Are You an Ent or an Entwife?

[Liriodendron]

There are great differences between the sexes......but not in gardening!! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Some of the most "anal retentive" gardeners I have known have been males. "Square Foot" gardening comes to my mind. This guy wrote a book about gardening in STRAIGHT LINES only! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]. The only people I have met who have tried this have been men. They have loved it, and get all bent out of shape if you try to suggest a few flowers in their perfectly straight vegetable patch.

My father-in-law is a total freak about staking and pinching tomatoes (I prefer to mulch them heavily with straw and let them grow however they wish). He also doesn't like mulch in his vegetable garden. "Too messy!" [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] He prefers to roto-till up and down the straight rows weekly! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] ugh!

I have large gardens full of rambling paths, some trees the birds planted, half hardy annuals that have sown themselves, huge drifts of flowers that have made their own boundaries, and if something does poorly, I let it die. (versus trying to "chemical" it back to life) Don't tell me men are free form and women cultivated! Noooooooo!! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
I think it's more of a "do you veiw growing as a tame the wilderness, food production deal", (like the farmers in my area, gah! they are horrible, spray it and kill it if it's not my corn or soybeans!) or "do you veiw gardening as an artistic endeavor", like I do. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]

[ February 02, 2003: Message edited by: Liriodendron ]