Moan, Moan, Moan - 2011

[maggiepie]

Mark, if I could visit your garden you would be moaning in here because you couldn't get rid of me!!

[mark smyth]

That would be OK with me

[daveyp1970]

Mark sometimes people can't see good things under there nose,i have to agree with Helen walking round a plants man or plantswomans is  garden is heaven and i am sure i scare people with my enthusiasm,you must meet some really nice people amongst them once in a while.If it hadn't been for the open garden scheme i wouldn't have met some really lovely people.

[angie]

Mark that's such a shame. I like Dave really enjoying seeing other gardens. I always come away with ideas and full of enthusiasm. I have thought about opening my garden but then l think what if people don't like it and I couldn't give people the names of plants and now that I have heard about your experience I don't know if I could do it.
Next time I am in Ireland I would love to see your garden and I would appreciate it. Hope it hasn't put you off letting others see what you have created.

Angie

[Lesley Cox]

I guess the real plant people will appreciate whatever effort is made and what they see while the hangers on won't appreciate anything at all, except free cups of tea. There are some advantages in having a garden that is emminently non-seeable, and while my intentions always were to have a garden fit for visitors, it has never happened. I'm not unhappy about that now.

I won't ever forget the horrid woman who led a group years ago and poked Weldenia candida with her umbrella - it was a young but well flowering plant back then - and said to her chums. "I'd never grow that. Seeds all over the place." She also condemned Sax. grisebachii 'Wisley.' "I don't like cactus." Such people are best consigned to the rubbish heap of one's life and left to decay.

[Lori S.]

I've just looked up both Weldenia candida and Sax. grisebachii 'Wisley'... wow to both! 
(So it's safe to invite me over... I wouldn't poke umbrellas at or comdemn either!    )

[alpines]

I guess the real plant people will appreciate whatever effort is made and what they see

Mark,
Please don't be put off by those who were rude and inconsiderate. The majority of people are not like this.
Sherba and I had the honor (responsibility) of organizing the Berea Garden Tour in May of this year. There were 8 gardens on the tour and we made a point of including 8 different environments. Ours, albeit a very young garden, was included and I gave two demonstrations on hypertufa trough making. The tour ran from 9 am to 4 pm. In all that time, I had literally 5 minutes when I had no-one to show around. We had over 100 visitors. Believe me, for all the effort we put in to getting the garden ready, it was far from perfect.  It poured down, heavens hard, all day long. Not ONE person complained about the weather or the gardens. We made a point of letting everyone know that the intention of the tour was NOT to see the "perfect" garden, but (and Angie made this point in her post), to inspire people.
The cost to visit all the 8 gardens was $12 and we made a profit for the Berea Arts Council of $4000. The feedback we received from all the garden owners was extremely positive.
Take a look around the forum. I can almost guarantee that they would have appreciated your effort and your skill level. Give it a second chance. I'm sure the results will be different.
Best
Alan

[angie]

Well done $4000 that's brilliant. My friends , Helen and Bill Mcgregor ( srgc members ) have opened their garden for years and I have only heard them say on one occasion that they had a group of people that were more interested in the teas than the the garden. They are moving house, going to a smaller garden. I do hope they open this one as well. There new garden is a SRGC members garden and if full of exciting and wonderful plants. They always make good money for their charitys.
I have only had some of our members visit but what I get out of it all is the enjoyment of speaking to folks with the same passion that I have.

Lesley I liked your comment at the end of your post  and Weldenia candida is flowering for me now, I really really hope that it will seed all over the place for me, should have given that lady a poke with the umbrella sorry.

Angie

[Tim Ingram]

I agree with everyone - there is nothing like opening your garden to visitors!! We have done it for over 25 years through the NGS (which is such a brilliant scheme), and it has gone up and down quite a bit over that time but I only remember many kind comments. The tea, and especially cakes, do assume a lot of importance (!) - but even more are any plants for sale. Years ago Jack Elliott opened his garden at Little Chart Forstal, absolutely packed with treasures of all descriptions, but the queue of us outside waiting for the gate to open, just headed straight for the sales table (almost like the Snowdrop Gala from what I've heard!). We had a few memorable Group sales in Jack's garden and he was a very kind host.

If I had a Weldenia and someone poked it so absurdly some suitable gardening accident might come to mind!

[Lesley Cox]

I doubt if the Weldenia will seed for you Angie. I've only ever once come across seed and that was in an AGS list perhaps 40 years ago. The late Jim Lecomte, nurseryman and importer of many good things, raised it at that time and those were the first plants in NZ but the current ones are from a different clone (Guatemalan instead of Mexican) and have proved self infertile. Maybe both clones are needed. However, if it DOES set seed, it forms undergound at the base of the flower tubes (they are stemless of course) so you would need to go fishing about with your fingers in the rotting debris as the leaves die away.

[angie]

Lesley that's very interesting, thanks. I am just happy to have the plant growing. I keep in in my greenhouse. It's such a beauty.

Tim I always head straight for the plant sales, you always get something unusual.

Angie

[fermi de Sousa]

Mark,
Will and I appreciated your garden! It was great to see the diversity of plants that you could grow in a small suburban lot and the great number of troughs and the way that you use them.
As Lesley says don't bother with those who don't appreciate it. Hopefully someone will be inspired and get an interest in our "wee treasures" from having seen them in your garden.
cheers
fermi

[Anthony Darby]

I once was waiting for a friend in the reptile house at the now defunct Glasgow Zoo. I decided to people watch. There were several cages that were empty, and had a wee sign to say as much. People don't read. I watched several families. They spent about five seconds or so at a cage with an obvious inhabitant, as if to say "ticked that box", being no more interested in the reptile than its mere presence. At the empty cages they spent ages peering this way and that trying to spot what wasn't in the cage. I reckon if every cage was empty they'd have been there for hours!

[ranunculus]

I once was waiting for a friend in the reptile house at the now defunct Glasgow Zoo. I decided to people watch. There were several cages that were empty, and had a wee sign to say as much. People don't read. I watched several families. They spent about five seconds or so at a cage with an obvious inhabitant, as if to say "ticked that box", being no more interested in the reptile than its mere presence. At the empty cages they spent ages peering this way and that trying to spot what wasn't in the cage. I reckon if every cage was empty they'd have been there for hours!

They told all their friends; "We think we saw three hundred and thirty four chameleons, they were beautifully camouflaged"  

[Lesley Cox]

I'm beginning to worry about my health. Yesterday when I got up, I went into the room where my computer lives and stood there for several minutes, with ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA ABOUT HOW TO TURN IT ON.!!! Went into kitchen and stood looking around vaguely wondering what to do. When Teddy and Cain came bounding up I didn't even recognise them. What on earth's going on?

Later I had to go into town for a meeting and though I got there safely, (18kms) I have no recollection of driving or seeing anything at all, or parking my car. I sat there for a while then had to apologise for being late. Apparently the meeting went OK because I wasn't carted off by men in white jackets but I really don't know what happened.

When I got home again Roger had cooked the porridge and gave me tea and after that I was fine again. Today likewise.