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Filling the Gaps in the Garden

© Carol Wallace

Something there is in us that does not love a gap. (And something in us doesn't love a wall either - we are really very fussy people!) But when we sense a gap, we race to fill it. When we speak we are so afraid to leave a pause in the flow of words that we fill the time in with interjections like "you know" and "right?" When we see a circle with a small break our mind fills in the gap and reads it as a whole.

And when we see a gap in the garden we immediately race to the nursery to fill it up. He or she who dies with the least bare dirt showing wins.

My husband once admitted that he thought that was the objective of planting - not to let any dirt - excuse me - SOIL - show. (It's soil when you plant in it. It's dirt when you track the same stuff all over the clean kitchen floor.)

Now I have seen gardens where each plant is beautifully spaced and the attractive mulch surrounding them is quite visible. It's a nice look but I despair of ever achieving it because plants grow at such different rates, so that in one area a rapid spreader wipes out all available space, and in another a very slow spreader leaves so much space around it that even those who like an uncluttered look might protest.

So I am one of the "no gaps allowed" school - which means that I use a lot of "filler" to complete my garden.

What the heck is "Filler"?
I discovered filler way back when I was n college and worked for a florist during my school breaks. I had never thought much about flower arranging and how they got the bouquets to look so lush and colorful - I guess I vaguely reasoned that they used a lot of flowers. So I was surprised when my first lesson began with the florist going to the cooler and picking out a lot of leafy stuff - ferns, huckleberry, salal and other types.

He started his creation by working strictly with those greens, to give the arrangement shape and some lovely contrasting textures. When he was done the basket looked attractive - even without flowers.

What really surprised me was that given that framework it really didn't take that many flowers to make a beautiful arrangement.

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