Confessions of a Haphazard Gardener

I just saw the UPS driver weave his way from the gate
to the door, dodging branches and avoiding plants spilling onto
the sidewalk.  Maybe it's time to prune?

Haphazard:
Characterized by mere chance, careless, slipshod, lack of order/planning, 
hit or miss.

Yup.  That's my gardening plan, er, non-plan.


My mother's flower garden when I was a girl growing up in West Laramie was fragrant and beautiful.  The growing season is short in that part of Wyoming and it's not unusual to get frosts/snow during the summer.  So, she planted sweet peas, pansies, bachelor buttons and sweet alyssum--all hearty, colorful and quick blooming.  

Water drops cling to blooming penstemon
after an early sprinkler session.

Maybe because I have lived and now live in a warmer climate with longer growing seasons.

Maybe it's because I have so many more choices.

Maybe it's because I really do have no particular plan or pattern to my planting.

Maybe, regardless of any possible explanations, I am simply a Haphazard Gardener.

It's funny, really.

I have friends, like Carol and Jo Ann, who are Master Gardeners, who know exactly what plants they have in their gardens, remember their names (common AND Latin,) are not adverse to digging something up that is "failing to thrive" and replanting it elsewhere, and, visualize how much ACTUAL space is needed when planting.  They also know when to walk away, dig it up, pull it out and say goodbye.  

For Carol and Jo Ann, gardening is a passion, a joy, a canvas to create!  Carol buys plants like I buy shoes.  She is a soft heart when it comes to the "weak and wounded" plants found in gardening centers at the very end of the season.  These plants, which can be purchased for a mere fraction of their original prices, and usually sporting only a mangled leaf or two, are "mercy buys" that Carol cannot resist.  

She has a special section of her yard devoted to the care and tending of these "special needs" plants, sort of like an infirmary.  And, more often than not, these plants suddenly thrive, emerging after winter like the plants they were born to be!!  Complete with leaves, flowers and new growth!

"Running amuck," seems to be my gardening mantra.

As for me...

well, I don't remember any of the names (common or Latin,) I can't tell the "good" plants from the weeds, I never think to dig something up and replant in a better place, and I ALWAYS underestimate how much space a plant will need if it somehow miraculously decides to live.

I do not know when to walk away, dig it up, pull it out or say goodbye.  I'm a soft heart, all right, a pushover and all the ground cover varieties know it.

Ground cover, some kind of ivy I think, is planning to take
over the world, beginning with our yard.

When we moved into our house seven years ago, the yard had been professionally landscaped with verdant lawns, trees, shrubs and bushes.  

Some would have considered that fine and found contentment having leisurely summers comforted by the thought of a no-care yard with a sprinkler and drip watering system.

But, not me. 

First, I brought in the rocks. (A yard ought to have rocks!) Then the artistic yard art like river driftwood sticks and metal garden goddesses.  Then a purple rose because it smelled so good and strawberries because I like strawberries.  Of course I planted some herbs because they're herbs (not because I use them in cooking because I'm a wretched cook) and some columbine, because it seems to reseed itself and some lavender because it's my favorite fragrance.

Strawberry blossoms add bright color to my garden.

I plant in no particular pattern or plan.  

As a Haphazard Gardener I plant wherever I think I will see it--or where I think there might be a hole in the landscape fabric.

I'm clearly NOT a fan of landscape fabric.

I understand the concept and the merits.  And, it probably DOES cut down on the weeds for the first year or two.  However, when our yard was "professionally landscaped" in its early years, I was not there to witness the effectiveness of the landscape fabric.

By the time we became care takers of the yards, the best and most nutritious soil was found ABOVE the fabric.  I quickly realized that every single time I wanted to plant something I had to dig away the "good" soil, expose the fabric beneath, cut a wide circle with quickly dulling scissors and then mix the good soil with the soil beneath the fabric before ever placing a plant into the ground.  

It's a lot of work. 

I find I usually look for previously prepared spaces, regardless of location.  Just pull out the dead plant and replace with the new plants!  Ta-da!  All good until the new plant turns out to actually be a tree that now has 40% of the garden space!!  And, still growing!!

There's a lot going on in our corner backyard garden. 
But,I can't see just what these days.

This year it appears to be time for 

      THE RECKONING.  

It is time to prune, to get tough, to clip, snip and chop away all of that green stuff that is happily growing in wild abandonment and disarray!

It's time to rediscover what I actually have growing in these gardens!  

It's time to reclaim gardens from the ground cover that wants to engulf us like kudzu, to untangle grape vines from using lilac trees as trellises and to continue my war against Russian Thistles, that creep into the yard and blend in plain sight until I suddenly encounter them four-feet-high-and-rising!!

 As my bird bath reminds me, TRUST in the power of pruning.  (Wish me luck!)