Garden Design

An Unprofessional Gardening Plan

Today I found a spot in the garden where I'd actually got "it" right! The yellow lime green bracts of the late flowering salvias were actually echoing the clear light greens of the "Breath of Heaven" bush nearby. Ha!

"It", of course, is that most sensitive issue of garden design. I've been escorted around gardens by owners who say "of course, we had a plan drawn up", and quite frankly I've been envious. Their oak groves and lines of hornbeams seem to work so much better for knowing this. The rockery islands in the middle of the lawn suddenly have meaning.

But secretly I'm outraged that garden designers sometimes wreak psychological havoc among us ordinary, frail, human gardeners. We are forced immediately onto the defensive - of course, we should have had a proper design drawn up....it would have saved all those expensive mistakes...

Late Flowering Salvias VS Breath of Heaven

And, let's be honest, any gardener who claims they'd never ever resort to professional planting plans is fibbing. We all have crises of confidence, when we realise that the trellis looks silly and the new bed even sillier. And who amongst us can honestly visualise (to within 95% accuracy) just how big and spready the new specimen tree will get?

I'd particularly like my own personal tree designer. Perhaps they can find the trees that symbolise my inner self - that appeals to me - and then brutally boss the planting and control the spread factor.

My New Garden Club

In a particularly jealous mood one day, I decided I should form a club for gardeners who have ambivalent attitudes towards garden designers, or G.A.G.D. for short. There would be two criteria for joining :

1. The gardener has never employed a professional garden designer, or commissioned a planting scheme but is really envious of others who can afford to.
2. The gardener must have taken the advice of a professional garden designer, or followed a professional planting plan, and ripped it all out within one year.

Please email me if you are interested in joining. The nicest thing about every garden design, homemade or otherwise, is that the garden always wins... eventually.