Where I Went Wrong When I first Started My Garden
I started my gardens like many other people, with pass along plants and impulse buys. I also couldn’t bear to weed out self-seeders and if something popped up that I didn’t recognize, I’d let it grow, just to see what it was. Usually it was a weed. It didn’t take long for my cottage garden to become a chaotic mess. I don’t think every garden needs to be designed, but my garden wasn’t even planned, it had just evolved and in the process, it began consuming more and more of my time. I was constantly weeding, deadheading, weeding, staking, weeding and trying to figure out why my garden wasn’t working.What I Did to Fix It
I started editing. I realized that I couldn’t let everything that seeded itself grow and I couldn’t buy every plant I saw. I still try new plants every year, but I give away the plants that don’t work well for me, hoping they’ll be happier in someone else’s garden.
One of the easiest fixes was embracing organic gardening. I’d more or less been organic since I started my garden, but improving the soil meant I didn’t have to feed my flowers every other week to keep them blooming. It even helped cut down on their need for water.
I finally tried drip irrigation. I had thought it would be difficult and expensive and was delighted to find it was neither. So now I’m not a lazy waterer, I’m high tech and I save water to boot.
Perhaps the biggest change I’ve made is to limit garden thugs and high maintenance perennials. I use a lot more shrubs, especially flowering and purple leaved varieties. I also use some tried and true annuals that keep my garden in color and cohesive all summer. Salvia ‘Victoria’, verbena bonariensis, and cosmos ‘Cosmic Orange’ are among my favorites. I like the purple and orange combination because it plays at a distance and the purples and blues tone down the orange. My new favorite this year is Diascia ‘Flirtation Orange’.
Tips & tricks
- Don’t buy a plant unless you know where you’re going to put it.
- Be realistic about your time and effort. I know I’m a lazy waterer, so I buy drought resistant plants.
- Favor foliage over flowers. Foliage doesn’t need constant deadheading.
- Try to limit your main color palette to 3 colors. (I know, it’s hard.)
- Aim for healthy plants, not perfect plants.
