Re: Winter Interest

Hi, Anne...

You wrote: 

>Oh boy -- Myrna brings up a great topic about beautiful backdrops in
>the landscape, one that I can only envy.  Here in the city, our
>backdrops are the alley and the backs of 7 story hotels & 3-flats to the
>east,
>and parked cars to the west, buildings close on both north & south.
>Part of city gardening is trying to create interest (for all seasons)
>to distract the eye from the less than gorgeous cityscape.  Lucky you!
>(except for the zone 3 part -- makes Chicago sound absolutely balmy.)

That's interesting to me, because---in many ways---I envy city gardeners!
For one thing, you have a boundary that you cannot exceed. I have
boundaries, too, but always seem to find a way to extend them (ie: start
planting stuff across the county road from my house.) My real boundary is:
how much can I maintain by myself? Have noticed that my expectations in the
winter outdo the reality in the summer. Also, many of you urban gardeners
start out with a more-or-less blank canvas, where I started with a mess of
weed trees and burdock (still have many of the weed trees, and constantly
battle burdock and Canada thistle and bindweed...). And the heifers don't
get loose and tromp your flowerbeds in the spring, and the bulls don't get
loose and break off your little trees in the summer. Every place sure has
it's drawbacks, doesn't it? It's really neat and amazing how gardeners just
plug away, trying to make something beautiful against all odds.

But back to the backdrop thing, the garden-design books always talk about
integrating your plantings with your house, the larger landscape, etc. How
many of us really do that? My house is a mish-mash of no architectural
value---I've often said that I had to have a gorgeous yard in order to
deflect attention from the ugly house. I even considered letting the
woodbine cover the house, but decided it wasn't good to have vines growing
INTO the house (it happenend). 

Myrna, Zone 3, Montana

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