I go for the “slightly wild” look. I want it to look like huge hordes of flowers just magically sprang up everywhere I forgot to mow. I accomplish this effect through a combination of perennials and self-seeding annuals, and letting volunteer saplings etc. stick around unless they are really in a bad spot. The beds do get slightly overwhelmed sometimes, and I go around pulling stuff out quite indiscriminately. I’ve found that the key to this look is to keep the mowed portion very tidy, otherwise the whole thing just looks sloppy.

One of my big inspirations is Mary Reynolds’ book, The Garden Awakening. She embraces a more wild style of gardening, and she incorporates symbolism and poetry into her garden designs as well, which I love.

Inspired by her I’ve chosen a poem for my garden as well, one that captures the spirit of the space I’m trying to design. I printed it out and hung it in my bathroom. It is by the Sufi poet Hafiz, from the 14th century. Here it is:

And
For no reason
I start skipping like a child.

And
For no reason
I turn into a leaf
That is carried so high
I kiss the sun’s mouth
And dissolve.

And
For no reason
A thousand birds
Choose my head for a conference table,
Start passing their
Cups of wine
And their wild songbooks all around.

And
For every reason in existence
I begin to eternally,
To eternally laugh and love!

When I turn into a leaf
And start dancing,
I run to kiss our beautiful Friend
And I dissolve in the Truth
That I Am.

I am with Faith and like the wild child look. I call myself a hole gardener. When I find a perennial I like (deer resistant a must) I buy it then plant it anywhere I can find a place to dig a hole for it. I also fill in with annual seeds. I harvest or buy every kind of seed that grows easily in my area, mix them all together and toss. I love how the gardens are always changing through the summer depending on what is currently blooming.

I just moved and left my garden behind. It was a formal layout with exuberant plantings in the long mixed borders. Not wild, but not overly tidy. Roses, sub-shrubs, perennials, self-seeders, backed by evergreen hedges to enclose the various parts. All a little rough around the edges, by design and necessity, as it was a lot to take care of.

My new garden is only a year old and not too much going on yet. The new place doesn’t lend itself to my preferred slightly messy style. Not sure how I’ll handle that, but I’ve started with privacy plantings around the perimeter. :o)

patio (with dog) overlooking garden

Main garden four years after planting

Allee one year after planting

Urn

Before, 17 years ago with new beds marked out

I love this thread already!

Gorgeous photos everyone :)

Hm, not sure how I'd classify myself. I know I started out as freakishly neat, but didn't like it because it didn't feel homey enough. I know I'm not a wild gardener either because I really love to have control. Somewhere in between. Also for different areas I have different plans, the gardens on either side of my front door are incredibly neat, for curb appeal. My main garden to the side of the house is a Trent bit messy, lots of height and color differences, only 2 years old maximum and waiting for everything to fill in more (roses, shrubs, some ground covers, perennials). Garden along my fence, I'd say is manicured but very full. Organized but not boring. Shade garden is understated and dappled, a calm, low maintenance place :)

kali and saypoint, I feel your pain having to start your gardens all over again. I was so sad having to leave my green babies behind. I am only in the 4th summer of my gardens and it is only starting to fill in as I would like. We moved from suburbia with semi-formal gardens to a rural area with only a maple tree, a magnolia tree, some foundation plants, a vast sea of dandelion filled lawn and zero privacy. Since we are not spring chickens any more we decided to retire the hedge trimmers, garden rake, and spring truck load of wood mulch. Thus the wild child form of gardening. The first summer every day I was working in the yard from the time I quit work till I couldn't see anymore. I planted and planted grasses, ornamental trees, ferns, bushes of every kind that looked good free formed, and perennials. People don't realize the hard work and $$ it takes to start a garden from scratch.

nichols, Your gardens are so peaceful and lush. Sadly gardens such as yours are going by the wayside around here. Our state has a huge lymes dz tick problem. I would have to wear long paints, long sleeve shirts, socks, shoes and spray myself with Off every time I wanted to go out in the yard if I had a woodland garden. We need open sunny lawn space between gardens to keep the ticks somewhat at bay.

functionthenlook..do you live in New Hampshire?..I read that it's #1 for ticks..not bad here thank goodness..years ago I felt something pulling my skin..scratched under my chin and saw blood on my hand..ran in and saw a bit of black that wiped off..cleaned up went back out and never got sick..but I feel like it was a tick..always on the lookout for bad bugs, poison ivy etc..the downside of a wooded lot..

I live in SW Pennsylvania. I don't know our racking for ticks, but we are #1 for lymes dz. The doctors don't even wait anymore for symptoms, ring rash, or positive test results. As soon as you had a tick they give you antibiotics.

Faith, I love the poem. I've not come across it before. And your garden is charming. Love the little nook for the children - so sweet, and what a clever idea.

I feel for those that have had to leave gardens they created behind. At 61, I upsized into my present house and garden, because I didn't want to get to a nursing home, and never have had the garden I wanted. There were only weeds and ancient and ugly oleanders and hibiscus, and a few trees. So here I am, eight years later, with a garden with 95 steps, struggling up and down with bags of mulch etc, and still ripping out beds that I planted a few years ago, as they don't look as I had hoped. Still, keeps me busy!

My style of gardening is to have formal 'bones', with exuberant planting within. At least, that is what I aim for, but haven't yet achieved!

functionthenlook..#1 for lyme disease isn't good :-( be careful..

I edit rather than garden. Basically I leave my microscopic patch alone and just tweak.

Do yinz ever think we are all the ones that are nuts. I look around my area and most people have the "builder grade yards". A couple trees, maybe a flowering bush or two and the mulched evergreen foundation shrubs. They come out once a week to mow the lawn then back into their air conditioned homes.

My area is about half and half. Some yards with a lawn and a couple of over-sheared shrubs and some obviously with gardeners in residence. It seems to me that older neighborhoods lend themselves better to out-of-the-ordinary plantings and landscaping than new developments? Maybe that’s just my perception, I could be wrong, but when we looked for a new house I didnt want to be in a neighborhood where my yard would end up being the oddity or less manicured than the rest.

I tolerate a certain amount of weeds and crabgrass, and many of my neighbors have more crabgrass than anything else, and that’s ok with me. It means I can fall behind on my maintenance and not feel conspicuous.

My area is about half and half. Some yards with a lawn and a couple of over-sheared shrubs and some obviously with gardeners in residence. It seems to me that older neighborhoods lend themselves better to out-of-the-ordinary plantings and landscaping than new developments? Maybe that’s just my perception, I could be wrong, but when we looked for a new house I didnt want to be in a neighborhood where my yard would end up being the oddity or less manicured than the rest.

I tolerate a certain amount of weeds and crabgrass, and many of my neighbors have more crabgrass than anything else, and that’s ok with me. It means I can fall behind on my maintenance and not feel conspicuous.

I don’t know what you’d call mine other than hodgepodge. A little of this here, a little of that there.

I’ve been working on tweaking it lately, also questioning what I have done in some areas lol.

Ahhh the joys of gardening...;0)

I am not really a gardener at all. I am a plant grower, collector, experimenter, dilletante and faffer. My (ahem) gardens are a mess - basically a space to raise plants - any plants which take me fancy with not really much of a plan (apart from trying more plants).I filled my home garden ages ago...then I filled the allotment. Now I have a wood (and lots of space) but still not really gardening as such - just colonising space.

I like digging...and even weeding. I hate arranging, dividing, moving stuff around (and often, when I have grown a plant and loved (or loathed) it, they get given away...or worse, composted. Annuals are my absolute best...while I am wary of woody shrubs and stuff which takes years to grow - low boredom threshold, space...but am getting into them now I have the wood. And trees from seed are really quite thrilling - I am old(ish) and they won't be my problem in a couple of decades.

A lot of great gardeners and great gardens above (and below), but I just feel I paint with flowers.

Three things dictate my gardening style: my preference to be in shade (can't stand to be toiling in hot sun!), my love for plants in general (beautiful and unusual foliage, fragrant flowers, try to avoid foo-foo plants), and my lack of really good design skills (I can identify a nicely designed garden, but very hard for me to come up with a good design for my own place).

So my garden ends up being a low-mid-level collector garden, mostly shade, that just evolves as I go, with some areas I get lucky enough arranging plants for a decent vignette....oh, and sporting a hand built treehouse just high enough so I can walk under it, just for fun.

I'm happy with it most of the time...grumpy when we don't get rain, and I'm too busy watering to keep the weeds under control.

My garden is at the verge of chaos at all times. If the edges of the beds are neat and the lawn is mowed I think you can get away with a lot... which is necessary since empty lawn and a few sheared shrubs are the norm for my neighborhood.

My garden style is dictated by my desire to see colors other than brown (twigs) and white in winter. I got into unusual conifers for that reason. I love the blues, yellows and greens in winter. It starts snowing at the end of October, and is usually melted out by end of May. It’s a long time. This Spring, I planted a conifer garden bed that can be viewed from my kitchen window. The only downside is the time garden beds take to grow and fill in. It looks ok now, but we get so much snow that it will take at least 10 years to be able to see most of them above the snow line. I hope we’ll stay here long enough to see it.

I want my front garden bed to look like a mini meadow. Right now it is an assortment of immature plants grown from seed or purchased small. There are a couple struggling big leaf rhododendrons I planted last year next to a 160 year sycamore, so already with the tree and the shrubs its a little out of character. I have 6 NJ teas and 2 Inkberries at the back that are still too small to make any kind of impact. I planted 12 little bluestem plants to give it some structure and provide a place for flowers to poke up from between and behind, but those are going to take a year or 2 to fill in too.

Functionthenlook is right, it takes a lot of labor and time to start a garden from scratch. Money helps with buying larger plants but even then it takes them a while to get established. I am eager to see the day in 3-5years when I have a good "after picture" of the front of the house to compare to what it was when we moved in.

I've
often told people that my garden is the outward expression of my innermost
thoughts and desires. I use it to explore different layers and avenues of
myself and my artistic being. One of the predominant themes that runs through
my garden is sexuality - my garden is a heightened awareness of this driving
force that races through me.

Like Faith, there are songs and poetry which I feel represent my
garden. One of the main ones that represents this theme is The Sensual World, by Kate Bush (in part):

Mmh, yes

Then I'd taken the kiss of seedcake back from his mouth
Going deep South, go down, mmh, yes
Took six big wheels and rolled our bodies
Off of Howth Head and into the flesh, mmh, yes

Stepping out of the page into the sensual world

You don't need words, just one kiss, then another

And then our arrows of desire rewrite the speech, mmh, yes

And then he whispered would I, mmh, yes

Be safe, mmh, yes,
from mountain flowers?
And at first with the charm around him, mmh, yes
He loosened it so if it slipped between my breasts
He'd rescue it, mmh, yes
And his spark took life in my hand and, mmh, yes
I said, mmh, yes
But not yet, mmh, yes
Mmh, yes

I like mixed borders--and I like them FULL! I'm on a mission to cover most of the bare soil in my garden beds. I still have a ways to go but I'm grateful to garden in a large area and a wonderful maritime climate.

That's a whole lot of plants, cat. Beautiful. I'm a little climate and sun exposure jealous.

catkin..what a beautiful place!..great colors.. :-) I'll share more wildlife photos..#1 our security team Ha!..#2 in early spring some ducks found our standing water..

Thank you ckerr and nichols :~)

That’s spectacular catkin!

Some delightful compositions there, Catkin...and lovely textural contrasts as well. Would be a look to aspire to (if I could only lash a little self-doscipline into the mix). Still, I am trying out 'planning' so who knows - will keep your lovely garden in the back of my mind as inspiration.

Catkin your gardens are amazing!!

I'm very envious haha, I hope my gardens end up looking half as good as yours!

Lovely garden, catkin.

I also love full mixed perennial borders with as little soil showing as possible. With our climate, I find that spring flowering perennials (especially primula, pulmonaria, brunnera and hellebores) are great fillers (and also quite clump-forming). Along with spring bulbs, they seem to be quick to fill the beds in spring. Then with ongoing dead-heading and cutting back of taller perennials through the summer, they contribute sizeably to again filling the beds through our long fall.

Thanks!

Sorry catkin, feel I should have added: Never had notable problems with hellebores.

Of our primulas, only the Japanese primula (latest flowering of our primulas - late May/early June) seeds around, but it's so pretty (candelabra type and only have 'Miller's Crimson') that I never pull it up (very easy to do so however). Do need to move some of the plants this fall.

No longer use the species brunnera, Brunnera macrophylla; runner and bad seeder, at least with my style of gardening. Thinking now that cultivar 'Alexander's Great' is too much of a seeder too. Doesn't seed true. We've had occasional seeding, in one location only, with 'Langtrees'. Our other cultivars are fine. Especially like 'Dawson's White' (for it's variegated leaves).

Have number of pulmonaria cultivars too. Extremely prone to hybridize. Think it's the bumblebees which go from plant to plant it early spring. But easy to pull out seedlings.