Let the REAL Gardening Begin !!!

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“And what’s that!!?” 
Beverly had stopped by to see my husband, Steve, and had insisted on a tour of the garden.  “You’ve done so much around here”, she said as we walked around the yard.  I had shown Beverly the front bed with gigantic Annabelle hydrangeas and tiny begonias dripping with flowers.  We walked past my growing Sempervivum collection that bordered the walk beyond the pergola covered in two kinds of clematis and fragrant wisteria.  Her facial expression did not give a clue of acknowledgement that she recognized that any of these plants were special or that they were performing well or that they were exceptional specimens.  I showed her the vegetable garden that was almost entirely converted to raised beds so that I could have wonderfully embellished soil and not have to deal with the native clay.  When I had to identify vegetable plants for her, I realized she was not ‘really’ a gardener.

Then, she turned and exclaimed, “And what’s that?!”
“That’s the pucker brush,” I said. 
“Really?”, she said, amazed.
“Yes,” I said.
She stood there completely not grasping that this was the end of the yard!  It was the start of the town-owned land that was not mine.  It was a wild tangle of scrubby plants that I had never identified.  It was something that must be ignored.  I had pretended that it was not there.  I gardened until that point….Steve mowed the lawn up to that point.  We were to turn our backs on it and pretend that it was not there.  It was not part of the landscape.
“Wow!” said Beverly.  “It’s huge!  It must be easy to take care of!  I like it.”
I couldn’t believe it!   “OK”, I said to myself.  “Let the real gardening begin!”
I quickly steered Beverly back to the front yard.  The tour was over.  I knew right there and then that I needed to define the borders in my yard. 

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