Good Fences = Good Neighbors, Good Flowers = Great Neighbors

I sometimes lament that I have the neighbors I do. They are the nicest people in the world and they are as helpful as can be, but I just have an issue with the fact that they can garden better than I do.

If I lived a mere block down from here, my house would be the one that everyone pauses at to take in the breath-taking beauty. But on my block, passers-by are too busy gawking at my two neighbors’ heart-stoppingly beautiful yards to take much notice of mine.

*sigh* Envy… it is the common deadly sin of gardeners everywhere.

But I have to admit that I benefit from my neighbors’ love of gardening. The most obvious way is that in the spring, we trade plants over the fences. I sometimes wonder why I even bother to go buy plants when I know that I will be given a dozen or so in less than a month’s time. Just another sign of addiction, I guess.

I also have someone I can talk gardening with. God, a dedicated gardener can discuss the finer points of compost and manure for the better part of a day if you let them. But I have found through repeated trial and testing that most non-gardeners find talking about rotting food and horse shit to be somewhat boring, repulsive even. Not my neighbors though. They understand and suffer from the same affliction.

The other benefit I get from having avid gardeners living nearby is that I get to “borrow” their flowers and plants. In today’s post’s picture, there is a massive clematis on the fence. That’s not mine. That is my neighbor’s. But doesn’t that clematis just look fabulous sitting over my cranesbill geranium? Anything on her side of the fence that grows taller than the fence becomes part of my yard by default. Maybe it is a bit of visual thievery, or maybe it is a unique form of recycling. Either way, it works for me.

I won’t stop being jealous of my neighbors’ yards, but at least it is comforting to know that I get some good out of their gardening superiority.