Daily Dose Blogger Bios
Do Gardeners Scare You?
Because I have to admit, a lot of gardeners scare me. I mean, I'm hardcore when it comes to being a plant lover; I speak my mind. But there are limits. In my 11 years as a gardener I've met some really mean, bossy, snotty, know - it - alls. Once, a widely written about gardener from Northern California asked if she could visit my garden while she was in town (I was an admirer of her stuff and was so nervous and excited), and by the time she left, I was in tears. She insulted my hedge, turned her nose up at my tiny patch of black bamboo, and generally found my garden very underwhelming. What really sent me over the edge is that she made fun of my neighbor's erratically pruned shrubbery. Come on! My neighbor wasn't a gardener - no fair laughing at her plants! There was another woman who was in my garden club - she had to critique every garden we visited, and forced her unsolicited advice on the owners who were graciously feeding us and letting us wander through their lovely grounds. We kicked her out of the club. Maybe she thinks WE were the mean girls.
Recently, I was surfing the garden weblogs, and I started getting the same feeling I got from that Northern California woman. So many gardeners seem to just want people to plant plant plant, and they forget about what I think is the biggest point - our gardens are for us to enjoy. I read in one blog that they hated perfect magazine gardens and loved chaotic, dirty, bug-ridden gardens. Huh? Down with "outdoor living". Why? They want everyone to garden their asses off, but I think they scare off more people than they attract to the cause. What do you think?
Until next time,
Germi
Okay, I'm going to call myself on something - a few posts back (There Aren't Words), I think I may have exhibited Snotty Mean Obnoxious Gardener (SMOG) behavior. I'm having trouble distinguishing the difference between helpfully critical and bitchy. One of my problems is, I kind of like bitchy, if it's in service of the greater good. I think gardeners who SMOG do it to make themselves feel superior. If anybody reads this, do you think I am guilty of SMOG?