Wild or Wonderful?

Today I had an email from a former coworker who said she drove by my house and offered her friend's services with machete to cut back my bushes. I declined with thanks. To me, my weeping cherry, wiegela, ground cover roses, and fosythia are a great screen from the traffic and quite tidy. I'm careful to cut anything back that may encroach on the sidewalk. Some areas I'd like to actually see getting fuller and more filled-in. Through her eyes, I suppose I'm cultivating a jungle out there. She is from Jamaica and probably is used to a more strict "British" control of nature.

It is amusing to me to see how people on garden tours react to different style gardens. Some opinions are so strong! You'd think the visitors thought the gardener was trying to deliberately insult them with their garden style! I'm not big into tropical plants or vegetable patches in the front yard, but you don't see my scolding the gardener for doing it. To each his own.

I appreciate formalized beds of boxwood and roses, but just can't see doing that at my own place. My tendency is towards a more "plant it and let's see what they do" attititude. I love to "forget" about something and weeks later get a nice surprise. Overall, its a cottage garden, but secretly more like 100+ indivudual plant experiments.

Where you see wild, I may see wonderful. Perception truly is reality.