OK, on the flip side, as a kind of new gardener...rules can be helpful. Take, for instance, this photo:

This photo is from Canadian garden personality Marjorie Harris, prolific author and frugal gardener, and I only learned of her today. So, she's my stalk-ee today. Whatever rules she followed to create this amazing shade palatte I want to learn about. See original site here:

Marjorie Harris

We all follow rules to some degree. Thankfully gardening is a mix of rules, love, and wild abandon. Right now I would love to understand more rules!

I think many of us garden as a program of attraction. We are attracted to the program that suits us. Both in effect, our personal character, environment, etc. People with "Land" can not afford to densely garden with large controlled spaces unless they have "People" at their disposal. I don't have "people, its just me here, So I go for a free ranging approach. I am much more interested in letting the plants find their natural rhythm. Gardening thugs will duke it out with the weeds if they can deal with my lack of irrigating in a drought prone hot land. I guess not watering is my big rule breaker. My rules come down from Mother nature. She likes to slap me around and punish me if I don't listen to HER rules.

Wantonamara, you are a gardener after my own heart! Everything you said goes double for me, and you said it so much more eloquently and wittier than I could!. Yeah, I get slapped around regularly by Mother Nature too!

Yea that brutal early and late snow for you. I lived in New York state for awhile and remember 6" in may.. My two sisters were in Vermont. That was before they moved to New Zealand and Alaska. Pushing the Zone envelope comes with a price no mater where you are. We actually have very destructive cold fronts down here. Ours come in with absolutely no hardening off. 80ºF one day and 16ºF the next. I never . We should do a companion thread about what rules do you NEVER EVER break.

Here is someone who does not believe that there is any such thing as "over Planting", weeding, planting too trees too close, etc. It is pretty in its own way, a claustrophobic wet beauty. I do give a warning to those who need order in their lives.

The video fills me with a zen-like sense of peace, solitude, and beauty. Nothing claustrophobic about it in my eyes. This is what I aspire to. I like her dog also! I have a long way to go to achieve this here, but this lady's garden is an inspiration. Thanks for posting. (She may have tossed rules out the window, but she clearly works harder in the garden than I ever will!)

Agreed. You have to understand that I live in a place where this kind of verdancy is impossible due to lack of water and fertility. Things naturally need space......ecept for Mountain ashe Juniper. The sky is very much part of my perception of my garden.

That's true, Wantonamara, Texas is Big Sky country for sure. I loved the Southwest when we were there, but it is a very different type of natural beauty. If we had retired to Arizona, as we once thought about doing, my concept of a garden would have been quite different, with emphasis on rocks, gravel, bricks, cacti, metal sculptures, and open spaces.

However, New England was aptly named, and our climate is pretty close to wherever in the UK the garden video you posted is. My only excuse for not making my property look like hers is the lack of work expended on my part. I'm a lazy gardener!

I think it is Ireland which would make it a very cool wet summeredZ8-9. I saw fuchsias growing wild in trees.

Yep, my wood enjoys less than half the irrigation of the rest of the UK and a fraction of an Irish (or Welsh/W. Scotland season). Nonetheless, the green verdancy of any temperate maritime woodland is notable...and what we seem to lack from the sky is compensated in our watery fenland peat cuttings (Norfolk and its broads) a true riverine environment so even I benefit from copious land drains and ditches And creeping phragmites.

I am breaking a LOT of rules.(making it up as I go).

Is this your video, Campanula? If so, I'm hugely impressed!

Monoculture is an evil affront to the eco-system. We have been converting our property to partial woodland also for approx 13 years, and although it looks nothing like the utopia in the video, we now have a pine and hardwood mini-forest complete with birds and other wildlife and carpeted by a rich compost of leaves and pine needles, and in another area a thicket of pussywillow bushes extending backwards from the brook, a great nesting site for a myriad of bird species. Our open pastureland was always home to a variety of plants (clover, grasses, dandelions, mint, and others too numerous to name). This multi-cultural meadow nourished our horses for 3 decades (and they, it), and I pick dandelion greens for salads and stir fries and mint for iced tea. Plants feed animals, and animals feed plants when nature is in balance. This video spoke to me!

I get a bit miffed when people look at a grass land and think it is like their mono cultured lawn. I have pheasants, bluebirds, painted buntings scarlet taningers and turkeys living in my grassland and it has a bunch of different grasses growing in it, maybe 40 types of grass and dozens of annuals and wild perennials also. It is indigenous to my area. It is very diverse. Maybe more diverse than my woodlands.

Wow! Amazing video. Sped, I don't think that's Camp's video because the video is from Ireland. What she's done as a single woman is amazing. What a retreat!

I've been thinking about a new patch of grass we grew this summer after a landscaping project was done. We didn't put grass in a new area, but replanted it after the project covered the old grass in dirt. Recently I began thinking about our old house in NH when we were in process of moving. to save money we stopped mowing. by summer's end our yard off the back porch was a mix of grasses and wildflowers, and we sat on the porch mesmerized by the sounds of insects and the hordes of dragonflies flitting about over the vegetation. Win-win. No mowing, and happy wildlife. And happy chickens, I might add. I don't know why I didn't think of that when we planted the dirt area with grass. Now I'm making plans to convert it to the same. The grass isn't exactly happy in our dry summer, so there is some room to throw seed and have it sprout.

"Grass" is a generous definition of what we have anyway. Mix of grass/weeds in sun with either nice moss and lichens or woodland floor under the trees. We're not ones to care about a golf-course lawn by any means. Too much extra work.

Grief no. spedigrees, I can barely point a camera, let alone attempt a video...but yep, my wood is not dissimilar in its weedy over-grown exuberance. And yep, monoculture really is a desert

I don't even own a lawn mower....I guess that is another rule I break.Occasionally pull the taller grasses out around the pathways. I let the sedges grow . Our moisture is less and our soil is not as rich so the level of the grass is shorter. except for the Bluestem in the fall with sticks out like beautiful exclamation marks of randomness in the field.

Sped, blue and orange is my life long favorite color combination. It's worthy noting that those two colors are complementary on that old color wheel! I always have a blue and orange bed (plus white) where ever I've lived. My indoor decor reflects my attraction to that combo, too.

My love for these colors was inspired by the chicory, road side daylilies, and queen Anne's lace growing along the back roads in central NYS. Of course, those plants grow in association with each other all over the place!

Deanna, you mentioned that you formerly lived in NH, and all of a sudden my memory clicked! You were the gal with those amazing bright yellow shutters on your house that were custom-made by a local guy using bits of water pipe, sort of a steam-punk kind of utilitarian look (they actually closed). I loved those shutters, *really* loved them, but I'll bet they broke a few "good housekeeping" rules! There were beautiful to my eye, and I remember you had a very pretty garden surrounding your house too.

I was given three small rose bushes. The condition was that I had to take them that day. All I had was a pitch fork to dig them out of a very rocky garden. In my 30 years of gardening, I had no experience with roses.

Pick, prod, grab and break, I finally extracted them and soaked them in buckets of water to take them home. It was a hot August day.

Due to scheduling, I was not able to plant them for at least a week. Rushing to at least get them into the ground when I had an open time slot in my schedule, I simply dug a shallow hole and stuck them in and watered. I forgot about them until the next spring.

To my surprise, all three survived. They stayed there and bloomed for three years. To my dismay, they were not is a good location for my garden design so I figured that I would transplant them but first do the research to move them "right" this time.

I was told:

1) Transplant roses only in the early spring or late fall.
2) Do not dig/transport them bare-root.
3) Plant immediately and do not soak in water.
4) Dig a hole that is at least a foot wider than the root base and augment with compost.

I am sure there were other laws but since I broke all of them. They continue to this day producing White, pink, and 4th of July blooms.

I know a woman who roots prickly pears in water against all advise.

In water? For what purpose? If rooting them for transplant, just stick them in the dirt and no special soil is needed.

I was given prickly pear and it is almost indestructible even in the dead of a New England winter. It was given to me because her son and husband were tossing bits of the plants at each other and ended up spending the next three days trying to get the thorns out of their faces, arms and hands.

Other than thorns, what was the advice not to grow it?

It was not advise NOT to grow it just rooting it in water was not the way to propagate it. You have Opuntia humifosa. The opuntia that I grow would die in New England.

Yes, sped, that's me! I appreciate the comments on the garden. It was a learning experience, and it was the first time i realized that I love gardening. I will tell you that we loved our shutters, too. However, I went back to see the house less than a year after we sold it and found them in a heap outside on the ground, all removed. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, I hated to see our financial investment in a pile on the floor. And, their beauty was not my beauty. The shutters were gone and the very thin colonial-type window casings were painted white, and in my mind white trim only looks good if your trim has more heft. I don't think everybody hated the shutters, though, because we did have three completing bids for the purchase. Too bad the winner didn't like them!

We were steam punk before it was cool! We had that same guy make us some indoor bookshelves, very steampunk, of my husband's design. He does great work. Even found a way to notch the pipes so the shelves are adjustable. (Pic of bookshelf to come after Houzz recovers.)

The "resents disturbance" rule -- you name it, I've probably moved and/or divided it, and stuff is always fine.

The "$50 hole" rule -- frankly, I tend to just throw the sh*t in the hole, and stuff is always fine (although, I do take extra care when planting trees, so there's the exception to my own "just throw it in hole" rule LOL!)

My Opuntia humifosa looks real shabby late winter probably due to desiccation but recovers quickly and produces a few pears every year. I once gave away about 3/4 of the over grown bed to a turtle rescue farm. Apparently they like them ad can tolerate the thorns. The pears grow well in zone 5.

It is too dry at my place for O. humifosa

And, sped, now that photos can post, just to keep threads rambling and off topic, here are the bookshelves. We like them.

Love the bookshelves, Deanna! They look very sturdy and durable.

Do any of these qualify as broken rules?

What Thyme said, I've probably broken every single one of them. I've been told not to plant yellow and pink together, so what did I do?

Annette

I wasn't really aware of any rules when I started planting my front flower bed. Now I have a line of moss phlox, a bunch of dead fox glove, delphiniums, and lupines that my wife planted without care and then dumped miracle grow on, and I have have some slow-maturing perennials that look like weeds. The phlox, at least, looks awesome in the spring.

Moss phlox can be stunning in the Spring! I've tried twice to have it grow, but it seriously doesn't like me. :(

My phlox failed until I saw a U shaped driveway with two 4' retaining walls surrounding it. Phlox was hanging over it in abundance and every year, I would deliberately drive by to see in all its glory.

I took a few pictures then my phlox started to grow and bloom. Go figure..... Maybe I should send you some pictures.

I am beginning to see that it is seriously drought and negligence tolerant. Broken branches root easily. I am beginning to believe that it likes morning sun, afternoon shade.

Ooh - such fine examples of anarchy! I must admit, I was rather disobedient on the weekend: I went out and bought an echinacea, which I planted a few days ago. Not only did I break the rule of fall planting echs which some have, I broke my own rule of "no more echinacea in this garden"! But I was feeling a bit restless and in the mood to do some celebrating by gardening, plus the nursery had one which many on this forum have been going gaga over (Pow Wow Wild Berry). So we shall see what chaos my echinacea can create...

@deannatoby, you mentioned a while back your new found love for Marjorie Harris. I met her years ago, maybe 2012, at a Literary Street Festival. She had just released her Thrifty Gardening book and I had just moved into my home and was discovering gardening. She was at her booth by herself, promoting her book. We had a nice chat, but I didn't get her book because I really didn't want to add any more books to my pile. Fast forward 5 years and I actually finally ended up borrowing the book from the library - much better for me than buying it. A nice general read with good pointers and also contributions from many Canadian gardeners and nursery owners whom I ended up getting to know along the way. She was the Editor for Gardening Life, which was a spin off from Canadian House & Home. I got the sense that she never quite got over how the publishers abruptly folded Gardening Life. As someone who is playing catch up now, I would love to sit down and have a nice tea and lively chat with her!

Mmmm, I am always keen on thrifty (free) anything...which invariably tends to work against actually buying the article in question.

Yes the target audience first act would be to think spending money on that book was possibly not needed. Being the cheapskate that I am . ... HEY CAMP< I did actually spend money on myself and bought a silky pole saw. OUCH. It only took 4 years of self cajoling.

LOL - yes, the irony was not lost on me. Being a rather "thrifty" and "frugal" person myself, I was reluctant to part with some of my funds at that time for her book - especially because one of the reasons I went to that Festival was because the major publishers would show up with their overstock of fantastic, hardcover, coffee table books from a few years ago that were no longer the flavour of the month, and sell them for $2-$5. And I'm not adverse to buying something well out of season to save coin!

Not quite as bad as Abby Hofmann's book titled "Steal This Book". His target audience would. The book was read atleast, but I doubt he made money on it. That really dates me.

Your answer prompted me to realize some other "rules" I have broken - that of patents. At first unknowingly - because I would not have even fathomed that such a thing could exist, but then realized but of course - and then more defiantly by getting a plant and dividing it with glee.

As long as you do not sell it and have a profit, you are cool.

Wait, you're not supposed to plant echinacea in the fall?

Uh oh.

I do all the time . It prefers it but I am in a warm winter hot summer area.

Well, there have been several discussions about what is optimal for this plant. Seemed to be the consensus that it needs to develop a healthy root system before going dormant - and that meant setting up in spring for many people. I decided a sale is a sale, and if I'm getting something 70% off in the fall that is unlikely to happen in the spring, I can chance it and plant in the fall. Mind you, I am seriously into fall planting so it wouldn't take much for me to decide this is the best way to go (for me). Maybe I've killed a few too many echs that way, but my mind is such a sieve that by next spring I would barely remember that I planted something there in the first place!

Well; then everyone say a helpful prayer for the Prairie Splendor echinacea I picked up last week. It's a lovely plant and we're still a bit away from a hard killing frost, so maybe I can squeak by on a broken rule now?

I've planted and divided and moved perennials in the fall with no trouble otherwise, but maybe I'll wait until spring to relocate some of the established echinacea like I had planned.

I've planted echinacea in the fall and it does just fine. SRG sells it in fall for fall planting. Most information I've read recommends fall planting for hardy perennial natives, down here in Oklahoma fall planting is the best time to plant most everything, I make exceptions for the more southern plants not native in my zone when I'm stretching the limits of hardiness. Seeds from hardy annual natives always come up in fall, they winter over as small green plants or rosettes and take off in spring. I always sow those in late summer.

When it comes to natives, I believe most winter-kill deaths occur because a spot is too wet and/or has poor drainage.

Praire Splendor isn't one of the foo-foo types, its looks more like a native type thats not a result of a lot of breeding so its probably more hardy than some of the sissies.

It depends on where you are. Frankly, in my climate, it doesn't make any difference if you plant echs in spring, summer or fall......they are not inclined to overwinter. Period.

And I agree that fall is the best time - in my area anyway - for planting just about anything. The problem is that local nursery stock is very low (and no EOS sales here), so it is slim pickings until spring.

Rule #219 broken. LaLennoxa to himself: "You have absolutely no more room in this garden to put anything. You have reached capacity. You have a small garden and every single inch of it is taken, DO NOT ADD ONE THING MORE."

A few days/weeks/months/hours later: "I think I see a small corner over there where this is nothing and I'm sure I can plant the bulbs which I just got on a clearance in that space. Actually, now that I am looking at it, I see quite a lot of empty spots in there, where I know I can squeeze something more, because when I made that crazy statement about no more space - which I can't event really remember now because it sounds so absurd - I must have been on something and not been able to see the potential in front my own eyes. Yes, it is fall and I know things grow but I must not have looked into these corners because it's not like I am looking at every inch of this garden throughout the year looking for space to add things...

And then Emerogork wept for there were no more garden spots to conquer....

@deannatoby - I was doing some cleaning up today, and came across a stack of Gardening Life magazines. I thought of you because you mentioned how you had discovered Marjorie Harris recently, and this was the magazine she edited for many years, and I think she still laments how it abruptly ceased production. I'm going to go through them over the next month, but I've promised myself that next month the pile will be going to our local seed exchange!

Hope you find some helpful info. The magazine certainly looks beautiful!

It will be fun to go through the issues - they are from 1999 to 2009. Many of the standalone gardening magazines in Canada were under a larger umbrella of home magazines - and whenever the powers that be decided to fold away the garden magazines, they always implied there would still be a feature or two in the parent magazine to keep gardeners happy :-)