Don't let non-gardeners get you down

My daughter visited yesterday and we sat in the garden. I was enjoying the subtle tapestry of primroses, pulmonaria and the odd green euphorbia. She said that everything looked the same. My mum wants leery plants that flower all year and don't need watering. My dad gardened like a farmer and didn't understand why nothing came up the next year.
Am I the green sheep of the family?

 

They can't help it....more to be pitied than blamed My mother was one of the 'we'll have xxx there' and 'xxx would look good there' brigade. She didn't know one end of a trowel from the other....it was my poor long-suffering, hard-working Dad who actually did all the work

 

I definitely agree about those that think a plant in the garden should be looking its best all year round.
I've come across them and had dealings with them, the fact that garden centres often seem to accommodate that kind of person and think of plants as a florists thing, does nothing to help them understand about growing plants.

 

Would people be as rude to your face about your dinner set or your bedroom curtains?
Well,yes they would. My brother in law spent a night with us shortly after we had finished a total modernisation of this house, which was almost derelict when we bought it. He came down to breakfast and told us that our bathroom tiles were a revolting colour and pattern. He hasn’t been invited to stay again.

 

Some people just cant take a bit of helpful criticism.

 

My brother in law told me that my kitchen was small. So glad he pointed it out or I never would've realised it.

 

What's a revolting tile colour? We need to know @Tidemark

 

The walls are pale coffee with splodges of cream and very pale grey from floor to ceiling. Then there’s a 4” wide frieze of sage green and brown hand-made mosaic tiles running around the room at about chest height. We like it. Something like this, but green.

 

Walked to the end of my road today and saw that a house there had just finished updating its front garden. It's on a steep slope, and it's been terraced with lots of dark grey wood, and dark grey and sort of aubergine coloured gravel. There's a single small tree in the middle of the aubergine. I actually stopped in my tracks and said out loud "Wow, that's ugly!" Luckily there was no-one around to hear me.

 

@Tidemark . I like them too. I'm a tad disappointed. I expected to be revolted but polite.

 

@Escarpment . Maybe we just don't understand these things or maybe it is, indeed ( pooey emoji)

 

I don’t know where that aubergine coloured gravel is mined but I bet the people who live there and who used to have to look at it all day long are glad to see it go.

 

Maybe it'll look nice when it gets mossy

 

Aw come on folks....would a scrubby patch of 'grass' and weeds with perhaps a rusting fridge or bicycle and discarded plastic kids' toys be better?

 

There was a nice garden around the corner from us which belonged to an old couple. It was filled with shrubs and no maintenance plants and I don't think they actually ever touched it. I guess they moved or passed on because a couple of months ago the whole thing was ripped out and replaced with a horrible red gravel. I can already see all the weeds coming up, so what would have been a little maintanence, nice looking view, will become a hideous apocalyptic landscape. I guess it's still preferable to fake grass though.