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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Thankfulness Challenge - Blame it on Elvis

A neighbor once asked me to tour her freshly painted and decorated house and then asked my opinion. It was lovely and well done, I offered. "But ya know, " I couldn't help but add, "my opinion doesn't really matter because I don't live here. You should decorate it in whatever style makes you happy. It's YOUR house." She just stared at me. "You could even carpet the ceiling. It worked for Elvis."  She threw her head back and laughed but I was serious.


Green shag carpet covers the ceiling of the Jungle Room at Graceland, Elvis's mansion in Tennesee.

I recently overheard a gardener belittling some of the more conventional fall shrubs as too common for her garden. She pitied the poor idiots who had resorted to stuffing their landscapes with the same plants that populate the grounds of local shopping centers and dentists offices. Where were the exotic, rare, and difficult to grow specimens that announced to the world a REAL gardener lived there? The more she babbled, the more irritated I became.

I'm thankful for every gardener who grows burning bush because they're gorgeous, azaleas because they love them, and Knock Out roses because they're easy. Pink flamingos and concrete fruit baskets may not be my cuppa tea, but if it's yours, drink up! I'm thankful for every gardener who declares to the world, "My garden has never been featured in a magazine and probably never will, I planted giant zinnias in the front yard because they make me happy, and if you don't like my kissing gnomes you can kiss my asster!"

12 comments:

  1. Bardzo lubię czytać Twoje opinie i zgadzam się z nimi. Każdy robi coś tak , jak jemu się podoba. Ostatnie zdjęcie zabawne.Pozdrawiam

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  2. asster indeed! Good to hear from you.

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  3. Ha ha! :) I agree! What matters in your garden, home, whatever is what makes you happy!

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  4. Exactly so. Garden snobbery ... who knew? Beauty is in the eye. I know that in the spring here in PEI, the fields are filled with acres of bright beautiful dandelions. I commented how lovely they were and my friend gave me a look and said, "Yuck. They're just weeds."
    Bring on the gnomes!

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  5. Hooray for pink flamingos. What would we be without individuality? Thank you for the reminder to plant what we love and let our personalities shine.

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  6. Greggo - Glad you're back! :o)

    One - You're welcome!!

    Sweetbay/Marguerite - Our gardens should reflect our own uniqueness. What a boring, depressing world it would be if everything were the same. I'm buying a piece of garden art made out of recylced metal that I'm adding to the garden next spring. It's pretty tame next to a pink flamingo but I hope it horrifies someone in my Beige Boring Clone World subdivision.

    PEI - I love dandelions! One of the best yellows out there!! :o)

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  7. Hurrah for individuality! Thanks for putting it so well!

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  8. Great post. I love strappy plants, cordylines and flax and so on, but now that they are fashionable some people sneer at gardeners who grow them. But I've always loved them, I'm not being trendy or lazy or unimaginative!

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  9. jennifer@threedogsinagarden
    Hi Tammy, Of the posts I have done, few have brought in a wider range of opinions than the one where I posed the question "Are gnomes cute or tacky?" It was great though. I loved the mix of views and the insistence of the opinions expressed.
    I have many humble plants and shrubs. Sometimes I feel I ought to show off my spirea along with a written apology. As ordinary goes, it is downright common.
    Your last paragraph is so darn funny. The writing is so powerful too. I have been thinking of doing a follow-up on the gnome post this spring. Maybe I can quote you?

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  10. Amen, sista! Life's too short; grow what you love!

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  11. Here here. I am always amazed at home people can force elitism into everything to make themselves feel special. Its ridiculous.

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