I’ve been having an ongoing (email) debate with someone from work about the whole buying vs renting, and living in apartments vs living in houses thing.

The discussion has been fairly healthy as I am pretty happy with how I have things set up at the moment.

Suddenly the conversation got a bit personal when they said:

Wouldn’t it be nice to have 50m2 of backyard to do some real gardening, and not just battle with small pots and tiny plants?

I was quite offended at what I had read, especially considering I read it just after I just got back from the beach on North Stradbroke collecting shells to use as decorations on some of my bonsai trees and potted succulents which provide me with so much pleasure.

There are many reasons I found the statement offensive:

1. It assumes that you can’t get pleasure out of ‘small pots and tiny plants’. I completely and uterly disagree and I am not alone in my views: the Chinese and Japanese have been getting pleasure from small plants for thousands of years.  A small garden requires less overall maintenance so you can spend more time individually growing each plant.
2. The statement also assumes that a large (50m2) garden will provide a large amount of pleasure. A larger garden requires more overall maintenance and therefore might be less pleasurable as most of the time will be doing unpleasant things such as weeding and mowing, hence less time caring for your plants. This recent article shows that most houses don’t even have gardens anyway!
3. I show great pride in my succulents and bonsais. I have even written numerous blog posts about our plants when I haven’t even heard this person mention what they have growing in their garden, ever.
4. I do things such as collect stones and shells for my pot plants, grow cuttings, make plant gifts and attend markets looking for new plants.
5. The comment reminds me of the rampant Australian bigger is better mentality. I dislike the view that bigger is better. I see so many people go and buy large 4WDs and SUVs because they demand a big car to transport their family around in. I grew up in a family of six (four very active, large boys) and we never had an SUV and we were fine!. These people demand a large house with a large garden, and a home theatre with a large TV. They probably even want a large garage to hold their SUVs and their large boat. Our small apartment with a small garden on our small balcony means we can focus on what matters most in our lives. We can get rid of clutter and enjoy what we have. Even the Americans are switching on and building much smaller homes and apartments.

So, the answer to the question is no, it wouldn’t be nice. I am perfectly happy at the moment with my small garden and small plants in small pots and I will continue to update this blog as my plants mature.

I challenge the writer of the email to post some photos of his plants and his garden on his blog.