IN DEFIANCE OF A TRENDY GARDEN

Two things happened on the same day earlier this week that once again reinforced my "garden for yourself" school of thought.

First, I read Garden Media Group's analysis of the gardening trends they see for 2018. One of the things it seems to show is that the trend toward a less cultivated style of gardening is growing. I think we have Piet Oudolf and the new perennial garden movement to thank for that. A few weeds are OK, leave some things standing for the birds and keep nature in mind.

Then, as I was walking out the door on a very foggy morning, I snapped a quick picture of the patio garden, which is looking quite nice for this time of year. Like a lot of gardeners, I take a lot of closeup photos, often at the expense of the larger view (a forest for the trees, situation, if you will). So it was sort of nice to force myself to see this area in a photo and be generally pleased with what I saw.

So I started thinking about the garden trends I had just read about. Granted, this report is created with the garden industry in mind. It's meant to help people in the business better target their customers wants and needs and to help garden media understand what kinds of things consumers are interested in. Still, I can't imagine a major change in my overall gardening style happening at this point.

This was the first garden I "developed" when we bought the house and I've shared a lot of the failures and successes in it on this blog. I'd say there have been a lot more disappointments than pleasant surprises in this garden, a factor of my inexperience in its original creation and an unwillingness to start from scratch.

There are still challenges, but I think this is as good as this part of the garden has looked. I'm onto something—finally—and no amount of trend following is going to change that.

Of course I could always use that report to feel a little better about the fact that there is always a weed lurking in there. And there is, perhaps, one other advantage to embracing that report, as it relates to my garden. Earlier this year, when I shared a less flattering photo of this garden on Facebook, one reader told me, "Sorry, it just looks like a bunch of weeds." If I had known then what I know now, I could have told her I was just embracing a trend.

FRIDAY FINDS

How did it get to be Friday again? Specifically a Friday late in August? Sometimes it feels like the world is spinning a bit too fast.

Loi Thai photo

Have you seen Loi's fabulous Limelight hedge? I can't believe it's only three years old. (Stephen, if you're reading this I'm sure you knew I'd put this in today! :) )

This lesson on lawn shape is one I completely agree on and learned for myself a few years ago (which you can read about here and here).

I'll have to address this on the blog, but once again I am growing a giant zucchini plant that is producing very little in the way of actual zucchinis. Have you ever heard of such a thing? If I do get some (or find a friend with too many), I'm going to make this.

I wanted to give you a sneak peek of what's coming up on the blog soon. We have two interesting design related projects that I'm going to be looking for you to weigh in on.

The first is something I'm really excited about. A friend in Maine is moving to a new house with a huge yard that it currently almost all grass. She's an avid gardener who is not afraid of or unaccustomed to putting in time in a garden, but the slate is so blank she's looking for some insight into what she should do in this yard.

This isn't a great Google photo but you get the idea of what I mean when I say "blank slate."

Once we get a drawing pulled together we'll lay out some desires and requirements and then we're going to ask you, dear readers, to tell us what you'd do if this were your yard.

This is a photo of the circle garden from a couple years ago taken early in the season. It's now in shambles, overgrown and poorly designed. I'm ready for a change.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I think my circle garden is due for a refresher, which means I'm going to clear it out in fall in preparation for spring planting. That means that I'll have to make some decisions about what I'll be keeping and what will stay or move elsewhere, and since I'm feeling a little scatterbrained about it, I'm going to throw some options out here and see what you all think.

So that's what's coming up soon and that's it for this week, folks. I have some sailing and gardening on the agenda. You know ... summer stuff. May it continue for many weeks to come.