Thinking Outside the Box

Actually, I was more thinking of this box rather than a window box. :-)
My front garden is a formal one but plants are free to think or grow outside the box.
I like plants to be free, have a mind of their own, enjoy life and burst from the box beds like there was no tomorrow. Just let them flop all over the place and be happy.
I love to design formal gardens and then give the plants a free reign and do as they please, aiming for a kind of controlled chaos. The juxtaposition between strict lines and gay abandon is what it is all about for me!

Let the plants self seed and enjoy the surprises you encounter in your garden.
I like thinking outside the box. Here's a bunch of flowers that I picked from my garden earlier this week, but on closer inspection all is not what it seems to be.
Have you spotted it ? There's weeds in that cute little bouquet, shocking, isn't it? :-) For me there is no clear demarcation line between weeds and flowers, it's more a question of what I like or dislike.
I have flowers in my kitchen garden and herbs in my flower borders and why not? Just plant what you like, where ever you like.
I have weeds in the vase and daisies in my lawn. Just look at them, aren't they cheering up an otherwise dull field of green blades or what?

I'll leave you with another example of thinking outside the box:

Creamy soup of Wildflowers

Serves 4 persons

1 handful of dandelion buds
1 cup of primula flowers and a few leaves
1 cup of daisies
3 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 onion
1 cup of cream
125 gr of smoked bacon
1.5 liter water
celery salt
salt and white pepper

Remove the stems from the flowers, wash them and let them dry
Bring the water to the boil, add salt then the flowers, the potatoes and the onion. Keep a few flowers aside for decoration. Let it all boil gently for 25 minutes.
Stir in the celery salt and add pepper. Take it off the fire and add the cream. Cut the bacon in strips and fry in a bit of oil. Add the bacon to the soup.
Serve on hot soup plates and decorate with the rest of the flowers. It tastes great with some brown bread. Enjoy!

copyright 2008 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience.
Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistance.
Hal Borland, Countryman: A Summary of Belief, 1965