Home » Plants & Animals » Garden Design » Designing for the Future

Designing for the Future

© Kirk Johnson

I began my garden in 1979. Babies born in that year are now young men and women, but I am still waiting for my garden to mature. This is partially because I expanded my garden in 1989, so three-fourths of my garden is 15 years or younger. Some of the faster growing plants, such as sumach and bamboo, are beginning to give the newer parts of my garden a mature appearance that gives me hope for the future. Even the slower growing rhododendrons are starting to produce effects that were just dreams a decade ago.

As my trees and shrubs mature, I am finding it easier to resist the temptation to plant more of them. My older brother lives near Greer Gardens in Eugene, Oregon. Every year for over a decade I have bought plants there on the day after Christmas. I am not sure if they were open this year because Christmas was on a Saturday. I seem to recall a year when they were closed on the day after Christmas. What made this year different is that I had no great desire to visit Greer Gardens. I have a collection of larches and I considered adding a European larch. When I walked through my garden, I decided that I didn't really have a good spot for another larch. My garden has reached the point where adding another tree or shrub just means an overcrowded planting.

I live on 15 acres of woodland, meadow and marsh. There are open areas that I could easily expand my garden into, but I am content with the existing layout. At over an acre, my garden is already quite a job to maintain.

I am glad that I am not as much of a plant collector as some gardeners that I know. I have never been someone who buys trees and shrubs without knowing where I am going to plant them. I am not losing interest in my garden and I am not frustrated by its current limitations. As my trees and shrubs mature, they are much more interesting than they were when young. My garden doesn't need more variety to be interesting.

My garden is teaching me the truth of what I already knew. Trees and shrubs provide the bones of a garden. Every year each tree will become a more important element in your garden's design. Too many trees of different growth habits and varieties of foliage will create an unnatural, even chaotic effect. A collector's garden will usually only be harmonious if the gardener is collecting related species or varieties of a few kinds of trees and shrubs.

The copyright of the article Designing for the Future in Garden Design is owned by . Permission to republish Designing for the Future in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.