I've been painting one single room in our house. The house is, as my husband says, "vintage 1990." I think this one room had not been painted since it was built. Took me hours to prepare the surface and caulk in areas, etc. And then began the painful job of picking paint colors, at which I am terrible. I can't visualize the undertones correctly, and the small swatches never turn out the way I thought they would. This year I bought samples and painted them on the wall, and once I purchased my chosen color the sample didn't match the actual gallon of paint. Murphy's Law.

In the process of doing all this I kept thinking how similar it all is to gardening: structure, preparation, color combinations, textures, etc. I'm just not a natural, but the thing I love about gardening is that this year's bad choice can be moved to a different spot and become fantastic. Paint on walls ain't so easy to fix.

I see these amazing gardening and I wonder how much the gardeners (and that includes many of you all) are aware that they have either worked back-breakingly hard, have a real gift, or probably even both. Things have a flow and a cohesiveness that brings real beauty.

I look forward to learning. Maybe gardening will improve my ability to pick paint colors!

Deanna, one time we did a faux finish on a small room that required a lot of taping off. It didn't turn out like I expected. Right color but bad faux technique. Patient and practical husband agreed to start over. We loved the second result but alone I would have been very discouraged. He did all the taping. I'm a decorative artist so have taken some color theory classes. It's still hard to apply to practice. Right now I love the combination of a dark raspberry daylily next to a dark pink yarrow (apple spice, I think) plus some echinacae all blooming at the same time. But the neighboring shastas are too tall and on the other side of the circular bed is a dead zone. On the north side I am supposed to have a small hosta with very yellow foliage but it has been snacked on by deer. The nicely contrasting pale yellow day lilies want to look south instead of pointing north. Our view of the bed is from the north side. The deer see the prettiest side. I have planted some annuals. The tall phlox seem at least a foot shorter this year.

I think it gets hard to figure in height and bloom times as well as color. A narrow border along the walkway to a porch is just a mess. A tall yellow daylily and southernwood are at one end. Lady's mantle, hosta and astilbe fighting for space with each other, at the other end, and a jumble in the middle. I have considered planting the whole bed to zinnias and still might.

I think Danielle and her sister have a real gift. Danielle does a lot with hosta and conifers. Her sister just does everything amazingly well and is more flamboyant with colorDeanne's garden. I know one of my first mistakes years ago was refusing to recognize how little sun my garden got. I was reluctant to use hosta because I was used to seeing boring hosta borders. Link to Danielle's sister's garden photos from circa 2008.

defrost, thank you for your honest and funny encouragement. I don't have The Gift, but I'll appreciate those who do. I'll have to settle for amateur passion, kind of like the Jamaican bobsled team. Passion can do a lot of things!

The link to Deanne's garden doesn't work. Can you repost it?Is this the same Deanne from NH who did the blog "Fortnam Gardens"? If so, I bookmarked her blog long ago but there hasn't been a post since 2014.

Yes, same Deanne. She hasn't been updating her website. She posts on facebook. Her tropical pots have been greatly downsized and this year she is growing some vegetables in some. She also expanded the shrub garden along the street side of her home but next year her husband will retire and they plan to do a lot more traveling. The website is older than the blog. For anyone who wants to see earlier photos go to deanneart.com. Click on Deanne. Once there, if you click on "The Pond" it shows before photos when she was just starting to transform her backyard.

Yes, sadly Deanne is downsizing her garden. I actually met Deanne here on Gardenweb in the early 2000s and we have been friends ever since. In addition to the retirement plans, and other hobbies, she has been battling significant garden damage from voles and this year a rabbit. We all experience ebb and flow in our garden over time. Sometimes I think Deanne's downsizing is more traumatic for me than for her...lol.