A BALANCE BETWEEN ORDER & CHAOS

In a world that seems hell-bent on reverting to chaos, it often seems that the only right way to improve situations is to make things more orderly. Sometimes, however, too much order can also be a problem. In nature, there is a lot of balance. This article hopes to point out the problems in either extreme position in order to help you find a true balance and harmony with the planet.

Balance in the Garden

1. Extreme Order:
   A garden created on the premise of extreme order will aim to be as tidy and unchanging as possible. Living things go through cycles of change. Trees shed leaves, plants die, everything in nature revolves round circles of growth and decay. This is unlikely to be tidy. Pure tidiness is solid and unchangeable, or at least as solid and unchangeable as it can be. Obviously, even a paved area will need to be repaired from time to time, well-preserved wood decking will eventually deteriorate. Those looking for extreme order, however, will gravitate to long-lasting, non-changing items. Paving prevents the growth of 'untidy' weeds. Making your garden into an 'outside room' will limit the changeability of nature and make this area sterile and controllable.
2. Too much order:
   This is a less extreme version of the first item. Here, plants are included but carefully ordered and regimented. Only a few chosen specimins are allowed to thrive, any 'accidental' production of native plants are rigorously weeded out. This garden, unlike the one above, is extremely hard work; the reason being that nature does not conform easily to the control freaks among us. |So, every week we spend fighting natures ability to revert, producing a beautiful but artificial environment made with exotic species of plants which struggle to survive where native plants would be more hardy. This garden is replete with rectangular beds planted in rows. Everything is segregated and itemised. Vegetables live in the vegetable plot, flowers in the flower bed. Grass is simple and wide bladed. No seed heads can be seen.
3. The balance:
   The balanced garden goes along with nature. The lines are curved; the plants are grouped; the species are native where possible. The garden is fairly natural, moderately practical and never perfectly tidy. Natural cycles are built into this garden. That which dies is composted to feed the living. Trees are chosen with care, planted in the right place and allowed to develop naturally. Meadow grasses mean that lawn cutting does not become a lifelong task through the growing season. Small hard-standing areas are compensated for by larger natural areas. Wildlife is a welcome visitor here, not a threat.
   The copyright of the article A BALANCE BETWEEN ORDER & CHAOS in Green Home is owned by Linda Little. Permission to republish A BALANCE BETWEEN ORDER & CHAOS in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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