An Improper Garden
I live on the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere with a large parcel of land to tend. As a long time peasant gardener for the well to do, most of my days are spent tending proper gardens. At home, there is not the time, the money or any interest in imposing a typical suburban curb appeal landscape onto a rural and forested environment. It makes far more sense in my situation to work with nature than to try and force it into some preconceived notion of what a proper garden should look like. I have no 'lawn', no mulched beds. The very idea of a weed is questionable.
But I am a gardener at heart and in my zone 6, deciduous forest mountaintop, the barren time lasts a good six months. That is far to long to be without a garden. I needed a garden for winter. Today the Under Garden of winter came out. The conifers are all low spreaders or dwarf because this is in the electric utility easement. No trees allowed.
The summer meadow is simply chopped down and left to decompose. No raking it up or hauling it away nonsense for me. One very important aspect of a bipolar garden like this is making sure the evergreens have a skylight and a bit of elbow room in the growing season. Left unchecked the meadow would shade out and kill the conifers very easily. That might constitute my 'weeding'.
After spending my days tending high maintenance proper gardens it is quite nice to come home and relax in an improper one.
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4 years agoAnother unusual aspect of my garden is that is mostly viewed from above, from the front porch and from inside the house, from the scenic byway up top and from many locations in the garden. Essentially it is planted in a bowl. The house and the highway sit on the rim.
There is no flat plane and the plants can be viewed from all sides. That changes the dynamic of how the plants are arranged. The idea of taller in the back to short in front looses its grip on things. It opens new possibilities.
Entering the bowl completely changes the perspective. The conifers and evergreens were chosen first for their ability to live up here and just as important, the contrasting colors and textures. This is a closer view of the actual plants involved in the bigger picture.
There was no need to confine my thinking to a standard foundation planting layout. I was using color and texture on a much bigger canvas that was largely viewed from above. The intent was to make a garden for the barren time of winter.
Ever so slowly the conifers grow.
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