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| Our first act as homeowners was to remove dozens of azaleas dying because they had been planted too close'together (no, this wasn't the house) |
Several moves ago, Betty and I purchased a ‘doctor’s
home’. That house was relatively new and stood at the
end of a suburban cul-de-sac in Alexandria, Virginia. It had been professionally landscaped
perhaps five years earlier, and the good doctor (or his landscaper) apparently
had a thing for azaleas.
Our first act as homeowners was to remove at least 30 of
those shrubs. The doctor’s landscaper
had installed double rows of medium-sized azaleas on two-foot centers. In the ideal growing conditions of northern
Virginia, the shrubs had doubled and tripled in size. What had looked ‘perfect’ when first planted,
now was not only wildly overgrown; plants were dying as they competed for
light, food, and water.
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| Our two new polemonium |
I was reminded of that long-ago landscape this past week as
we planted two polemonium in our rear
garden. The perennials, commonly known
as Jacob’s Ladder, were being added to an area once contemplated as the site of
a water feature. That idea has been shelved
for the time being, and perennials will instead anchor the site.
Betty planted the polemonium
on two-foot centers – 24 inches between what are (for now) fairly small
plants. To the untutored eye, there is a
vast, empty plain between the two specimens.
Why not put in half a dozen and “make a statement”? Your local garden center will love you for it.
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| What started as a single Jack-in-the-pulpit is now at least six specimens |
The answer can be seen all over our garden. Three years ago, it was a blank slate. Even after a dozen trees and sixty shrubs, it
still looked bare. We’ve since added
roughly 2,000 perennials. That may sound
like a lot but, when spread out over 20,000 square feet of garden, works out to
give each plant ten square feet… like putting everything on three-foot centers.
The wonderful thing about plants is that they spread, and
seed, freely. Three years ago we carefully
transplanted a single Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema
triphyllum) into a shady area of our garden and surrounded it with protective
ferns. The following year, we found two
plants. This year, there are at least
six in glorious bloom
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| Betty's 'bargain' tiarellas and heucheras have tripled both in size and in number |
Those 125 tiarellas
and heucheras Betty
procured at the 2016 Boston Flower & Garden Show have more than
tripled in area and number. Twenty
native asters planted in 2015 have completely colonized and carpeted a dry,
shady slope where nothing would seem to flourish. Today the area is a verdant green, and we are
pulling out asters where they are encroaching on other perennials.
What we’ve learned is patience is a virtue. Everyone loves that “perfect garden”, but
when everything goes in at once, the result is an image that makes for pretty
wall calendars and postcards, but not much else. And, there’s another problem: the next year,
the garden won’t look the same way because some plants are bullies and some are
shrinking violets. A gardener will spend
his or her weekends trying to maintain the “status quo”, always unsuccessfully.
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| A relative handful of native asters have now colonized this dry hillside |
Giving plants time to settle in is a much better idea. Some won’t make it, some will flourish. It is up to the gardener to maintain balance
while allowing for the serendipity that makes gardens great. So, that pair of polemoniums will have eight square feet of garden to themselves
this year. I’m counting on there being
siblings and offspring come next June.
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| This is how much a garden can change in just two years - May 10, 2016 and June 1, 2018 |
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