Have you visited your garden lately?

When was it that you took a look at your garden?  You have been living in the same house for five years and leave home in the am and return in the pm.  Five days a week, off on weekends, staying home and doing chores or going out and doing errands.

Open the garage door, get in the car, back out.  Returning to the nest - drive up and use the remote to get into the garage.

Initially the home was exciting.  Everything was new - a new lawn - one token tree put in by the developer - something fast and cheap looking.  The front garden has the feeling of a token entry to Down in the Belley Restaurant, or a McUpchuck - bland and ultra boring.  The lawn keeps growing, week after week it grows.  The plants need the monthly haircut with the latest quickies ultra sonic 120 mph speed trimmer.

The backyard looks like a plan from a company that works fast, gives good deals, and cannot be reached anywhere on the planet.

Wouldn't it be better to have the only garden on the block that is completely different.  You don't have to go to a botanical garden to see plants from around the world.  You have it in your own space.
                                  No foundation planting
                                  No grasses
                                  No fast growing eucalyptus or redwoods as a center piece

A grouping of Japanese Maples - perhaps an Acer palmatum Ukigumo with an A.p. Ojishi and A.p. Garyu

Put in a Cornus nuttallii 'Gold Spot', a repeat bloomer, leaves that are green with splashes of gold thrown in.  Blooms March to April and again in September.  The fall color rivals that of the A.p.

A Sasanqua camelia Yuletide. 
A grouping of Damnacanthus indicus 'variegata'.  That certainly would make the front yard distinct.  The neighbors would complain but now when you drive up the street you can see your garden from miles away.  And now it is a pleasure to work outside - every plant is an individual.  It has a personal history, it has a personal philosophy and gives off an enchanting personality through the seasons.

It is not grass - which keeps its ratty color and then turns brown.

It is not the token cheap box plant that is imported from China.

This is your garden - visit it.  Sit in the peace and tranquility of the plants as they are growing - the first buds of spring - the enthusiasm of youth as the buds mature - the lazy days of summer - nap in the peace of your plants.  Settle into the arrival of colder times - the comfort of inside the home as you peer at the skeletons and inner figures of plants from around the world.

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