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?