While I was staying at Virginia Beach last summer I watched three beachfront mansions being finished and moved into by the new owners. In each case they bought themselves, probably at considerable expense instant gardens with trees, ponds, flowers in full bloom, from a local landscape garden specialist. While they undoubtedly saved themselves some years in watching their garden grow, I do think that they were missing out on the whole point of a garden - the joy of creating, the relaxation of pottering about with trowel and basket of bulbs, even weeding!

I spoke to one gentleman and asked him the name of one of the flowers giving a blaze of colour along a border - he didnt even know!

He seemed amazed that I was doing my own "garden upkeep" as he called it. I suspect that he thought I could not afford to pay someone to come in once a week to blow all the leaves from my garden into his. Those noise polluting apperati should be banned!

David South

I agree that leaf blowers should be banned.. All they do is move the leaves from one place to another. In this case from the next door neighbor's garden into mine. The next door neighbor is too lazy to do his own gardening and employs a firm to come in once a week to mow his front lawn - and blow the leaves about. I suggested he get himself a plastic lawn and put plastic flowers in his borders and save himself $150 per month in gardening fees..

Here, Here David! His instant garden is only a possession, while yours is a piece of yourself - perhaps reflecting your esthetics, your heritage, and your sensibilities. What you put in it is returned tenfold. It is your own personal place on earth.

You anti leaf blower guys need a lobbyist in D.C.(and few million $ to get action)!

I have just read your Cornwall Garden visit with delight. At least over there they dont need mechanical leaf blowers - the West Wind sweeps in off the Atlantic and blows them all out of Cornwall into Devonshire!

Actually no self respecting gardener in Britain would want to rid himself of his precious dead leaves. Collected and allowed to decay over winter, they are returned to the soil as organic earth nutrient, or mulch.

Or any other s-r gardener too, I would think - to avoid cultural discrimination. But then, they had to remove 70 years of nature's carpet to reclaim Lost Gardens of Heligan (coming soon in Virtual Come Stroll) and that might be more than most would want!

Like many of my Sussex neigbours in England, I burn my autumn leaves - my Roses just love that ash...and I enjoy the autumnal smell of the bonfire smoking away down at the bottom of the garden.

I wonder what they did with all that rich mulch they removed at Heligan.

In reply to Derek in Sussex, I expect that if they are self respecting Cornishmen at Heligan they will have bagged it, stuck a pretty label on it, and sold it to upcounty visiters from Sussex as:
"PROPER JOB - Old Penhalligan's Antique Cornish Compost".

Maggie Thatcher's capitalism lives on in the socialized land and visiting punters provide great resources. That's too funny Ian, I'm going to let you rewrite Heligan for me.

Greetings to Gardeners from Bederkesa and its lake in North Germany!

You are very fortunate Mr Fredman in England to be able to burn your leafs. Here it is against the law to make the garden fires. So everbody sweeps up all their autumn leafs and put them into the "Green" recycling bin for collection. So the garden is always tidy, but not enriched.

So in Spring we must buy the soil enricher, and we go and buy bags of Peat! The Peat industry is rapidly depleting the Lower Saxony waterlands in North Germany of their natural cover, because centurys of peatgrowth are machine stripped for the requirements of the German gardeners.

Many wetland plants, animals and birds are now risked as our beautiful waterlands dry out.

Now risked is the particular bird the Stalk, which once was here nesting in every Lower Saxony village. Those that survive being shot from the sky for target practice on their dangerous migration from the south now find a problem in their food line as frogs and eels become scarce in the drying land.

Every Spring we wait anxiously to see if they will return again.

And I think that the Otter is history now in our town Otterndorf.

.

Amazing isn't it Gudrun - adults in our societies teach school children the basics of nature's laws while they are breaking them left and right. Wherever there is human development, rain-forest-type crisis probably abound on so many levels. Wake up world!

Thank you for venting your frustration here Gudrum, to help spread the word - to ring the wake up bell.

The instant garden really made me chuckle! Sometimes I get asked to design a garden so that people can have one similiar to mine. I have to tell them what the upkeep is like and that my gardens don't happen in a season. I think I would have to be expensive to design a garden since I have to live in it first to get the feel of it and then let the plan slowly evolve as well as the garden. So unless they want to feed me for a few years and give me a room they better find someone else! A real garden takes time and I don't think an instant garden has a soul.

I just did one of those kind of consultations last week Debbie. My first question is always 'how much time will you want to spend weekly on maintenance?' The answer is usually 'not much' and the next statement is often, 'but I want a garden just like yours'. :-0

I think there two kinds of gardens. One is owned by a human and then there are those gardens that own a human. I gladly serve our master :) - the non-monetary pay is great!

I was musing in my garden this morning, and I thought of my garden as I thought of raising my children, to be selfsufficient and strong and healthy and giving. Mostly I have perrenial gardens that require little work as they develop. My three year old is showing me by working next to me in the veg garden that we are doing something right. My teenagers were very little trouble and now are strong, independant contributing members of society.As a childcare professional I see parents turning the care of their children over to centers, as they turn their gardens over to "professionals" How can we survive? We each do our part in our own little corner of the world and work for the bigger picture.

I think the correlation you make between the two is marvelous. Nurturing our children and the land we live on must be the most fulfilling human endeavors – not to mention fundamental instincts for survival of the species. What more could we ask for, but to have the opportunity to partake of these privileges. To pass the chance off to others is unconscionable.