Better Late Than Never!
It wouldn't be unfair to accuse me of being late to the party with most trends. Not that anyone has, it's more of a self-assessment. For example, most of the music I listen to was released somewhere between 1970 and 1995, plus or minus five years. There are, of course, plenty of songs, bands, and musicians that I enjoy that fall outside of this range. One such band I didn’t really pay attention to until they were at least five years into their early fame. I’m not sure why. I just woke up one day and said, "Hey, these guys are pretty good."
We've now established that trendy really isn't my thing (even the phrase "being on trend" makes me roll my eyes). So, it makes sense that I would consider creating this blog a quarter of a century after the first ones started coming out in the late-90's. Whether it's an overt or more subconscious resistance could be debated. Hopefully, being late to this particular party won’t be too much of an obstacle to overcome in the longer-term.
Purpose & "Disclaimers" (...yawn)
If you’ve read this far after such a random opening, I am duly impressed! There are likely already too many blogs by too many people for this individual attempt to have much meaning outside of a personal opportunity to write, reflect, share, and, by doing so (WOW, that looks like way too many commas...), tap into a vein of creativity and/or some form of self-expression. I'm not sure why the collective "we" feel the need to do this or why I personally have the desire to do it, but it is definitely "a thing". And it goes against my nature quite a bit because I tend to be an extremely private person. Some might say too private.
So, why do it? I'm a gardening, landscaping, and design enthusiast and probably should have pursued a career in landscape design (shoulda, woulda, coulda...right?!). Perhaps this is an opportunity to write and share a passion and a journey. Will anyone care? Perhaps. Maybe this is an opportunity to create videos that provide a relaxing background on the TV, spark ideas in the minds of fellow gardening enthusiasts, or even inspire just one person to try something in their garden. Will anyone tune in? Hopefully. Throughout this site, I bask in the delights of gardening, ponder garden challenges, pass along found sources of gardening knowledge and wisdom, share stories (some of them may even be about gardening 😁), and record the journey to build my own version of an English country garden 4,700 miles from the real thing.
I know (or at least I believe here at the beginning of this experience) that I'm not intending for this to be exclusively a How To Guide, although some of that will likely be present. There are many people already providing good content out there (you may be one of them). I'll add where I can, provide links to people I enjoy or find useful, and share my own journey and perspective.
Now, for some notes and "disclaimers"...are they needed? Probably not, but here we go.
I have no formal training in horticulture, that would be my youngest sister's chosen path; however, I don’t think this prevents any ‘amateur’ gardener from creating and achieving fantastic things in their garden.
I am not an English major. That was one of my brothers.
I make no claims to expertise (that sort of thing is best left for other people to claim) but I do continue to stack year-on-year of experience, reading, research, and the well-worn tactic of trial and error.
Some might argue that I'm more of a landscaper than a gardener. There may be a difference between the two that one could argue (and it may be true) but, for me, the lines blur and the distinction isn't important. Whether it's drawing plans, shaping hills and berms with a skid-steer, or taking cuttings...for me, it's all part of the same fun.
I hope you'll find this site somewhat entertaining, perhaps mildly amusing, and maybe even useful.
If there is a person, blog, tool, tip, website, book or video out there that I feel is well done or useful, I'll pass it along. Primarily for the sake of sharing; however, if by some stroke of dumb luck it ever results in a bit of coin, then three cheers for it! 😀
Useful and constructive comments are welcome. Share your knowledge, experience, wins and failures, as it makes sense to do so.
You may notice that some of the early blog post dates on this site are out of sync with the time of year the blog post was written (including the pictures). This is just a function of converting from an earlier site to this current site and that each post receives a post date when published on this new site. Things get caught up and current about 20-30 posts in.
For the purposes of this blog, for videos, and for this website, I have chosen to use a pen name (some might call it an alias or alter ego) for a number of reasons. Not least is that it fits more closely with the content and intent of this blog (and is a bit of fun, really). So, for this first blog post out of the gate, I’m pleased to sign-off as:
“Weedy Pete”
