Pictured above is a flower I’ve been excited to see this year - a Sherbet-toned Chantilly Mix snapdragon, from Floret Farms. They’ve just begun to bloom, and I anticipate a fabulous display. I am growing them in a container this year, and if they do well, I’ll collect the seed and scatter it elsewhere next year. I’ve never been particularly keen on snapdragons, but I think this mix is lovely and delicate, and adds to the cottage-y feel of the garden.
I’ve had several friends (the desire to make a beautiful and productive garden, during this time of shelter in place, is definitely widespread, and I’ve had more interest in my garden and my services then I’ve ever had before), express a recurrent theme that I want to discuss: Don’t be Afraid to Edit.
You may have an established garden that you planted yourself, or you may have a garden you’ve inherited; you may be new to gardening, or an experienced gardener; the advice is the same regardless. If something in your garden isn’t pleasing you, and you’ve had it there for a long time, and you’ve tried many times to make it look good by pruning or feeding, and it still bothers you - TAKE IT OUT and start again. You do not have any obligation to change your feelings about this particular plant. You may have loved it once, you may have always hated it. No one is going to come into your garden and say “Oh my God what did you DO?” or if someone does, just tell them you decided to make a change. It’s YOUR garden, after all.
Sometimes we’ve looked at the same things over and over again for years and we can’t imagine the space looking different. Maybe our eyes have always drifted past that place and settled on a more pleasing grouping. I would advise that you allow yourself to really look at that space. Ask yourself a few questions: What is it that isn’t working? Why does it bother you? or alternatively, why are you ignoring it? If you could dream up anything, what would it be? Is there something you’ve always wanted to add to your garden, but haven’t had room? Don’t edit your thoughts, just let yourself dream. You may just come up with an exciting new plan.
See, the thing is, right now (and conceivably in the future as well), if we’re fortunate enough to have any kind of outdoor space, be it a back patio, a front porch, a balcony, or a garden - it’s all we have. Along with our homes or apartments, this is our safe place. You may be, like me, taking a fresh look at the way the interior of the house works and looks, and thinking of things to make it more comfortable and efficient. Why would your garden be any different? In many seasons, your garden can be an extension of your living space, another room that is underutilized at the moment. And I’m not talking about enormous expensive changes, though if you have the money and desire, more power to you (although I’m a big fan of doing it yourself). I’m talking about making these spaces pleasant for those who want to dwell in them.
And if something bothers you, why live with it? If you have an old, woody lavender that barely blooms anymore, and you feel like you should leave it because the blooms are good for pollinators, and you like the smell, why not chop it back and see if it improves? Or maybe, take it out, increase the drainage in the soil by mixing in compost and grit, and plant three different kinds of lavenders in the same spot? Or maybe that’s the ideal place for several Mediterranean herbs like lavender, rosemary, and thyme, which can be beautiful AND useful, both for you and the pollinators?
After meeting with some clients who are new to a property and have no attachment to anything already there, I am feeling emboldened and ready to make a few changes of my own. I also recently read ‘Planting: A New Perspective’ by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury, and it inspired me to try this sort of ‘modern meadow’ somewhere in my own garden. I am thinking of replacing the largest pollinator garden with a planting of this nature. Something like this:
or this:
It won’t be able to look exactly like this in my California garden, but I can come close; I can mimic the ‘dune’ look with these mounded plantings and grasses and perennials, all of them adapted to my area. This will take less water overall than the planting scheme I have now, and decidedly less maintenance. It will require that I move some plants that I really like, and remove some others. It will require that I think highly about structure and form. It will require that I add a lot of amendments to improve the soil texture, as this kind of planting requires excellent drainage. In other words, it will require me to look at this space with fresh eyes and do the work required to make a change. Any of us can do this. Many plants can be started from seed, which keeps the cost down. The thing it will require more than anything else is a willingness to edit and change.
So I would encourage you to do the same. Don’t feel you have to live with something that isn’t working for you. It can absolutely stymie the creative flow of the gardener.
In other news, I tried making my own low-nutrient fertilizer from comfrey leaves. This is something that is recommended by one of my idols, Monty Don, and he makes and uses it every year in his own extensive and beautiful garden. I was and still am skeptical of this fertilizer because I don’t understand how it works and I would like a scientific study that tells me that information, but I have searched and searched and cannot find anything, so I decided I would just try it. It requires lots of comfrey leaves, which luckily I have in abundance, which you chop and cover with water, and then simply let sit and fester for three weeks. Strain, dilute, and apply.
This is a picture I took at the beginning of the process. I could not bear to take a picture at the end. The mass was slimy and brown, and the resulting ‘water’ was fetid, and the smell, oh my Lord the smell, like a manure lagoon at a concentrated animal feeding operation. Just simply terrible. Of course that dissipated as soon as I diluted it and added it to the soil around my tomatoes and peppers, thank goodness. It smells because it’s an anaerobic concoction, and it’s this that makes me skeptical: Compost works because it is aerobic. Oxygen is neccessary for the good microbes to live. This was the exact opposite and I’ve heard only bad things grow in anaerobic conditions. And yet Monty (and so many British gardeners) swear by it! So I am just befuddled. Of course I have no way of knowing if it is improving anything, and it’s all circumstantial anyway, as I haven’t done any kind of scientific trial.
Oh yeah, did I mention the smell? My family always complains about the stench of my usual fish and seaweed fertilizer, but that smell is positively pleasant compared to the comfrey feed, and methinks they will not complain in future.
One other item today, and that is those plastic clips that I got for the tomato vines.
As you know, I’m not a fan of plastic, but I needed these specially designed clips (which are normally used in greenhouse growing) to help my tomatoes grow ‘up’ their strings. And they work great for that, are easy to use, and can be reused next season. What I’m discovering is that these clips are quite handy for other purposes, like clipping cucumber vines to the trellis, and clipping raspberry vines to their stakes, and clipping squash vines to the strings on the teepees. I guess, basically, they are good for securing various vines to their supports.
I have found in the past that using string or twine can sometimes hurt the stems of plants - it can cut into them and damage them. These clips allow for smooth movement between the vegetation and the support. They are cheap, and reusable. They will just take a little more work at the end of the season, because I usually just cut down the vines with their strings and throw the whole lot into the compost.
Now that we are ‘at the doorstep of summer’ (as my pal Monty likes to say), how is your garden looking? Are there places that you’d like to make a change? Are their places that are really succeeding and you want to share your methods? Please feel free to add your comments! I love to know how your gardens are growing.