The Right-Size Flower Garden: Simplify Your Outdoor Space with Smart Design Solutions and Plant Choices

INTRODUCTION

Ahhh, the gardening bug. I know how it feels to have it. There are a lot of us out there – unsuspecting folks who caught it too. And then it took over. We relished digging our lawns out to make room for plants we just had to have: a cutting garden here, a shade garden there, and there’s always an adorable rock garden somewhere! We gardened anywhere we could – including up! This wonderful obsession worked fine for a while… before life happened.

Our bodies suddenly seemed to age, we discovered new hobbies, adorable children or grandchildren arrived on the scene, job demands changed. We gardened ourselves into a corner. Like deer in the headlights, some of us chose to remain motionless as we watched our gardens slowly fall into disarray. Or we made a frenzied dash and doubled efforts to keep up with maintenance, almost burying ourselves in the compost pile in the process!

Here are just a few of my gardens before I slammed the garden cart into reverse and started downsizing. My overflowing perennial garden is just out of view here. (Pictured on page 35.)

Midway through right-sizing my perennial garden. Friends helped me dig out the plants and fill in with sod. I did leave a small area next to the garden shed for growing vegetables.

This picture was taken in early winter, right after the perennial garden was right-sized. There are two small veggie gardens surrounded by Belgian block stone and a comfy teak bench for relaxing! Just waiting for spring…

I always thought of myself as a low-maintenance gardener. My first three books focused on tough-love plants and practices. I was doing fine until August 27, 2011, when my husband had an accident and broke his neck. By God’s grace, he was not paralyzed, but his ability to help me with the gardens and lawn was dramatically impacted. He had to retire and I needed to get a full time job with benefits for the family. That abrupt bump in the garden path forced me to take a new look at what I considered to be low-maintenance.

This book shares the successful, transforming steps that decluttered my landscape. In some ways the exercise is similar to spring cleaning or decluttering closets and rooms. The end results are exhilarating!

This messy, unattractive area alongside my garden shed screamed for attention.

Same space, after the makeover, looking alongside the shed, which is on the right, just outside of view. A privacy cedar fence was installed running down the side of the property (the left side of these two photos). The new garden room has clematis climbing on the fence and low-maintenance, drought tolerant plantings on each side of a bluestone path. The alleyway between the fence and the shed is about 8' wide. I also put in a cedar arbor to mark the entrance into this new room.

We’ll walk arm-in-arm as I help you re-evaluate each area of your garden space: what can stay as-is, or be downsized or – gasp – eliminated! Next, we’ll take a look at the plants: which ones stay, or are switched for higher-impact, lower-maintenance varieties, or…Finally, I’ll equip you with design solutions to create a garden that is as close to auto-pilot as you can get (without sinking to the use of artificial plants). These solutions will work for all of us: the time-pressed working gardener (me), the older gardener who just can’t get out there and dig the way you used to, and the urban gardener who has only a patio or deck to play with.

After implementing the recommendations in this book, you’ll spend 50% less time on chores and your landscape will be more beautiful than ever! I still love my time in the garden, always will. But now a healthy balance is back. Who said you can’t have your cake and eat it too!

ONE

HELP!

MY GARDEN HAS TAKEN ME HOSTAGE!

Before we launch into how to minimize maintenance or restore order to the garden, let’s take a moment to reflect on how we got ourselves into this predicament. I’m not a sadist, really. I just think it’s important to understand the root of why we’re unhappy with the garden we have, so we never end up there again. So please lie back on the lounge chair and let’s begin.

For many of us, it was plant addiction. It started innocently enough with the purchase of one plant, perhaps a daylily or petunia. The next thing we knew, we’d become a plant collector. The urge to purchase just one more got the best of us, and we found ourselves trying to find a spot to jam the new addition into the garden – or we rationalized that that bed should be a tad wider. Enough said. If the muck boot fits, wear it. I do.

Or perhaps we simply liked getting gifts. Who doesn’t? When our neighbor or friend came a-callin’ with free plants, we were in seventh heaven. Until all hell broke loose after these invasive thugs took our garden hostage and almost chased us into the house! Who would have guessed plants with cute animal names like lamb’s ear, gooseneck and bee balm could create such havoc? And whoever gave Physostegia the nickname obedient plant should be sentenced to double digging duty. Now, chameleon plant (Houttuynia) is at least an honest description; it changes from a sweet clump of red, green and yellow leaves into an unstoppable avalanche. If you’re not familiar with these plants, consider yourself blessed.

A lawn sprouting arborvitaes everywhere!

Run for Your Life!

There are some plants that love playing the children’s game Red Light, Green Light! Every time you turn your back on them they advance. Perennials like obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana), sundrops (Oenothera fruiticosa and speciosa) and ‘Silver King’ white sage (Artemisia ludoviciana) will not remain stationary. They are out to take over the garden, the yard, the neighborhood…the world! Lock your door at night.

Make sure the plant’s habits match your expectations. If you want a groundcover, then you’ve made the right choice. If not, think again before you purchase one of the following perennials that spread by their roots. I have only noted those that usually don’t have the descriptive word groundcover on the plant tag.

Chinese Lantern (Physalis)

Ladybells (Adenorpha liliifolia)

Bellflowers (those in the Campanula punctata group)

Gooseneck (Lysimachia clethroides)

Plume Poppy (Macleaya)

Spiderwort (Tradescantia)

Bee Balm (Monarda)

(need I say Mint?)

Pink Primrose (Oenothera siskiyou)

Meandering roots aren’t the only way that plants can make a nuisance of themselves. Seed spewing plants can cover even more ground in a short period! Just give these fertile little ovules a smidgen of soil, light and moisture, and it’s off to the races. I really can’t fault biennials for this aggressiveness; it’s survival for them. Biennials only live for two years: first year leaves, second year flowers, third year dead. But the following perennials have no excuse:

Mallow (Malva alcea)

Garlic Chives (Allium tuberosum)

Mountain Bluet, Bachelor’s Button (Centaurea montana)

Perennial Sunflower (Helianthus and Heliopsis)

Ox-Eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)

Violet, Johnny Jump-Up (Viola)

It wasn’t our fault! For once it’s not just the kids saying this. It is very likely that through the years the light conditions changed over the garden. Trees grew larger or were lost to storms, privacy fences were installed, or sun-blocking homes sprang up next door. And then again, sometimes we are the ones to blame. Personally, I’m an excellent illusionist. I can make myself see more light in a spot than actually exists, allowing me to purchase the perennial I’m coveting that needs full sun. I’ve also resorted to leafing through multiple gardening catalogs (or websites) until I found one that listed the light condition I was looking for. True confessions of a desperate gardener. Whatever the catalyst was for plants ending up in the wrong light, the end results were the same – they looked scraggly, were more prone to disease or insect damage, bloomed sporadically or not at all; and winter kill (or abuse) was a common scenario.

My part sun garden only required a little right-size tweaking. The garden was 6' wide and about 35' long (as pictured). After tweaking it, the section extending beyond the garden shed was removed. I only kept the flowers bordering the shed. These low-fuss perennials include many varieties of repeat blooming daylilies; stiff-stemmed shasta daisies; astilbe; coral bells; hardy geraniums and mildew-resistant phlox. (This photo was taken in early spring.)

Seeing is Believing

Too many people fabricate their garden’s light condition, usually based upon plants they want to buy or garden conditions they wished they had. Please stop dreaming; you’re only hurting yourself and the flowers. There are plenty of great plants out there for every light condition, excluding cave-like settings such as under decks or beneath low hanging tree limbs.

Now take a gulp of truth serum and go out and honestly evaluate how much sun your garden gets, or doesn’t get. If it makes you feel any better, I prefer shade gardening any day of the week!

Full Sun: Six hours or more of direct sun. For gardeners in Zones 6 or colder, these hours should be between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

Part Sun: Four to five hours of direct sun.

Part Shade: One to two hours of sun between 10:00 and 6:00 p.m. OR dappled light throughout the day.

Shade: Pretty obvious, don’t you think?

If you still feel nervous about making the call, buy a sun meter or light calculator as your coach. SunCalc, manufactured by Luster Leaf, is a popular gadget that is typically under $20. I always get suspicious of meters that boast they can measure sunlight, temperature, humidity, soil moisture, drainage and tell you what’s for dinner that night.

My re-thought shade gardens provide so much joy and so little maintenance!

Why did we let these poor, sad plants stay so long in the wrong spot? Maybe it was the fear factor – the idea of brandishing a hand pruner, hedge trimmer, lopper or (golly-gee-whiz) a chainsaw at an overgrown shrub sent shivers up our spine. We couldn’t bear the thought of possibly hurting the plant, plus we weren’t even sure of the right time to commit the dastardly deed. Cutting the plants seemed on par with trying to help a child pull a wiggly baby tooth, or tearing a Band-Aid from a scabby knee. Yikes! And so the unchecked shrub kept getting bigger and bigger and we kept looking the other way.

A majority of us were handcuffed by guilt. The idea of ejecting a plant from the garden family seemed unthinkable. Well, think again. These are not children or pets! If it has never thrived, simply doesn’t fit with the rest of the landscape, or you have a replacement that offers more beauty with less maintenance, then it’s time to say sayonara. Again, repeat after me: these are not children or pets. If the exiled plant has sentimental value, then pot it in a container and give it the light and soil medium it needs to finally flourish. All other indicted plants can be shared with friends (or enemies), offered to plant sales hosted by not-forprofit garden clubs and community organizations, or recycled in the compost pile. Remember the mantra: these are not children or pets.

My ‘Wine & Roses’ weigela before pruning.

After the dastardly deed. Within weeks they’ll look lush and gorgeous!

WEEDS

You can’t see the forest for the trees. Or better said, you can’t see the flowers because of all the weeds. Maybe the weed-choked garden is the result of a bad load of compost or mulch, or the neighbor’s #@$^* weed from hell keeps invading the garden, or simply time got away from us. The saying a weed in time, saves nine has been grossly flip-flopped. Now it seems easier to bulldoze the whole garden and start anew. (This approach might also work with my teenage son’s room.)

Waging War on Weeds

Nasty weeds. They bully our perennials and other loved ones, stealing water and nutrients while crowding out light and airflow. It’s time to put an end to their shenanigans. Weeding should be the least of our gardening chores.

Eradicate Existing