Downsizing your garden

I spent the day at the Davidson Horticultural Symposium.  It was great, full of thought-provoking presentations and interactions with fellow gardeners.

But a couple of the presentations, by very accomplished landscape architects, had me thankful for the opportunity and encouragement to downsize my garden.

Their clients were totally high-end, with unlimited budgets, so with the ability to create not only gigantic (if tasteful) houses, with equally expansive (lovely and high-maintenance) gardens to match.

These two successful landscape designers, and they looked like quite nice women, too (I didn't talk with either) certainly were helping their VERY affluent clients create the landscape/setting that was suitable for the extraordinary places that their homes were set in (Baja California, Martha's Vineyard, upstate NY, etc.)

It just reinforced my thoughts about simplicity and downsizing at this time of life.  I don't want bigger.  Smaller is good.  We're going from 2300 sq. ft. to 1500 sq. ft.

This has meant a lot of shedding, as well as identifying which pieces of furniture will come with us (not many), what will replace what we've acquired already (the couches), what artwork needs to be swapped out (for the time-worn framed posters), etc.

And although I'll totally miss the lovely, large expansive natural landscape we've created here, it's a good thing to simplify, too.

my study view

We'll downsize to the raised bed vegetable garden, the native woodland garden (in the ravine behind our house), the pocket meadow and the natural habitat plantings, on a small scale, that my gardening companion has created.

We'll continue to enhance our smaller landscape (I've had lot of new ideas after today's talks).

So, thankfully, we're downsizing (not upsizing!)