thought southern weeds were bad and invasive–but I was kinda happy to see that NJ weeds are just as bad! Weeding gets me out in the garden often, though, and that lets me see my garden close up. Thanks for a great blog and a great tour.
Love today’s blog when you stepped back and showed your “real” garden. We all relate to what gardening is really about, weeds and all. Keep it up, John.
Yes,I can relate!Weeds,ever-lengthening to-do list,plans in progress,deer are the reality we all share.So what?!It’s a lovely garden,thanks for letting us in.
Great video! What a fantastic piece of property. I’m amazed you can keep on top of things as much as you have. I’m semi-retired and have trouble keeping up with my puny 1/3 acre. Love your “sculpture”.
You gave me some good ideas from that video. My only comment is that you are missing some Japanese maples. They have great form and color, as well as year round interest. I had to re-landscape after Hurricane Sandy destroyed 75% of my shrubs and trees. When I posted some pics of progress, a friend suggested and sent me a Japanese maple. I’ve become an addict ever since and have managed to squeeze in 27 of them.
Thoroughly enjoyed the garden tour. Weeds are a never ending battle, good thing I like weeding. I just wish there was more to get it done. You are a brave soul, sharing the garden “warts”. Gorgeous piece of property you are working on. I always have to chuckle when new gardeners say there garden is “done” as those of us who have been at it awhile know that it’s ever evolving. I think we all have those areas we don’t like but are not quite sure what we want to do there. I can relate on getting the grasses divided, I have some Endless Bummer (oops Summer) hydrangeas I’ve been planning to pull out for about 4 years now. Hoping a deck removal and rebuild project this summer does them in. Keep up the great work. Really enjoy your blog and I’m enjoying your book as well.
Oh, John, thank you so much for the tour. An honest appraisal is good for the soul. I too have many weeds I need to contend with, plants to divide and move and too much to do with not enough time. You do have design skills which I don’t. It’s good to look for the beauty and not just the work to be done. I fall into the trap of only seeing what I need to do until someone comes to my house and admires my so called gardens. Be proud of what you’ve done and plan out what you want and need to do. You’ll get there but there’s always something that doesn’t work out and the deer helping with the pruning (as I call it)doesn’t make it any easier. Keep up the good work and keep sharing the good and the bad. Love your blog posts and look forward to them every week. And by the way, daylilies are great plants with a lot to offer in the way of color (insert smiley face). Happy gardening.
All of us mere mortals have weeds… mine are just different than yours. Pulling takes so long and just brings to the surface more weed seeds, so I may go back to the newspaper/mulch trick in the most infested areas. Personally, I enjoy seeing “real” gardens that are loved and cared for by their owners. When I go on garden tours, I find myself wondering, am I really just admiring the home owner’s taste in garden designers? I would love to go on a tour solely of gardens designed, planted, and cared for my home owners.
This is an excellent new direction for your blog. There are lots of blogs about awe-inspiring gardens. This one is about the actual struggle we have. with the relentless beast that is Nature.
Might I suggest some groundcover? (And some Roundup for those thistles, but I won’t go there yet again…) Seriously, I would not be able to keep up with weeds without the Geranium macrorrhizum and the Veronica “Georgia Blue” and the hostas (okay, I know hostas are out of the question for you, but I bet those deer would not eat “Ingwerson’s Variety” Geranium.) Or plant everything in Amsonia until the weeds give up! (I love Amsonia too)
I think your front garden is lovely. And if I were faced with such a large space of property, I’d fall into despair. Or start reforesting it.
So, give yourself a lot of credit for how much you’ve done while working full time and giving lots of time to your wife and kids. These are the right priorities. And thank you for sometimes being overwhelmed by vetch and deer, and not being afraid to show it. We can all relate.
John,
What a brave post. Most of us who blog about our gardens would never be so brutally honest as to show everything without cropping, editing and retouching, at least a little bit! You deserve a lot of credit for putting it out there and I think the comments should boost your morale. Just a couple of suggestions from a 50 yrs + gardener… first, try not to get too far out ahead of yourself with creating new planting areas. New beds are weed magnets, and as you know, the more densely your perennials grow in, the less problem you’ll have with weeds going forward. In the same vein, I think you should plant more of the things you’ve been successful with, both to cover ground and to make more substantial masses. It took me a long time to learn this, but now I try to never plant less than five of anything… and with grasses, groups of 12 to 15 are by no means too large! Last (and this was mentioned by a previous commentor) get yourself some Geranium macrorhizzum, the absolutely most weedproof flowering groundcover around. Comes in several shades from light to dark pink, has nice fall color, and deer won’t touch it! Plus it bulks up nicely in a couple of seasons and smothers just about any weed (but it’s not invasive). Use it to fill space until your other perennials grow in.
The thing I love about your blog is your unvarnished enthusiasm for plants. There are other blogs that have more expert advice but your posts take me back to when I was discovering gardening for the first time, so please keep it up!
I’m late to the party and not sure you’ll even see this comment, but I’ll add my thanks for your bravery and urge you to continue the blog. I really enjoy your humor and it was so refreshing to see your garden warts and all. I think we all have the same issues with maybe different plants, varmints and weather. After seeing your video, I’m feeling better about my own struggles. Keep up the good work.
I moved to Florida from New Jersey where I left a half acre property that I managed to cultivate and garden for 22 years.It broke my heart when I left my piece of paradise there knowing that I will miss all the plants and trees I’ve singlehandedly placed all over. Then I found
your site one hot lazy day.Wow! Not only did I enjoy your blogs as I can virtually garden again in NJ but also to be reminded of the plants I used to have as they surprisingly were the same as what you have. The challenges, sans deer, a little less and therefore better for plant selections. Nevertheless,working full time then as well as gardening as much as my heart desires, always left a desire in my heart to create enough time for my gardening.So reading your blogs now had been so entertaining for me as I now have a tiny piece of property to tackle.Thank you for the beautiful pictures and the videos.