On Friday, a local garden center emailed me about a “special” they were having on something they called a “Fall Decorating Bundle.” It was a cornstalk, a straw bale, a sugar pumpkin, a mum and a cabbage at a discount. You reserved it now and picked it up on September 18th. The discount was around $9 which is decent.
But the minute I saw it, I literally gritted my teeth. There’s just something about the whole cornstalks and straw bundles thing that just doesn’t sit well with me. I can’t get to the bottom of it either.
I recall writing about this here last year and lots of readers disagreeing with me so I know this is something that’s just personal to me. I said that I thought it was that the cornstalks and straw (I was calling it “hay” last year, I think) didn’t belong in a New England garden and that if we all decorated the same way, everything would become homogenized.
But you all disagreed with me–and after all, don’t we all pretty much decorate the same way for other holidays? That doesn’t make me grit my teeth.
So maybe it’s just a “Fall” thing. Perhaps I just hate seeing the visual cues that seasons are changing–even though I live in one of the most lovely places for “fall” in the country! And really, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I wouldn’t want to garden year round.
While I love my house plants, dragging watering cans around to them indoors gets old after awhile. I know I am very glad to move them outside when I can.
And likewise, at the end of the gardening season, I am glad to let the gardens wind down.
Is there a gardening psychologist in the house? Because I am just stumped about this.
Gardendaze 