Well I have to admit this gardener is not perfect. I strive to show the best view of the garden in photos, taking pains to make sure there is a balance of structure and order as well as beauty and movement in each shot. I go so far as to move a menagerie of  hoses and pond cleaning tools out of the perfect shot, or hope that nobody will notice the bag of mulch lying behind the lovely bush of flowering Sage.But alas, sometimes I think one just has to show the jumble and inperfection of nature (mine and Mother Nature) that makes it perfectly imperfect in its own right. Here are some pictures of the imperfect garden. The clutter and mess I usually deal with that helps make gardening fun.

Below a shot of the bog and pond. A jumble of colorful beauty.

I loved this shot of the back of the pond. Perennials are filling in and the trees and irises are just lovely. It would have been a great picture but for the bag of sand lying right there. The untrimmed Canna on the lower left is also irritating me a little. I have left it untrimmed till the new foliage fills in to give the emerging dragonflies a place to attach so they can molt in relative safety.

And this would have been a really cool shot if it weren’t for the bag of cow manure waiting patiently on the bench to be used in the tree bed…. Grrrrr…   Ah the perfectly imperfect world.

We aren’t perfect, and looking at these pictures reminds me that to strive for excellence is good, but sometimes there is beauty in the mistakes and clutter of the every day world too.