Thinking backwards, creates my career. Supporting backwards thinking are the big box, many independent garden centers, websites, newspapers, magazines, flower shows, and etc.
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In amusement, at myself, former queen of backwards thinking, you will discover zero rapprochement here.
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Flowers. Sex machines. I've taught college botany, but that was much later in the game.
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You want flowers in your landscape.
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Your landscape wants structure.
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A decade of learning across continents & another college degree separates the previous 2 sentences.
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Structure? Trees, shrubs, groundcovers. Game on. Choose for zone, sun/shade, across all bloom/berry seasons, hardiness against drought/flood/disease/insect, no need for chemicals/fertilizers/irrigation once established, little maintenance, siting to shade/sun the house, and attractiveness to pollinators, and destinations for dining, and pure redolence in the sublime, in atonement or a gathering.
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Structured landscape, below.
Flowers, give me flowers, below. Have this garden if you want, below, but do not start with this garden. Start with structure, above.
Adore this pair of pictures.
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I began, after college, gardening for amusement, above, after decades trying to get it right, top picture, I've learned a garden is about stewardship. Better, stewardship is reciprocal. Settle for mere lilies? Place lilies in context, structure, they will take care of themselves/soil/air/insects/wildlife/beneficial bacteria-fungi. Plant lilies first, and you've planted your garden backwards.
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This isn't an admonishment about not having flowers, it's a path to having them more richly, and easily. Not only for yourself, but myriad layers you've yet to arrive upon.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Top pic from here. Bottom pic via Pinterest. Which garden is gone by morning, eaten by deer ! Truly, this pair of pictures makes me smile, and know I'm blessed to be living a life that kicked me out of the first layer. Did I like every layer Providence gave? No. Check out my Quotes board on Pinterest. Pure grace, and thanks, Providence decided to site the theatrics of my life in a garden & career much adored.
I love flowers - but impatiens make me sad. As though someone has made wallpaper out of a living entity. Give me lavender, japanese anemones, hellebores - where you can still tell they are plants.
ReplyDeleteIt snowed last night covering the stone walls and steps I have spent 25 years creating. Trees that came home in my minivan (and 6 Yulan magnolias that came UPS from Oregon) are now over 30 feet tall. No flowers. Flowering and fruiting shrubs and trees, food for birds. In winter, the garden shows who is boss...and it isn't flowers!
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteA great post. Your blog is a source of delight and inspiration.
The website source of your first image shows the influence of Mien Ruys.
Do you know her work? She was a Dutch landscape architect who bridged the generations (she lived to be 90) between Gertrude Jekyll and Piet Oudolf, learning from the first and influencing the latter. She was a great plantswomen and created gardens with welcoming intimacy and heart stopping elegance.
Again, thank you for the great posts and I am looking forward to the ones to come.
All the best.
Ed Morrow
Carmel Valley, CA
You have to build a great foundation before you can put up a pretty house.
ReplyDeleteYes! Structure to start, flowers with budget and time.
ReplyDelete