One day she called me over after having been on a shopping spree of tender bulbs and corms. She wanted to get started right away and plant her a garden. I tried to get her to slow down and sit down with me so we can draw up some kind of plan instead of just planting things here and there, the way I do.
Her front yard can easily accommodate the house I live in and have a little room left over. I've always envied it because it's a great size and a perfect rectangle. It could be a great garden one day with enough space for several garden rooms or small themed gardens. But as she always reminds me; "she's not getting any younger" and the lady next door "always has something blooming in her garden."
It took a few minutes but eventually I got her to realize that the lady next door always has something blooming because most of her flowers are fake. Yes, this other neighbor of ours plants silk and plastic flowers! When everything is blooming in her garden you can't really tell that a lot of it is faker than three dollar bill but in the middle of winter in Chicago it's kind of obvious.
Not only does this other neighbor love fake plants in her garden put she has menagerie of various molded plastic containers; geese, ducks, hens, lambs...you get the idea. I'll have to take photos of gardens around me that employ fake flowers in the spring- there are a lot.
I have a neighbor also who "gardens" with plastic plants and decorates with plastic deer and swans. They even have plastic plants in hanging baskets!
ReplyDeleteReminds me of my mother-in-law...she thinks no one can tell! Her's are mostly silk and they fade in the California sun. She has fake plants inside, too. I've always thought that they have the opposite effect on me that real, live plants do...instead of connecting to life and the earth they sort of suck energy out of me...it's an interesting phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteOh my neighbor also has plastic hanging plants. LOL. What's even worse is that she has a couple of climbing roses on her front porch that she doesn't take care of. There's hardly a bloom on them so she goes to the dollar store and buys plastic flowering vines on them and just winds them through her climbing roses.
ReplyDeleteLeslie
I think I feel the same way about fake flowers. I usually don't usually mind my neighbor's use of them. In fact during the winter I get a kick out of walking past her house and seeing a bunch of fake flowers and animals braving the snow storms.
I've even been fooled by fake plants once or twice. I think it was last spring when I was running up to a store in a strip mall because I had spotted cacti in the window. It wasn't until I got inside and picked them up that I realized they were fake and I think I let out an audible "WTF" because the customers were all of a sudden staring at me.
Hi! I've been reading your blog from the beginning..Thank you for your wonderful work! Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeletePurse thanks for the encouragement.
ReplyDelete