It's often the case that plant enthusiasm can clash with ideas of design. Plant design tends more towards limitations, a chosen pallette, repeated plants, plants serving a purpose in the overall scheme.
But when a person loves plants these restrictions can be a challenge, many good gardeners I talk to debate this often. They struggle to get rid of plants, they struggle to not try to shove in as many different and interesting plants.
Yes I definitely have this tension, I am fascinated by plants and want to acquire them and appreciate them. But it spoils my appreciation of them as individual plants, if there is too much visual distraction and other plants that hamper their natural growth pattern. And it makes the garden as a whole less attractive. I've got a really small garden and went through a phase of trying to crowbar in too many large perennials; over the last couple of years I've reigned things in substantially. I have kept my tall Sanguisorbas, and they look so much better for having space all around them so you can admire their open sprays of maroon bobbles from all sides. I am diverting my hoarding tendencies into finding tiny plants that can be dotted into the gravel path, and spring ephemerals which will do their thing and then either disappear or cope with being smothered by later perennials.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
In a small garden one of the biggest problems is finding enough plants to cover the seasons without one of everything, not at all easy. Most gardeners love to see a rose border or an en masse planting of tulips or peonies but all these are fleeting. In a small space this isn't possible keeping it simple and repeating plants that have a long season of interest will always be a success. However it might not be what a small garden owner longs to achieve and accepting this can be difficult. Keeping your money in your purse when you have a small garden, is never easy as gardeners always want to try something new. It took me a long time to only buy a plant if I knew exactly where it was going. I was lucky to try out many plants new to me by growing them for other people in their gardens. No longer do I feel the need to try out everything new I see, I know what I like and what type of plants represent the way I garden. I think it is all part of the learning process.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
My definition of a plantsman, or woman, is someone who knows a great deal about many plants including how and where they grow, when and where they perform best in a garden and what plant companions make good associations. Then there are the people who hold national collections and focus on one genus in all its forms.
Being an amateur gardener is much more generalised and doesn't necessaily include design flare. I've known many happy gardeners who grow their plants in regimented rows with bare soil between but, happily, more and more of us are moving towards covering the soil with ground cover or a mulch and growing plants with regard to colour, form, texture, seasonality and what suits our soil and local conditions and helps wildlife.
It's a hugely complex field of knowledge and I have learned, thru expensive trial and error, to grow what will cope and thrive rather than whatever takes my fancy but isn't going to do well without loads of TLC. Good do-ers are better than the latest fashionable plant.
We need to please ourselves too. Just like clothing fashion, what suits the shape and location of my garden won't suit someone else's and personal taste counts for a lot too. They do well in this climate but I'll never plant a palm or a banana. Sadly, I think I'm going to have to give up on hostas. Too dry and too many snails.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
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Luxembourg
But when a person loves plants these restrictions can be a challenge, many good gardeners I talk to debate this often. They struggle to get rid of plants, they struggle to not try to shove in as many different and interesting plants.
Keeping your money in your purse when you have a small garden, is never easy as gardeners always want to try something new. It took me a long time to only buy a plant if I knew exactly where it was going. I was lucky to try out many plants new to me by growing them for other people in their gardens. No longer do I feel the need to try out everything new I see, I know what I like and what type of plants represent the way I garden. I think it is all part of the learning process.
Being an amateur gardener is much more generalised and doesn't necessaily include design flare. I've known many happy gardeners who grow their plants in regimented rows with bare soil between but, happily, more and more of us are moving towards covering the soil with ground cover or a mulch and growing plants with regard to colour, form, texture, seasonality and what suits our soil and local conditions and helps wildlife.
It's a hugely complex field of knowledge and I have learned, thru expensive trial and error, to grow what will cope and thrive rather than whatever takes my fancy but isn't going to do well without loads of TLC. Good do-ers are better than the latest fashionable plant.
We need to please ourselves too. Just like clothing fashion, what suits the shape and location of my garden won't suit someone else's and personal taste counts for a lot too. They do well in this climate but I'll never plant a palm or a banana. Sadly, I think I'm going to have to give up on hostas. Too dry and too many snails.