Gardens vs. Landscapes
August 30th, 2016
I finally figured out what’s wrong with my yard… I like plants way too much to have a nice landscape.
Is this part of my back yard a garden or “landscaping?”
That might sound contradictory, but actually, it makes sense. Hear me out.
The basic issue is that I’m a plantaholic – basically a sucker for any new, interesting, different, and/or alluring plant variety. If I haven’t grown it before, I want to see what it does.
Part of the reasoning is homework and research – something that’s important to my garden-writing, horticulturaling career. Local, first-hand experience is the best way to figure out what works around here (and what doesn’t) so I can share the information with you.
In other words, I’m a garden guinea pig.
But the other explanation is that I’m flat-out fascinated with plants. The first time I grew an 8-foot-tall, luscious-fruit-laden tomato plant from a little seed, I was hooked.
Whenever I hear about a new creation, a new growth habit, a new color of an old favorite, or especially a quirky new characteristic, that plant is earmarked for my yard.
That’s a big problem when it comes to good design, not to mention limited space. As I once heard North Carolina nurseryman Tony Avent say, it’s not easy “landscaping in drifts of one.”
Yet that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing over the years. I have a single dwarf trial coreopsis here, a baby schimlinia tree there, a couple of newly created interspecific mukgenias there, and so on and so on.
My yard is more of a test lab than a landscape.
When people see it, I wonder whether they’re surprised and disappointed that my yard isn’t more organized, better planned, or more, well, wow!!!
After all, people pay me to do landscape designs for their yards, so you’d think my own yard would be a textbook example of form, structure, symmetry and other rules of “proper” layout.
That’s where I’ve struggled over 30 years as my yard has evolved from a common yew-lined lawn to what looks more like the aftermath of a tsunami strike on a garden center.
I keep trying to marry decent design with plant addiction, but I don’t think you can have it both ways.
I’ve tried to balance design with plant-geekiness, and I’m now doubtful that it’s possible to marry the two. Plantaholics apparently make lousy landscapers.
The conclusion I’ve reached is that you can either landscape your yard or you can plant gardens in your yard. They’re two different things.
I think that if you pick one approach and live with it, you’ll be more satisfied. Otherwise, you’ll end up being a.) unhappy with a landscape that’s “too busy” or b.) unhappy with gardens that are “too stiff” or lacking in color and variety.
In my case, rather than trying to rein in my plant lust to be more “landscapey,” I’ve decided to skip the rules and dig away.
The result might not make the cover of any gardening publications (except maybe “The Jumbled-Garden Journal”), but at least it’ll be fun.
And isn’t that a big part of why we gardeners get out there in the first place?
George,
I see so much of myself in this article! I had to laugh out loud not once but a couple times when I read this. Thanks for sharing.
George, you plant just like me.
My yard is a garden not a landscape.
Liz,
It’s a lot more fun and interesting that way, eh?
Jane,
You’re welcome. Then I’m not alone?
Hi George!
Every photo of your garden, I have loved. It is beautiful. Remember, the garden is for your pleasure first and there is no right or wrong. Gardening is not about impressing others, but for the sheer reward and enjoyment of it all.
Thanks. I couldn’t agree more.
Great article George. I’m the opposite of you and I often thought how different our place would look if you planted the plants. That’s why I jokingly tell people, I don’t know one plant from another. See ya next week!
George,
Great article! I struggle with this also, and for similar reasons… I love “zone pushing” and “extreme gardening”… and I love to share my successes (and occasional failures) with my like minded gardening network… so, my Hampden Township yard has 9 different varieties of crape myrtles, which I have been monitoring for winter wood hardiness… I have 9 different palm species, some in the ground and some left outside in large planters for up to 10 months each year… 6 thriving gardenia plants, some in the ground year round, some in pots… bananas and different agapanthus (Lily of the Nile) that overwinter successfully outside… the reportedly “hardier” canna varieties, oleander, figs, etc. This provides me with great delight, allows me to share my results and observations with like minded gardeners in the greater Harrisburg area and afar (via the Internet), and I often find other Hampden Township residents on my front sidewalk admiring the 10-foot tall banana plants, swaying palm fronds, massive hardy hibiscus blooms, or huge flower heads of the crape myrtles. (I’m able to offer gardening tidbits to them also.) Everything is properly spaced and pruned, but as you said, its often “one of this and one of that”… but, at least the palms, crapes, cannas, etc. have fairly similar growth forms, leaf shapes, colors and textures, etc. within their species, to give somewhat of a “connected” appearance.
Best regards,
Hylton
George, you just made me laugh and made my day. Now I finally know why my garden looks the way it does. I love plants; design, not so much. I’ve been feeling as if I must be doing this gardening thing wrong, because my gardens aren’t garden tour material. Now I realize I’ve been gardening, not landscaping. Thanks, George, think I’ll go out into my garden this morning and just enjoy my diverse muddle.
Margaret,
You got it. I think what really counts is whether you like what you have and enjoy doing it. I like your description, “diverse muddle.” Ha! I think that’s what I have, too.