In the beginning all I wanted was a pretty garden.
The old 1910 farm house we had purchased with it's accompanying quarter acre lot begged for attention. I remember hauling plants from our previous rental to place in our new garden. Generous friends also helped me to fill out the garden with their gifts of nameless daylilies, iris and phlox. Back then my gardening list was small. When I did buy plants I fussed and worried over them, crossed my fingers hoping they they would live and mourned their passing when they died.
But the longer I gardened the greedier I got. Nurseries became my favorite hangouts. I was the first one in line at the plant sales. Stacks of catalogs, seed packets and garden books began to litter the tables of my house. Somewhere between the desire to have a pretty garden and my growing knowledge, plant lust hit with a vengence. My garden was soon overflowing with new aquisitions and still my hunger grew.
"Are you sure you have room in your garden?" a well meaning friend inquires after we take off from a plant sale with the van stuffed to the ceiling.
"No problem," I assure her. "I have just the spot."
The spot I refer to lays not in the border, for several other plants will have to be moved before hand, but at the end of my driveway. There they will join a host of other plants qued up for a permanent place in the garden. Sometimes the wait is brief, the plant purchased to fit a specific spot, the hole already dug. Regrettably, this is rarely true. These impulse purchases may languish for weeks, months, even years before a space is found.
Authors of garden books that stress planning would shudder at my blatant disregard of their advise, not to mention my friends who shake their heads and chide me for aquiring plants for a garden already spilling into the street. Why indeed? Who can resist a new plant? Do you suffer from this same malady? Are you an obsessed gardener? Have you become a collector?
For those of us whose plots of land are limited, whose borders are packed and even our alleys and public right-aways burgeon with plants, finding room becomes a challange. As gardeners we must practice diligence. Frequent strolls through the garden with a discerning eye is required. What is doing well, or doing too well and crowding out its nieghbors? What could be eliminated, moved or replaced with something better? Does Bouncing Betty, Saponaria officinallis, really need to hold center stage at the front of the border? She was fine in her position when the border was new. Used as a filler plant she helped to add bulk. Removed, the area opens up to experiment with something new. Like old curtains that no longer add zest to our windows, change invigorates the garden. Dressing the garden up with new plants or plant combinations add excitement to tired, humdrum, borders.
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