Garden Design
An Unprofessional Gardening Plan
Today I found a spot in the garden where I'd actually got 'it' right! The yellow lime green bracts of the late flowering salvias were actually echoing the clear light greens of the 'Breath of Heaven' bush nearby. Ha!
'It', of course, is that most sensitive issue of garden design. I've been escorted around gardens by owners who say 'of course, we had a plan drawn up', and quite frankly I've been envious. Their oak groves and lines of hornbeams seem to work so much better for knowing this. The rockery islands in the middle of the lawn suddenly have meaning.
But secretly I'm outraged that garden designers sometimes wreak psychological havoc among us ordinary, frail, human gardeners. We are forced immediately onto the defensive - of course, we should have had a proper design drawn up....it would have saved all those expensive mistakes...
My Plan!
Never, ever?
And, let's be honest, any gardener who claims they'd never ever resort to professional planting plans is fibbing. We all have crises of confidence, when we realise that the trellis looks silly and the new bed even sillier. And who amongst us can honestly visualise (to within 95% accuracy) just how big and spready the new specimen tree will get?
I'd particularly like my own personal tree designer. Perhaps they can find the trees that symbolise my inner self - that appeals to me - and then brutally boss the planting and control the spread factor. I think that might be called 'pruning', if the tree is well-behaved enough to take notice.
My New Garden Club
In a particularly jealous mood one day, I decided I should form a club for gardeners who have ambivalent attitudes towards garden designers, or G.A.G.D. for short. There would be two criteria for joining. The first is as follows : The gardener has never employed a professional garden designer, or commissioned a planting scheme but is really envious of others who can afford to. As for the second : If the gardener did taken the advice of a professional garden designer, or followed a professional planting plan, then they ripped it all out within one year.
The Garden Always Wins!
Please email me if you are interested in joining. The nicest thing about every garden design, homemade or otherwise, is that the garden always wins... eventually.