beckygardener said: Lin - You would likely hate my yard. Not native. It is bird and butterfly friendly. It is not a flowery garden, it is a habitat. And probably way too many raised beds and borders and paths and trees and just too much of everything. Jungle would probably be a better word to describe it all. My husband says it does look like an overgrown jungle. And it does. I like it that way. Unfortunately, it is not overgrown enough as I can still see and hear the neighbors around me. I need to grow the bushes taller!
Becky, I'd LOVE your yard!! My husband is the one in our family who loves the green, manicured lawn with orderly, plants and trees all in rows! My ideal garden would be NO LAWN and a total chaos of native plants as well as other annuals and perennials for attracting all sorts of birds, bees and other critters ... well, all except for snakes, I've had enough with snakes scaring the beejeebies outta me over the past 40 + years! I'd love to have many raised beds ... especially since I'm getting older and being on my hands and knees when weeding is difficult. There was a time a few years ago when early one morning I was sitting on my butt in the backyard for a couple of hours, weeding beds and when I went to stand up, I couldn't! Hubby was at work and wouldn't be home for hours yet and my friendly elderly neighbor (we used to share plants and chat over the fence almost daily) was out of town ... so I was stuck! I kept thinking, what the heck am I going to do, it would be hours before my husband got home and I couldn't sit out in the hot sun the entire day! Thank goodness I had a heavy rake laying in the yard from a bed I'd been clearing for replanting so I was able to get to it and use it to pull myself up. I coulda seen the headlines "Local lady found dead of heat stroke while weeding!"
After that incident I began keeping my cell phone in my pocket when I'd garden but I've somehow gotten out of the habit of doing that and need to remember to start keeping my cell phone handy again when I'm outside! Anyway, I bet I'd love your jungle!
