Why optimistic

Time for confession. I am a garden optimist - hence the title of the blog.

Living in Sweden (~USDA zone 5) I live through winters and summers. Spring comes with its hopes and the fall with its time for reflection. And let's face it - many things do not survive. Of course one can choose hardy plants. It is not the hardiness that's the problem - it's me. For some, not yet discovered reason, I always consider myself to be a very neet, organized and energetic gardener. A gardener that sows just the amount of seeds needed that season. A gardener that weeds properly. A gardener that digs deep enough holes and always prepares the place for planting before she buys any plants. A gardener who color coordinates her flowerbeds and keep them neat and tidy through the season.
That is exactly the kind of gardener I am - in the winter.

In the summer I somehow transform into something quite different. I hate replanting seedlings. It is just dead boring. According to the gardening magazines, a true gardener should love to sow and replant. She should arrange small but tasteful still lifes and be chic. This makes me wonder what kind of gardener I am - a fake one?
I love planting things. I love talking to everything. I love walking around my garden and feel alive. In the summer I turn into a lazy gardener.
But guess what. If I do not sow tricky seeds that need replanting but stick to cuttings and dividing large plants, if I use my beloved compost and if I cover the soil in the flowerbeds with cut grass for moist and nutrition - most things actually survive. I believe I have learnt that now. That is, until the winter is here again and the catalogs begin to come (you know which ones I mean). Then it is time for the neet, organized and energetic gardener to rise again.