Don’t Fall into the Monkey See Monkey do Gardening Approach
Monkey See-Monkey Do
One of the things I always notice around here is that everybody practices the monkey see monkey do gardening approach. By this I mean everybody uses the same exact plants in regardless of which neighborhood you visit. Around here (Nashville) it usually goes something like this in just about every yard: 2+ Bradford pears in the front, green hostas in the shade, irises/tulips/daffodils in the spring, arborvitae (or some other needle evergreen) screen, yellow daylilies in the early summer, crape myrtles in summer etc, etc..Now I am not saying there is anything wrong with these plants and trees, its just that EVERY single yard has some variation of these. Perhaps that’s what grows well and/or fast around here but certainly there are other things that can grow just fine aren’t there? Of course my yard fits one of these prototype Nashville yards but most of the stuff was already here when I bought it. So my job is to make my yard unique by trying (sometimes unsuccessfully) different and interesting things to set my property apart from the rest. Since my favorite plants are usually tropical, my mission is to try to find plants that either look tropical or are marginally tropical and that’s what this website is all about.
So in conclusion, don’t fall into the mokey see monkey do approach. Try to find new and interesting species that will work in your area and don’t be afraid to plant them even if the neighbors don’t have them. The worst that will happen is that something wont work but if it does, you will have a one of a kind and unique yard. Unfortunately, with this approach you will hardly ever find unique plants at your local home center and/or nursery, after all they cater to the masses, that’s why I recommend checking online nurseries and Ebay for unique stuff. Not only do you find unique stuff, they are usually quite affordable. So get out of the mold and start setting yourself apart. You can start by checking some of my favorite online nurseries below: