Yesterday's frustrated post and the resulting comments got me thinking. There are quite a few garden things that I enjoy seeing, or can at least appreciate, but simply do not want to have in my own garden. Over time, I have come to think of these things and "Nice, but NIMG." Not In My Garden.
I can't be the only one who appreciates some specific garden features, plants, designs, etc. that they wouldn't dream of putting into their own little spot of land. So who's up for a fun little challenge around the theme of NIMG?
Here are the "rules": Think about 5 (or 10, or 3, or however many come to mind) things that you really like but would never put into your own yard. Make a post that explains each thing and also tells why, much as you like each one, it will never appear in your garden.
For example, maybe I absolutely love the little half whiskey barrels used as a water feature, complete with floating plants and goldfish... but since I also have a 60 lb. golden retriever who looks at any standing water as something to be splashed in, it will remain under the category of NIMG so long as that garden assistant prowls my grounds. Or maybe I adore the look of a clipped boxwood hedge but I am notoriously clumsy with a pair of clippers so I don't even allow myself to dream about adding one at my house. You get the idea.
It should be fun to discover how we each make decisions about how to incorporate some things that we love and why we refrain from including others. I'm coming up with my own list... and will be back to post it later in the week. (Carol, O Spritely Queen of Garden Memes, if I have missed anything in posting this one please let me know.) If anyone else decides to play along, please post in the comments here to let us know where to find your NIMG list!
I can't be the only one who appreciates some specific garden features, plants, designs, etc. that they wouldn't dream of putting into their own little spot of land. So who's up for a fun little challenge around the theme of NIMG?
Here are the "rules": Think about 5 (or 10, or 3, or however many come to mind) things that you really like but would never put into your own yard. Make a post that explains each thing and also tells why, much as you like each one, it will never appear in your garden.
For example, maybe I absolutely love the little half whiskey barrels used as a water feature, complete with floating plants and goldfish... but since I also have a 60 lb. golden retriever who looks at any standing water as something to be splashed in, it will remain under the category of NIMG so long as that garden assistant prowls my grounds. Or maybe I adore the look of a clipped boxwood hedge but I am notoriously clumsy with a pair of clippers so I don't even allow myself to dream about adding one at my house. You get the idea.
It should be fun to discover how we each make decisions about how to incorporate some things that we love and why we refrain from including others. I'm coming up with my own list... and will be back to post it later in the week. (Carol, O Spritely Queen of Garden Memes, if I have missed anything in posting this one please let me know.) If anyone else decides to play along, please post in the comments here to let us know where to find your NIMG list!
24 comments:
Kim... I think you've got it covered on this garden meme. I'll have to think about NIMG, as I'm sure there are plants and features I would never consider!
My post will be sometime next week as I am all immersed in posting about my old gardens right now and then you know Saturday is the 15th... Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. I just hope my asters are blooming by then.
And I hope you'll consider posting about your first garden sometime. I'd love to see if it had contrasts!
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
(Spritely? Queen? The images of such a combination!)
Maybe not stacked up tires to plant potatoes (though I'm considering it). Definitely not elaborate water features with waterfalls, etc. I have more the "whiskey barrel" approach, using a Walmart fiberglass pot. Definitely not fussy things that can't take a drought, beautiful as they may be (one of my tree peonies bit the dust, but oh, well, I don't have the energy or resources for compulsive watering).
Kim, great idea. You sparked my imagination. My NIMG post is up now: http://heathersgarden.typepad.com/heathers_garden/2007/09/nimg-not-in-my-.html
Great idea! I have 1 NIMG on my post today. I'll probably end up doing a post dedicated to NIMG.
Love the idea of NIMG!
I just posted my own reflections about things I learned from gardening this summer. I'm curious about what you learned--aside fom your "bright ideas!"
--Robin (Bumblebee)
at work I try to avoid poisonous plants or I would have foxgloves. not sure why clematis has not made it into either garden. I have an attitude against ornamental grasses (even though I like their looks) that seems to be softening.
celery is not grown... but that is because I don't like it.
Great Meme, Kim. I've kind-of answered your question on my blog (while asking another that I'd prepared before reading this post).
It will be interesting to see whether those who respond broadly outline every product that the major home hardware stores carry. IMO running through one of their catalogues could easily answer this question.
My post is up tonight instead of next week.
Not in May Dreams Gardens
Carol
Kim--this was a great idea! I had a lot of fun doing my post (and it helped get me out of a posting slump, so thank you!) My NIMG post is up :-)
I've had fun reading everyone else's posts, too!
I seem to be brain-dead~ all I can think of is how much I loathe pink petunias, and how I can't have fish because of my cats.....
eh. Friday. whattayagonnado.
a fountain
I've heard that splashing water makes for good feng shui, but somehow I always think "mosquitoes" and "urinal."
Carol, thanks for the reminder--I would have missed GBBD otherwise, I'm afraid. Glad to see that you got your NIMG post up on your website... a couple of those I knew, but some of them surprised me!
ann, I'm so with you on not having the compulsive watering gene. In fact, I giggled once when my neighbor approached as I was watering a few newly planted shrubs and asked me, "Seriously, I'm dying to know: What was your highest water bill this year?" First I made him guess what month it was... after he guessed a summer month I said, "Nope, February! And it was $44." (It was when I had to let my upstairs faucets drip for a whole week because of negative temps.) He was floored--not what he was expecting. :)
heather, you're faster than I am--I'm still working on my list! Thanks for posting the link here so I could enjoy your list, too.
mr. mcgregor's daughter, I have to come up with a whole post on this, too. The challenge is finding pictures to go with them... I may need to take another walk around the block.
robin, I usually post what I'm learning as I go, but doing a synopsis at the end of the summer is a great idea. I'm definitely going to work on that one.
wayne, I'm grinning at your celery comment. Celery is not grown here because it's so fussy and I've failed with it so much... but I grow lovage instead so I can still have the flavor. :)
Stuart, I wasn't even thinking that way... but now that you mention it I can't see anything from a certain company with a green and yellow color scheme being worked into my garden soil, whether it professes to be organic or not. Nor will you see any, um, "turfbuilding" products here if that gives you another hint as to the lawsuit-happy corporation in question. *grin*
Colleen, it has been fun... and I'm glad to see that people are keeping everything nice. It was not my intention to totally bash everyone else's tastes, just to point out a few things that most people might like but that you would never do/have in your garden!
christine, I usually get that way on Mondays, not Fridays! lol. (And I'll second you on the pink petunias.)
Thanks for stopping by, julie... and re: those fountains, one reason I wouldn't have one in my yard is that they would prompt too many runs into the bathroom. I used to think that was a myth, that running water makes you have to go, but it's so true. :)
OK. I got my NIMG meme post up complete with PhotoShop fantasy: http://www.remarc.com/craig/?p=243
I've thought about this for a couple of days, Kim, but can't make a list for NIMG. Almost anything might sneak into my garden if I were in the right mood. It's fun reading the prohibitions listed by everyone else, however!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Dear Kim,
I will have my NIMG post up in a few minutes. Great idea! www.idahogardener.com
Hi, Kim, I did this. Except I seem to be taking a stricter interpretation; I have included nothing I actually don't like.
Sorry for the double negative.
OK Mine is up. Hadn't thought about this before today. Thanks for the topic
Kim, I tried to think up enough NIMG to make a post out of it, but frankly, I couldn't come up with enough stuff. Yeah, I have a lot of "junk" out there in the garden and am likely to add anything that catches my fancy. I guess there must be a few flowers I wouldn't plant but I can't think what they might be!
Because I had a cerebral fricative (also known as a brain fart), I forgot to put the start of the meme in my post, Kim. I'll fix it directly.
And yes, those photos are from our garden. Sometime I must try to put the whole garden in, but that would be a bit of a challenge, because it's spread over a LOT of beds....
I posted it this morning - fun challenge!
Link is here.
Neat idea. You'll find my contribution here (http://gardennews.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/nimg-not-in-my-garden/).
Neat idea.
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