I came accross NIMG via bloomingwriter, who has put her own list up on her blog. So what things would I never have in my garden?

First: flowers in rows (not only tulips but also dahlias, gladiolas etc) are an absolute horror for me. I don’t even enjoy them in other people’s gardens. It’s the same with perfectly clean rectangular gardens that only consist of clear-cut lawn, a trimmed hedge and maybe the odd evergreen. (You might just as well replace the lawn with concrete painted green.) Oh, I forgot about the white-coated metal fence.

But second, what do I like but won’t ever have in my garden?

I enjoy geometrical (cottage) gardens where the flowerbeds are framed with small hedges. However, this would take too much planning and designing for me. Also, lots of accurate pruning is necessary to keep them up.
Then there are gardens where you find all sorts of design elements such as ancient-looking walls, spots to sit in, wells, statues etc. They are quite nice to look at, but don’t fit our way of life. We don’t like to bother with carrying chairs and tables all around the garden but keep them near the house. Otherwise the wind will blow them all over the place. Also, our lawn is for the children and the dog to play on. Extra seats would mean extra obstacles to trip over.

One thing that I envy in others is when the flower arrangements match in size and colour so that different impressions are created in different parts of the garden (for example a “blue” corner). I will never achieve that because I cannot get myself to pull out annuals that have seeded themselves and are thus wandering around the garden. So there will always be a bright orange calendula spoiling the pink and blue impression of roses, delphinum and bell flowers ….