Recently, while sitting in my car stopped at a traffic light, I glanced at the Boston Market on my left, specifically, the so-called landscaping that surrounded the place. Three different shrubs were all that were used for the “landscaping”. There were two different Barberry and a Spirea. All had grown into each other and were sheared into round balls.
After I threw up in my mouth a bit, I started getting this feeling of being part of the garden elite. Some samples of the conversation I had with myself:
- “Everyone knows to avoid any shrub/plant you see planted at a fast food restaurant. They are so incredibly boring and common.”
- “How dare they shear shrubs like that and not let them grown into their natural shape.”
- “I know so much more about plants and design than these so-called landscapers.”
- “My yard is so much more diverse and interesting. I should become a professional and show them how it is really done.”
And then I went home and pulled into the driveway. And cried (just go with the drama I’m trying to portray here). For as much as I claim to know about gardening and the so-called design rules, my yard ain’t all that grand.
I am fairly confident that I could hold my own on Plant Jeopardy and could talk a good game when it comes to the principles of design. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I even have a huge Microsoft Excel document that includes every plant I own or had previously owned and every factoid about those plants. I reference it often and constantly update as I am doing my daily googling.
But when it comes to putting it all together out in the field (pun intended) it just doesn’t seem to work as planned more often than not. I am no better than the landscapers I critique so often (well I won’t got that far … but you get the point). What sounds good on paper really is difficult to translate into the dirt. I have been thinking long and hard about why this is true and here are some of the reasons I’ve come up with so far:
Differing plant maturities – when it comes to design planning I tend to think about all of the plants at their ultimate mature size. In the long run this would seem to make the most sense, but man is it hard to remain patient and wait for that. Obviously all plants grow at different rates and grow differently depending on a number of factors (sun exposure, soil quality, etc) so getting to that ultimate size is a complex journey.
Plant size – this point ties into the first one but my point here is more about plant availability and cost. The boom of buying plants on the internet has been fantastic as we all can purchase plants we know we will never see in our local nursery. However, with the logistics of shipping these plants, it is either impossible to find large enough specimens or if they do exist, it can be very costly. I lean towards the smaller inexpensive plants as I do enjoy watching the growth progress over the course of time. It just adds to the difficulty when planning your garden design.
Boredom leads to over-analyzing – some times all it takes for me is a simple harmless walk through the garden to get some new big idea on how things can be re-arranged. It may require me to move five shrubs and relocate 10 perennials, but once it is in my head – GAME OVER. I will obsess on it until I am knee deep in the middle of the transformation and then I almost forget why I thought of it in the first place. Each year I plan to create new beds from scratch and expand my gardens, but I never am able to quite finish off the existing ones.
I am sure I could come up with other reasons but I must admit I already feel better than I did when I started writing this. Funny that there can be such ups and downs in such a simple pleasure like gardening. After all, isn’t it supposed to take you away from life’s true ups and downs – a means for escape? After reading this you may think my answer would be an emphatic “no”, but you would be wrong silly reader. I enjoy this gardening thing even more when I am frustrated and unhappy with my results. That is what leads to the enlightenment.
Disclosure – my apologies if the previous two sentences did not make any sense. I have been analyzing Lost for too long.
Namaste!
