Would you open your garden to the public?

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It seems that most gardeners are fairly shy and retiring and use their gardens as an escape to pamper their introvert personalities. But, I have a theory that if given the chance most gardeners would love to show other people through their gardens.

So, now is your opportunity to come clean and set the world straight. Do you want to be left alone to fossick in your garden with a company of one? Or would you love to see the world turn up on your doorstep aghast at the effort you've invested into your small piece of the world?

Don't be shy now...this won't hurt a bit...

Last week we asked the question, "Do I consider myself to be a GREEN gardener?" and most people considered themselves to be above average but weren't prepared to commit to being a 'hard-core' greenie. The results are illustrated below.

The response options were;

1. I would rather die than use pesticide (13%)
2. I compost most of my garden waste (87%)
3. I sometimes use organic fertilizers (0%)
4. I rarely think organically (0%)
5. I wouldn't compost if you paid me (0%)

Thanks for all your responses.

Posted by Stuart on July 11, 2006 6:10 AM | Permalink | Check to Subscribe to this Comment:

Stuart Robinson

Busselton, Western Australia

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I may be inclined to open the garden to the public if it was finished ... so it could be a long wait.

A couple of elderly women who used to walk past our place often tried to talk me into having open days.

I'm sure I have the wrong attitude about it all. You see, when I visit an open garden, I want to see something a bit different to what I have. Consequently, I feel that I don't have anything of interest to other people, but that's only because it's so familiar to me, of course it's not for them. Also, I know there are a lot of things wrong with our garden, like design faults, etc. so I wouldn't like other people to copy those things.

Posted by: Alice | July 11, 2006 8:02 PM

Only if they were gardeners or came in ones or twos. The few times I've had more people come over, they ended up trampling plants. I'm hard pressed keeping just one or two people on the grass and out of the beds. And don't get me started on the well-meaning ones who "weed" for me as they go along and destroy/remove plantings they've mistaken for weeds because they've never seen anything except petunias and impatiens. In their minds anything else is a "weed". Sorry, don't mean to sound negative. Having gardeners over is fun because we usually end up having long discussions on what works for us and what doesn't work.

Posted by: OldRoses | July 11, 2006 9:25 PM

Maybe our two-year old garden will be ready for guests at some future date if our knees hold out. My long-gone Illinois garden was part of several garden walks and it was fun. We'd been working on that garden for 6 or 7 years when it was first opened and it was twice the size of this one.

Would we do it again?? I'm not sure - ask me again in 3 or 4 years!

Posted by: Annie in Austin | July 12, 2006 3:43 AM

Opening up the garden might motivate me to get going on some projects I've been procrastinating on.

Posted by: Carol | July 12, 2006 6:01 AM

I've been showing my garden every year for the last five and really enjoy it. Great motivator, ya know. And I've learned a little about how to do it - plant lists provided (this year on line only, which is fine). I even wrote in our club newsletter "Garden-Visiting Etiquette" to address just such issues as your commenters have mentioned - like people stepping into the garden or doing what they think is weeding. I've also suggested that people keep their criticims to themselves b/c they're guests, dammit.

Posted by: susan harris | July 12, 2006 7:59 AM

I love the idea of the plant lists and also the "Garden-visiting-etiquette". Would "Leave your children at home" be one of the main points?

Posted by: Stuart | July 13, 2006 9:05 AM

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