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| | Tanya Olsen has helped many people plan naturalized gardens. "People are looking for tranquility," she says. "They want to come home and leave the chaos of work. The garden becomes an extension of living space. " She attributes part of their popularity to the past recession that had people travelling less and spending more time at home: she says that people visit the garden centre wanting to build gardens and patios instead of buying cottages. In her experience, though, it’s sometimes more a matter of pride in property. "People are taking more and more pride in their houses," she says, "and I guess a lot of people out there have to one-up their neighbours." "A nice garden, or anything that makes people say "`I have to have’" will make a house sell faster, though it hasn’t contributed to property value up to now." says Guelph real estate agent Helen Kusserow. "Eventually that will come but we’re not there yet." Olsen and Koch agree that native plants are very popular these days alongside time-tested garden favourites. But as a horticulturist, Koch thinks the impact of a naturalized garden is equivalent--for creatures and people alike whether filled with native plants or exotic botanical specimens. At the same time, he acknowledges that gardens are "artificial botanical zoos, a far cry from nature" that condense a geographical diversity of plants into a small space. "Wildlife functions in relation to the structure of landscape. Birds don’t give a damn whether the structure came from Europe or North America. " Where lawns demand routine, joyless (to most people) maintenance, gardens demand imagination. "I want to go outside and putter and you can’t go out and putter with a lawn mower." says Petrella of the work she does in her "English-style" garden. Hulet feels that lawns are about conformity and control. "Your head manifests itself in your lawn," he says. With his garden, Hulet aims for just the opposite. "It’s about teaching yourself to see subtleties and respect the world of difference," he says. Likewise, Koch wouldn’t want to impose a garden ideal or icon. "Some people do their gardens neat, some people let it roll. Diversity is inherent to nature, we’re part of nature Thank goodness there’s diversity." As Petrella, surveying her street, observes, "Those green corners are going." Like hers, and Hulet’s, over on the other side of downtown, many others in many cities have already gone.
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