Re: Gardening snootery (was hebes)

>Gardeners in the milder parts of the UK, certainly, tend to be a bit
>sniffy about them. It's an absurd form of 'specialists' snobbery' or
>'horto-masochism,' IMO. Because in such areas they thrive so well,
>need so little care, flower so profusely and for so long (six months
>non stop is nothing unusual), suffer no pests or diseases worth
>mentioning, root as cuttings in a matter of moments, self-seed with
>(generally!) tactful enthusiasm, 'serious' gardeners look down their
>noses at them. Silly, really, isn't it?

LOL, Tim. I've certainly hit the same attitude here in the US, so it crosses
international boundaries. I have abandoned it entirely. The plants I love
most now are the ones that thrive no matter what. I have pretty much let
large sections of our small backyard naturalize. The first two years it
looked a wreck. We beat the weeds back, some, but that was about it. (Well,
and the raised bed veggie gardens.) But now, I find it to be delightful. It
was landscaped five years ago and the tough have taken over.

There's a dwarf maiden grass - Yakosima. Please know I am chuckling as I
call it dwarf. It is about 4' tall and at least 6' wide now, and hasn't
self-seeded anywhere that I've found. Needs zip as far as care. I mean nada.
Every fall, my husband I go out, peer at it, agree it must be divided at
once, then go back in and decide which tomatoes to grow. It doesn't care, at
all.

I tried wild alpine strawberries one year, much to the bird's delight. I
forgot about them during one hot spell the next year and they croaked in
their raised bed. In the fall, in a ring around the shade of the nearby
maiden grass, growing amongst the remnants of crabgrass that will not leave,
I found there were wild strawberries, far healthier and happier than ever
they had grown when I had cared for them. They are there still, and their
offspring. (And the stubborn patches of crabgrass. All I can do is keep it
in place, and keep it from going to seed. LOL.)

Gazania, scorned by all because it so frequently used in parking lots, is
the signature plant in a deliberate meadow area. It is glorious. It has
lovely glossy, dark green, grasslike leaves that look great year round,
crowds out every weed we deal with here, and never needs any pest care or
mowing. It doesn't look at all like it does in parking lots! We chose
salmon, pink, and soft yellow flowered plants, so on summer days, it's
colorful without being obnoxious. The color patterning on the simple
daisy-like flowers is as intricate as anything you could ask for. Mother
Nature had the fine tip brushes out when she painted these. They were
supposed to live at most two years but no one told them that. They are in
year four and showing no sign of faltering.

Campanula, another scorned because it is an easy grower, runs through it and
over it, and makes some solid blue patches where one gazania plant or
another died off. There's a thyme path running through it all. We were going
to keep it trimmed and mowed but we didn't. It looked awful for one year,
with nice green tips growing over the previous years old dry stems. Now, it
is a mat of tiny, shiny green leaves. I guess it must be out of bloom
sometime but for the life of me, I can't think when that is. Our herbal path
is a risky thing to tread on, as the bees cover it so thoroughly you can
hear them from a good six feet away. Friends are always glad to leave with a
bouquet of edible thyme flowers, and in short, simple to grow or not, it's a
great plant.

Blue honeywort pops up here and there, though mainly at the edges - it won't
outcompete carpeting plants. Chamomile, long untended, is still in there, in
spots. I only notice it when it blooms or when I step on it - the
apple/champhor scent is unmistakable and always refreshing. Feverfew, tried
the first year just to see what would happen, self-seeds in a ring around
the back of the meadow. It had ferny, light leaves and little white button
flowers, like a chrysanthemum in minature. It is a favorite of ladybugs - I
don't know why, it never has any pests. Maybe because of the ladybugs... It
self-seeds, so care consists of pulling some of the volunteers one sunny
morning in late spring.

A hybrid of lamb's ears, whose proper name I have misplaced, makes a fat
woolly thicket of gray green leaves. It look horrid when it blooms but it
too is a bee favorite, so I let it go till spring, by which time it looks
hideous - all frost mushed and dead. We whack it back to ground level and
that's it. The whole thing repeats again, with nothing to do but enjoy it.
It comes up in the gravel path next to the bed, making a surprising tight
mat with no height at all and tiny bonsai leaves no bigger than your
littlest fingernail. It doesn't care much for being walked on but comes back
so fast, we don't worry. Feels much nicer than the gravel on barefeet, too.

Yarrow, really a weed I'd have to say, is across from the meadow. It won the
fight for the end of a perennial bed, beating out several lavender plants, a
hopseed bush that died in a hard winter frost, and a few experiments with
rarities whose names I have forgotten. Right next to it, a patch of broom
corn from the bird feeder grows every year, putting up beaded, feathery
shoots of deep black and dark amber that stand in a tall clump about four
feet tall. I was interested when it first came up, and I am interested every
year as it grows, but I sure didn't have anything to do with it.

I can't brag about these plants. They're the ones of all I have tried that
are happy to be uncared for awhile, in our particular soil and climate. Give
them a slightly reasonable amount of water in the summer, and *maybe*
sprinkle some nice compost over and rake it in now and again. I would be
lying if I said we did even that every year, though next year, we are sure
we are going to. They don't care. They're the common plants you would expect
to survive and I take an incredible amount of joy from watching them thrive.
Maybe I can't thrill the garden club with them but they are a living
community, supporting a healthy ecology. When I think we could have left
that half of the backyard as lawn, I can't believe how lucky we are. I'll
bring a picture of a cactus or something, if I need to impress. ;-)

I want confessions, since I've been bold. Don't leave me out here on a
zinnia limb by myself! I'll even admit this - Mediterranian or not, I like
johnny-jump-ups, nasturtiums, and borage, too, because they self-seed and
come up where and when they feel like, bloom with abandon, and feed the
critters. What do you grow in your mediterranean garden that is a favorite
but you know "shouldn't" be?

Cyndi K
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