Is your garden planned? Or "evolved"

My garden is still evolving. When I moved here eight years ago, both back and front gardens were pretty much disaster areas and had to be completely cleared to start afresh, I started work on the back first being the smaller of the two, in between I've been working on my bungalow that was also a mess! The layout of the back is now pretty much as it should be, but there is still work to be done. Next year I will concentrate on the front, with a lot of work on the lawn to start with.

I don't plan, but as time goes on pictures of what I will do are stored in my minds eye. I grow as many plants as possible myself to keep down cost. A garden is like a painting it's never finished, but it does get to a point where the hard graft is minimal and the enjoyment starts, tweaking here and tweaking there.

 

As we have tons of trees, certain areas lent itself better to design gardensssss with them in mind.

 

I start with a plan and then it evolves as things grow, some things die and are replaced.
I might get inspired by something I've seen and change it a bit.
One thing's for certain, a garden is never finished as it's always growing. That's what makes gardens interesting. In my case it can also expand, so it's always evolving.

 

The structure of our garden is planned (well ... planned, built, new plans, rebuilt ) but the planting is much more as Pete describes.

We try to plan so that walking through the garden will provide an interest, and a "pull" to get to some other point in the garden. And then looking back, or going round the garden in the opposite direction, will do the same. That then creates cross paths, or the opportunity to "stumble upon" something ... and IME they do really need to be in the right place from the get-go, very hard to make something the focal point from five angles if you didn't decide on that at the outset.

So we have ages with Hose and Canes in a new area of the garden, getting comfortable that it works from all angles ... and sometimes in all seasons too.

For the planting I take loads of digital photos - every couple of weeks - and I use them as a means of knowing what has flowered at the same time, or not, as something else. When things are in flower we pick a flower, or a leaf, when walking round the garden, and then see whether that would be better suited to a different place. Colour schemes are changed, over time, but this process, but changes to the structure are much rarer - perhaps because we dilly-dallied long enough during the initial stages to get the plan right, or because its just too much Faff to change (I hate a delay associated with a structure change that means the plants then need several years to get back to a level of maturity)

 

I took photos all this year too, to use it for planning (what colours/shapes don't match, where there are gaps at times...)
then I sat down for planning and it was very simple for all early spring and may and then it started to become too confusing because there are too many plants and options and choices for alternative plants and my head started to smoke ...and i gave it up

some other time I sat outside in summer, watching every border, sitting in my folding chair and planned which plants should be swapped or gaps should be filled.. I think I did lots of planning (was quite fun) but the notes somehow got lost

so after all I went out this autumn, did it by intuition and to my best knowledge, ordered some new plants, chucked a few bad performers out (compassionate sigh, poor buggers, those)... and next year we have the same process starting again, most likely

I mean, after all, all planning can never allow for the various things top happen, the different performance of plants every year, some grew much higher and fell over this wet year, others were not doing well. Thenfor example some biennials are dead and you haven't got new plants ready, or your tulips have rotted away in the wet summer soil and you don't know how many you will see again next year etc etc

the only way around this is to be relaxed about the issue or to have a spare patch of garden where you grow your" just in case replacement plants" and maybe bedding to go in if there are gaps... I have no spare patch so I better go for the former:-)

 

Lots of sense there love weeds. You gotta relax about your garden, experiment, etc. I'm ruthless about poor performers too. Life's too short to tolerate plants you don't like but every year is different and I've learned that plants can be poor one year but superb the next

 

My garden was devistated by Blight last year after buying diseased local supermarket plants so I won't be going there again! I have had to take out plants it had spread to - my fruit trees etc! and sort the soil out etc resting it/ burning/ exposing to what little frost over winter. Fingers crossed for something better this year please.
I sow and plant things that I find locally or people have given to me. Things that I can eat or use for dye or improving the soil or attracting nature or has some meaning for me.
This month is Hops, Hawthorn tree (possibly?), Lavender and Liquorice seeds.
When I sow seeds, outdoors, if large enough i throw them up in the air and let them drop where they want to go - if some are too close I move some. Usually this works very well and only a few land too close together. For small seeds I add sand/grit so I can see them easier and try and do the same as large seeds but in much smaller bursts.
I never do rows after learning how some pests start at one end and just jump from one plant to the next when in a row but are more likely to 'lose' plants they have to look for when mixed up randomly with other plants such as onions, garlic, marigolds etc to throw them off the scent literally.
It looks healthier and more interesting. Harvesting is more of a challenge because you have to look for things and learn to recognise leaves - so its more about what you can find in your garden on that day which you cook from, than going into the garden for some pre thought out list or order.
Planting like this is meant to encourage natural predators to stay to eat pests so that I find I have less problems with having to spray to get rid of nasty things. I only ever spray a fairy liquid water mix so far and a blood bonemeal occasionally when I can be bothered.
I don't rely completely on my garden for food but I can find something usually everyday during a good 7/8 months of the year of interest and I'm working on the rest.
Previously I sewed yearly veg strictly in rotation - the three largest spaces I had - but now I am looking to split things up a little and make them evan more random and see what happens. May have more problems with protecting certain crops ????May have less???? Spaces are now with tall, medium and short plants crammed together randomly. Rather than blocks or rows of planting and are limited only to the space/ wind/ sun preferences they need and my instinct.
I am hoping at least one long term plant or more in each space so I can see things develop and grow long term.Some small plants are lost to nature - mainly slugs and birds and wind/sun issues and me
but up till now rabbits have only been interested in the 'cultivated' garden next door and not mine - fingers crossed the garlic and onions keeps working on them and next door the other way has got a cat for all those lovely nibbling mice that collect under my shady large wood trunk seat. I have beer for the snails or a nice big boot, sheeps wool and poo pellets for the slugs, nets and scarecrows for birds. I remove plants only if diseased and could possibly infect other plants or if I am eating them. The rest is up to them or my negligent/ ignorant care of them.

Watching and identifying problems early or not is the greatest shaper of my garden really. Alot of planting in pots on the yard gets moved as to wind/sun/watering issues arise. My garden is a very bad hair do at the moment but will hopefully be beautiful again once it grows a little bit more.

 

Blight was on Potatoes? and it spread to your fruit trees?

 

No plan here either, they just happen. For me it's much more about having interesting plants in the right spot. It really helps that I dislike (intensely) formal planting!

 

Then, in the back of our minds we always wanted to put a gazebo in the back valley property which was full of huge trees and lots of brush, and smaller trees. Mother nature one year sent Isabele storm, who cracked the huge trees down on top of eachother. A year later husband and couple nephews rented back hoes etc. got chains, had our chain saws and our splitters. Took out the broken fallen trees. We then dug up huge bolders and flanked a path with them, brought in truck loads of top soil. The slope then became my heath and heather area still fine tuning it. Next game the gazebo, then husband did the stone patio in front of it. The gazebo is 100 paces from our back door to give you a perspective. We have 2 1/2 acres of property. There are pic in my thread of it. So sort of planned for this area, just had mother nature assist.

 

I try and have an idea where I want the main plants ie palm, tree ferns etc, but then I go and buy new ones and things change. As to the smaller ones, well I cannot get my head round that yet. I keep buying or growing seeds and end up getting more and more confused .So I've given up now. Probably be May when I can lay everything out that I'll decide.

 

Hi sounds like you have a wonderful garden Having lost someone so very close to me, I understand what you mean. It is so nice to be able to look at certain things that bring back wonderful memories of our loved ones.Your garden is a special place which you can still share with your wife and that I envy you.