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Friday, August 1, 2008

Garden Whimsy

This month's Garden Design Workshop being hosted by the Gardening Gone Wild clan is one of my favorite topics to hate on, Garden Whimsy.

I fully admit that I'm a snob but I really don't like most garden whimsy.  I find the vast majority of it to be extremely corny (especially the kitchy kind).  But last year after I attended my first garden walk, I was bitten by the whimsy bug when I realized that I felt much more comfortable in the gardens that had it than those that didn't.  I realized that, in addition to sitting around being cute, whimsy in a garden draws you in for a closer look. 

You can tell a whole lot about a gardener by paying attention to their whimsy.  Here's mine.

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If you had to judge me by my whimsy, what kind of person would you think I am? 

9 comments:

  1. From your whimsy, I'd say you're a spiritual, peaceloving earthmother. You also have good taste! I love the rusty metal. All of your ornaments are so harmonious in color or materials. You are so right about gardens needing a bit of whimsy in them. It makes the garden feel more personal, showing that this is the creation of a real person.

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  2. I'm not big on whimsy either. Seeing only four pieces of art that just barely qualify as whimsy, I'd say you were a good editor.

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  3. You are a serene, nature lover. I love your whimsy. I have acquired it despite not really wanting any especially the ugly gnome but that is for levity.

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  4. I like everything except that dis-embodied buddha head. I don't like "heads" and "faces" in the garden. Creepy. The only faces I want to see are on the sunflowers, and the only heads I want to see are on the cabbages!

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  5. I'd say you were a hippy chick, which you kind of are, so I guess that fits. I like your whimsy and agree with you that most leaves me cold.

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  6. Well, i'd say you're my kind of whimsy-chooser, Gina. These pieces seem well thought out and I like their colours too, designed mostly to blend or to stand out gently. I'm liking your pieces--they say calm to me, which I love in the garden. I hate, hate HATE the plastic/resin walmartian kind of mass produced crap that some think passes for whimsey these days.

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  7. I would say you have good taste! I like the copper-y color of your whimsy. So far I just have a big fake plastic owl to scare away birds. I know he looks totally tacky but he kind of cracks me up and it makes me feel like I have an ally in the war against the birds and the bad bugs and the weeds:)

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  8. Well I reckon you're just a "redneck snob" much like moi when it comes to whimsy in the garden. But I'm with Carol about that "dis-embodied buddha head. I'm married to a "cabbage head" Kimchee- eating Korean and we don't even have Buddha anywhere in the garden girlfriend.

    Yes, gardens do need a bit of whimsy to make them more personal.That rusty metal thang isn't all bad, in fact it's looking real artistic:)

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