Category: twisted gardening terms

These old gardening terms are supposed to inspire today’s gardeners

Pleasance (or Pleasuance) – A pleasure ground attached to a castle or mansion, usually outside the fortifications.

It didn’t take much to turn my thoughts to a different kind of inspiration…ahhh youth!…from pleasance to dalliance to romance and more…and of course it’s a rose garden.

When I was young and starting out in gardening, I was so utilitarian. Beds lined up, paths between, all the same size and shape – easy to irrigate. No romance, all practicality.

I’ve never been much of a romantic, now I look back and think, so much wasted time. I’ve lived my life backwards. Now I am more fanciful, as I slow down and smell the roses.

That’s why my main advice to gardeners is to do just that. Sit in your garden and just love it in all its pieces and possibilities. Love the soil and all that lives in it. Love all that lives upon it. Leave your intentions and goals behind for a few minutes and just love what IS. The sun and all that reaches for it. The rain and all that sucks it up through roots and into mouths. The breeze and all that flies and floats and bends.

And the ineffable spirit that connects us all.

Don’t be afraid to love.

Narcissus, the conceited flower

Visiting another garden term from yesteryear…a conceit was a frivolous garden feature, design, or perhaps decoration that had little or no use. Are these fanciful posts of mine a conceit? I’ll let you be the judge.

Of course the word conceit drew me to the word conceited and ultimately to narcissism, that state of mind where you fall in love with yourself to the point of not being able to think of anyone else. The mythical figure Narcissus died of thirst and starvation because he couldn’t draw himself away from the pool he gazed into. Ah such a beauty am I, he thought…

Now back to gardening…there is a flower called Narcissus. I imagine it leaning over a pond, gazing at itself lovingly, no thought to sunlight or rain or growing upright…and I forget to help it, chaotic gardener that I am…until the narcissus dies.

what’s a gardener to do when…

she doesn’t have any indoor space to start plants in February? Plus it’s so cold outside that she’s still not gonna rake it? She can talk about what she wishes she could do re: gardening but that requires copious amounts of alcoholic beverages to overcome the melancholy of endless cold gray days…

Or she could have fun with gardening words and phrases alongside AI images she generates. I came across a webpage of gardening terms from bygone days and decided to play around. Spank me but…AI image generation is fun.

So true to my Twisted roots, give me some slack and don’t be afraid to smile…

My first phrase is privy garden, and the phrase once meant a private garden, usually one reserved for kings and queens. But not being of noble blood, and having lived for decades without indoor plumbing…my Twisted brain took me here: