I tend to look at my garden and focus on what needs to be done...then I look at others and only see what succeeded. Yep, I have envy!

bakemom, you are so right! I think when we look at our own gardens, we are seeing how we "want* it to look, in our minds, compared to how it actually "does" look so far. Plus, we see all the chores that are still left to do.

When we see someone else's garden, we look at it as a finished project, as it is right then, and usually only consider how beautiful it looks at that moment.

Linda, I would love to see some photos if you can get them. Congrats on the seed score!

:)
Dee

Ha, even my local gardening friends who 'drop by' to see my garden are forced to (gently - it's so awkward for them) agree that my yard is not ready for prime time. The friend who dropped by yesterday tried her best by covering with "It looks like you are having fun" (I am :)).

I always have garden envy, but it doesn't interfere in the least with my gardening enjoyment.

Linda - Yes, congrats on getting to deadhead anything you want!!! Sounds like a great variety of seeds.

I think everyone has some amount of garden envy. I too start to think, hey this garden's finally coming along and then I see someone elses that's to die for and then go home and look around and see all the things I need to do.

When you go back, get pics and post. I am curious of the combo of pale yellow Echinacea with pale yellow Scabiosa. Sounds real nice!!

Sandy

linda - would love to see those pictures - but I bet your garden is JUST as nice...

good point, bakemom

Carrie

I can spend hours on all the various Garden Web forums and galleries and have 'garden envy'. I think we all do that. No matter how well we plants ours there is always going to be one out there prettier. I love looking at them, pick the gardeners brain as to how they get such lush plantings and then try and learn off it all the while enjoying all the 'eyecandy'. Would LOVE to see pictures of your friends garden Linda.......

Lynne

Are you sure it is the variety of seed he is using? Couldn't it be that he is fertilzing them and preparing the soil intensively? It just seems strange that he would know of much better varieties of seeds then everyone here on the winter sowing forum, when everyone here is always trading and buying seeds and on the look out for new varieties every year.

Are they actually different varieties then you are growing?

pm2

Next year I'm making the biggest investment any gardener can make IMHO. I will be purchasing several Adirondack chairs and placing them here and there on the property for ME.

Yesterday I was sitting on a rock wall admiring a freak colour combo that actually looks nice - a 5 feet tall orange red Maltese Cross with a perennial Geranium Orion in front of a blue/lilac colour which is about 2 feet in height. Next thing I know, there's a monarch resting and feeding on the Maltese Cross and a White Admiral doing the same on the Geranium.

I guess what I'm saying is we need to stop more often and see beyond what we think needs to be done. We all have beautiful gardens!

"We all have beautiful gardens!"

Yep...that we do.

When I think of what was here four years ago (two Hydrangeas, Lilac bushes, a pool, dirt and grass), it's come a long way. Any time I see color, I'm happy with my garden. It might not be sophisticated, it might not be horticulturally/landscapey correct, but I love it. And I enjoy the process of it "becoming". I'm thrilled at the three Monarch cats I spotted this year (because I WSed a Butterfly Weed three years ago), and I'm thrilled to see all the critters running around in it, taking in nectar. There are things I haven't cut down yet that look a bit ratty or are getting in the way of something else getting more sun, but the bees and such are having way too much fun on it for me to take it away from them.

I'm not really "envious"...but I am admiring what he's done in his yard (and lusting after some of his plants...yes...I admit that...lol) He's only been gardening for about three years as well, but he's bought all of his plants(he also helps a friend out at a nursery-- probably gets paid in plants...not a bad deal!)

This is the first time I've ever got to see someone else's garden up close. It's a pleasant shock to the system!

I have a feeling that he will be on here very soon because DH tells him how I learned just about everything I know about gardening from GW. But I won't let that stop me from getting pictures of his garden and sharing them, once I get them :-)

Most of my gardens still need a ton of work, but the end of July is really a great time for one section of my garden. It feels like victory, becuase it's next to a walnut tree that killed off nearly everything I tried for a few years, but I found that echinacea, rudbeckia, phlox, monarda, oriental lilies and most daylilies laugh at the walnut. THey're all out in full bloom now, and that hell strip is by far the prettiest section of my garden this week. The bumblebees love it too.

Garden envy? Huh - every day of every week of every month of every year! Every plant I see - live or in pictures - it seems like I've GOT to have it! Maybe that explains why I can barely walk around up here. Outside or inside.

But I've learned so much, tried so much and have all kinds of ideas for what will be in my gardens when I finally get out of the concrete jungle. In the meantime, I still get a big thrill each and every time I see a flower bud forming, see that flower blooming. My garden is such a mish-mash of plants, with no rhyme or reason to any of it, that I'm sure it can only be beautiful to me. And the bees and butterflies that have found it this year.

Garden envy? Yup! But it's all good ...

PV

I really have garden envy this year as very few of my plants are blooming. I am really disgusted with my garden. In fact the only things that are blooming are the established plants from previous years and the ones I had to buy this year b/c my own aren't blooming

Penny

Linda,
That's awesome! Can't wait to see pics. . .And, yes, I have garden envy too! :)Magazines are the culprit for me most often. The beautiful photos taken at peak bloom are just too tempting!
Bakemom, I so relate to what you said; I am so busy listing and doing all the tasks - changes, prepping and maintaining that I often fail to just SEE the garden.
Tiffy, you are so right, and that's a good investment IMHO. I have recently started taking 10 minutes in between tasks to just sit on the garden bench and ENJOY the fruit of my labor. It's also a great place to view the butterflies and hummingbirds, who obviously enjoy it too. :)

I have some gorgeous plants but I don't love the design of my gardens and I'm constantly changing them around. I've been to a few private gardens this year and have just been blown away at their beauty and creativity. I think to myself that I'd love to do something like that then I think about all the work involved. lol I work in the yard for several hours a day and can't imagine how much of a committment some of these gardens must require.
Karyn

Penny,
your garden time will come. Nurseries sell plants fully developed to bloom usually in their second or third season so you miss on all their developing time. Best thing is that you will get your garden look better next year and even more beautiful year after that- there is always something to look forward to...
I feel I am past that time when I wanted every beautiful plant I seen in my garden. By now I am pretty much aware what does well for me and what does not so I am not lusting for what I could not bring to beauty... Of course having garden filled to the brims with plants that do well helps ;)
Tiffy, I am with you there- and I already have chairs, just need to use them more and that is my goal for next year.
Been there, done that, grown it, now need to sit down and enjoy my garden. Not that I am not planning to do some more planting or tweaking things here and there a bit.

What interesting comments from everyone. And I agree...it is so easy to see the flaws in our own gardens. I know I am very aware of what I wanted mine to look like (and all the ways it doesn't look like that). But anyone else looking at my colorful beds would NOT be aware of my mind pictures. And if you just look at what IS there, it's not bad. In fact, it's beautiful.

Sunday morning I made my usual stroll around the flowerbeds with my cup of coffee in hand. The weather was absolutely perfect - for once the humidity was only 40% and that felt so fresh and pleasant. The sun was shining so bright and clear...birds singing....WONDERFUL. And I stopped beside the "old flowerbed" and just drank it in. Even though that bed is very, very far from "magazine ready" and it isn't even in top form on its own - chrysanthemum, aster, SB sage not blooming yet; almost all the daylilies already finished; only one hibiscus bloom left; half the phlox deadheaded already; gaura not yet blooming after being drastically treated for bugs. In fact, it's a weird mixture out there. A few white phlox, a blackberry lily, a few zinnias, a couple of wild patches of wave petunias (volunteers), some Moonbeam coreopsis, one bizarre amaranth that is approaching 7 feet tall, one tithonia that is even taller...but, you know, as I stood there I felt the most amazing sense of being someplace very special: I felt like a visitor seeing my garden for the first time - hard to explain...surrounded by all the color and amazing shapes of all the different plants plus the weather, I was so aware that it is not really mine to control. And that is probably a very good thing.

I think Linda kinda hit the nail on the head - we as gardeners have a vision of what we want "our" gardens to look like and view it as not complete or not very pretty if it hasn't achieved our mental image when in fact it is beautiful in another's eye. Also the idea of having seating areas all around the gardens that will entice you to sit down and view it from another prespective is something I am incorporating into my various gardens. As much as we may enjoy the caring of a garden we all need to take that time to sit back and relax and enjoy the 'view'......

Lynne

I do! I look around at other people's "restained" gardens and think, "gosh, that looks so good." Then I come home to my overblown, willy-nilly, excessive gardens. I drove up the other day contemplating how much a person's gardens reflects their personalities :)

I never thought too much water would be a problem, but I have lost so much stuff this year to excessive rain. It's been nice not having to water, but last night I decided, "mulch is my friend" and spread four bags of mulch. I need about 100 :) I had already spread four bags over the area where a big SUV's tires had made mincemeat of one of driveway bed ends and the walkers low had disappeared to nepeta heaven.

Actually every year I wished I had mulched the previous summer because the mulch would outline where no plants were :) Next spring I should be a happy camper.

Lisa

Penny,
My tall Zinnias are doing next to nothing. Out of fifteen varieties, I have only a couple that are over a foot tall now. Very weird. Zinn's are the base of my cut flower arrangements and I'm lost without them.

The situation with the Zinns this year really reinforces my desire to have more perennials and reliable reseeders like Cosmos and Sunflowers. If it weren't for them, I would be looking at next to nothing in some spots. I can relate.

Linda