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Landscape Design

free form or mess?

15 years ago

Okay, I look in the gardening magazines and swoon over the carefully planned gardens. Everything seems to pop, overgrown and lush and just right. I go to the local nursery- strolling and looking and dreaming about shrubs, flowers, herbs, perennials, annuals....oh, and some old rustic fixtures. So I was going to make a plan. Hah!

Instead, I've got a shade garden (with morning sun) filled with hostas, ferns, columbines, and various other plants. There is no plan. I bought a hydranea for front flower bed(afternoon sun) and threw in a few short annuals up front. Then it was time to sow seeds. Plan? No. I broadcasted seeds of different types. It's a hodge-podge. I wonder how it'll all turn out? It'll take another growing season to know. I envy you that have the experience and talent to plant according to design!

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Comments (6)

woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
15 years ago
It is my firm belief that learning by doing is the best way to learn - and we learn a lot from our mistakes. And sometimes the 'mistakes' turn out to be 'happy accidents' that set you off on a new course. Especially if you're new to gardening, I don't think you should obsess or worry too much about 'getting it right' from the start; getting started and developing the interest is the important thing. I had been actively gardening for 10+ years before I started getting serious about more that just growing nice plants. And I now consider my first garden as 'practice' and this garden as the 'real' garden. And this garden is still a work in progress with major changes every year....
holleygarden Zone 8, East Texas
15 years ago
Welcome to the world of gardening and design! We all start somewhere. For now, enjoy the hodge podge of flowers that grow. Learn what likes your soil, the way the sun moves on your property, and what your objectives are for different parts of your property. What a plan does is enhance the different areas for the way you and your family live in a pleasing design. If you eventually want a plan, reading some good design books is a great way to get started. Good luck! :)
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Embothrium
15 years ago
Plans are for when you can't work it all out in your head and keep track of what you are doing. You figure out the details on paper and then have the paper to refer back to during the execution. The more important and demanding the project, the more the need for planning and documentation. Big, complex projects require architects and landscape architects. A small flower garden you visualize in your head may not require more of a plan than what you have in your mind's eye.
novice_2009
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks guys! Yes, by next year, my flower gardens may look wonderful. If not, I can always move perennials, and add annuals. Perhaps having no plan at all is a great way to start out!
barefootinct
15 years ago
I have some plants in my gardens that have been moved half a dozen times or so! Also, because gardens change over time, you may love the way a certain bed looks this year, but in a few years it just is all wrong; some plants have died back, others have taken over, and so forth.

It's living art and certainly never static! That's the fun, ain't it.
salbwil
14 years ago
barefoot,
In one of your posts you mentioned "ice plant". Have you had good luck with them and are they a good ground cover for dry sunny areas? I just bought some for a low dry wall and really no nothing about them other than I liked their looks.
salbwil

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