letting things grow

William Henry Hudson, British author and naturalist, said these words in 1919:

"I am not a lover of lawns.

Rather would I see daisies in their thousands,

ground ivy, hawkweed, and even the hated plantain with tall stems,

and dandelions with splendid flowers and fairy down,

than the too-well-tended lawn."

William Henry!  Where have you been all my life?

Okay so I'm partly loving his words because my yard at present is pretty awful.

but...

I have always loved unkempt, cottage, rambling yards.  Could never find any personality at all in the well-manicured, perfectly maintained beds and lawn.  Got those genes from my maternal grandmother.  Her flowers grew everywhere and anywhere in her yard which would have never been featured on the cover of a gardening magazine, but it was beautiful...it was beautiful to me.  And doggone it, I'm tired of feeling guilty because my grass might be an inch too long and what might someone think.  And I refuse to zap a pretty yellow dandelion with chemicals (if I could just get my husband to agree).

So let's go crazy this summer and let a little grass creep over onto our sidewalks, who's with me? :)

We're not letting things go, we're letting things grow!

Comments

[Vanessa]

William Henry would be lovin' my yard right now! Let it grow!

[RFriedl]

hee hee. i am with you. I just drove into my driveway feeling embarassed because my grass is getting too long. we really shouldn't care.... and our mower is stuck in our shed, which is blocked by french doors that will be attached to the sunroom, which is a project that is taking way too long. maybe we could post a sign with an excuse? Oh well....at least its long and green...

[Dawn]

I'm all for the wild looking cottage flower beds.
Last year I took all the seeds and scattered them about. I think that I will be having an abundance of foxglove and lupines at some point.
The idea of that just makes me smile.

[Petra Carden]

I am way ahead of you. The grass is already creeping onto the sidewalk. lol! :)

[Jill Green]

Just today my daughter very excitedly came in from the yard carrying her first dandelion of the season! She gets so mad at her Dad when he zaps them all through the summer. I have pics of her with huge dandelion bouquets. That is the way life should be when your're 6. My grandmother had a garden very much like yours too. Had a charming faded old arbor and gate at the entrance and I always loved hanging around in there with the posies. Many a happy memory comes to me whenever I read your posts. Thanks.

[Joyce]

This brings back memories of us living on the homestead up in Alaska and making dandelion wine and picking fireweed shoots(learning to only pick the ones that were an inch and half high...any bigger and they were bitter), to put in our salads...making and keeping sourdough starter -tending the big garden -taking the buckets down to the lake to get water. Even after all these years I can still picture the old garden when not in use -the rows of dirt where we planted and the walking paths -to some of the corn stocks and other flowers that kept on growing...to the clidish laughter when another moose or deer would come visiting the garden during the construction of the birch fence -to chewing chucks of tar when we had to re-surface the roof before winter set in...

[Christie]

Here, here! I'm so with you!!! I love flowers...all shapes and sizes! It's funny...my husband has trimmed our lawn several times already but our next door neighbors have not, they seem like the lucky ones because they have wild Blue Lupine growing. I am actually jealous of their unmanicured lawn. :-)

http://prettypaperbook.com/blog

[Whitney Johnson]

I wish....here in the Arizona desert so many of the lawns are "zeriscaped", so that not much of anything fun (green!) grows spontaniously. We, thankfully, maintain a mostly grass yard and have many rose bushes to love. At my parents home, in the historic district downtown, I can enjoy huge pecan trees, lots of citrus, and rambling black-eyed susan vines. My Dad calls it "wabi sabi". Which is a Japanese description of objects that are beautiful because of their patina and age, which are seen in a state of fresh newness (like an old, cement driveway with a tender yellow dandelion blooming out of a crack). Sounds like our altered-art, too!
Here's to wabi sabi :)

[Tanya Ilnicki]

Just yesterday my 3 year old niece, Amelia, (and her Mom too)came in from walking back from pre-school. In her chubby little hands were 4 scrunched dandylions. One for Baba (Ukrainian for Grandma), one for her 2 year old sister, Julianna, one for her Mom and one for me. These were her "beautiful" flower gifts to us. I put mine in water. Dandlylions are not weeds!

[Suzanne]

Oh I love this post thanks for sharing. I have a dear friend who is trying hard to keep her house and garden in order and I cant wait to give her this great advice.
Thanks again.

[Jennifer]

I have always loved dandelions, as my mother did, too, and I too have the annual, ah, struggle with my husband who wants. them. gone. It's a flower, I say; it's a weed, he says. My secret? My son and I delight in blowing the seed heads and making wishes on the ones that escape detection....

[Suze]

my son brought me my first dandelion bouquet of the season the other day. such a tiny flower that brings me so much joy every year. When they are in full bloom in everyone's yard my house is filled with them as they bring new ones for me almost daily. I tie them in raffia and place them in small vases, baby cups, vintage tea cups all over my house. Dandelions=love...in our house

[Nicole Steele]

You would love my neighbor's yard! My husband thinks it's a big jungle (he is of the perfectly-manicured-lawn crowd...he mows our yard diagonally in opposite directions to create a checkerboard look!) but I love the randomness of hers. She's let it go the past few years but she told me she's getting it back to its beautiful wildness this summer. I can't wait (especially since she brings me over cuttings)!

[Kelly]

I am amazed at how often you and I are on the same page about so many things! :) I can't do anything about our lawn (that's hubby's thing) but I am trying hard to "create" a cottage-type garden on the side of our house. I am no master gardener but I hope to have lots of fresh bouquets throughout the summer. :)

[Betsy Sammarco]

oh my! This is exactly how we live in our yard! Much to the dismay of our neighbors!

[caro]

TOTALLY! I call those perfect lawns "green deserts!"
In fact, down here, some strains of grass are now classified as "invader alien plants", and may no longer be propagated or sold!!!
Wish many more gardeners would kick that habit, and go for more "water-wise" options...

[Vickie]

I can identify however, the obsessive compulsive part of me is going is she kidding, chaos in a lawn. Actually I love the cottage look.

[Lisa]

"We're not letting things go, we're letting things grow!"

THIS is going in my quotations book.

It is so profound... it makes my heart ache.

well and truly said

[mary walmer]

we have an enormous lawn-5 acres and most of it is grass-I don't want chemicals in my grass so at certain times of year the lawn is mostly a sea of yellow from the Dandelions. One year I noticed a car out front and two people standing outside so I went to see if they had car trouble or whatever-they were from Europe and were photographing my "beautiful garden"- they were awestruck by the beauty of the yellow flowers!

[mary walmer]

we have an enormous lawn-5 acres and most of it is grass-I don't want chemicals in my grass so at certain times of year the lawn is mostly a sea of yellow from the Dandelions. One year I noticed a car out front and two people standing outside so I went to see if they had car trouble or whatever-they were from Europe and were photographing my "beautiful garden"- they were awestruck by the beauty of the yellow flowers!

[Teri Leigh]

I love Dandelions. Always have because those are the flowers my kids always brought me and they have great love attached to them. I was just looking at the ones popping up in my yard and I can't bring myself to zap them either. As far as the lawn goes, I love a short lawn but our mover is in the shop and the part to fix it will take 2 weeks to get here so I am in with the long lawn whether I want to or not.

[paige]

thought of you today...my husband spent a large portion on our yard this spring break.
25 yard & refuse bags later.....
whew
we get the full sun so i have a large amount of difficutly getting almost anything to grow in our hot sunscortched georgia red clay. would love an garden of wildflowers though!
enjoy the wonderful weather.
xo

[The Paper Peddler]

Oh Thank You for this! My sentiments exactly! I have often said these very things and oh how wonderful that my favorite "celebrity" scrapbooker feels the same way! Thanks for all your wonderful inspiration!! -Liz

[jen davis]

I am totally with you! =) Though right now we still have SNOW on the ground, so I would give anything for an overgrown lawn of wildflowers!

[alsn]

You know, back in the day- the "kept lawn" was a sign of aristocracy and status. It meant you had so much money you could pay people to show the world your power over nature by toiling over it, making it geometric and even. The fact that America has taken that concept with it is preposterous! Especially in desert climates like Colorado, New Mexico, and AZ, we should really be thinking about the impact on the environment over our 'status.' Thanks for doing your part!
p.s. Dandelions are delicious on salads or in tempura. ^_^