“Gardens are what you make them” is a commonly used phrase, but I suggest reversing it: “gardens make you.” They create an inviting place to extend your living beyond your home and they invite others to join you in this connection to the outside world. I don’t believe it is an accident that we feel at home in nature – I suspect that it lies deep within our ancient DNA.
My Garden Journey
My first garden was at grad school: a plant-lined but shared balcony at student housing, and I rented a plot in the student gardens, while fighting the scorching Alabama sun to grow food.
Through the ensuing years and 6 states, our gardens expanded or contracted as we moved throughout the country. When we arrived most recently at a newly-constructed home in western Massachusetts, there was not a single plant growing on the land except a forest of mature trees behind us. That has dramatically changed over the last 18 years.
If you opt to design and build your own landscape, it should always be a work in progress. I’ve always preferred less formal cottage gardens. While they are contained within beds, the plants are organized, planted and maintained to be as “wild and natural” as possible within their locations.
A garden or a landscape should reflect your personality, your creativity, and sense of wonder at the diversity which is possible in your part of the country. It can hide you from neighbors, reduce street noise, and act to provide the solace we all crave in today’s world.
I follow few rules in landscape design. I look for unique shapes and textures, uncommon but hardy native plants, or flowering plants which engage the senses, like the white fringe tree. It has an amazing scent that permeates the air for two weeks each spring. I first learned of it while visiting the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, and now my shrub is easily 10 ft tall.
Sweet shrub (Calycanthus) grows fast and produces bright, deep-red flowers in the early summer, adding to the uniqueness of your garden pallet. Mine had dozens of blooms this year.
I also seek plants which bloom when nothing else is blooming, and place them in a part of the yard which longs for that color. I intentionally provide habitat for birds, bees, butterflies, and amphibians, and have hung numerous bird houses and I grow pollinator friendly plants such as bee balm, queen of the prairie, or many tubular flowering plants loved by hummingbirds, such as foxglove.
A water feature enhances your landscape. It can be a small pot filled with water and a few plants, or a fountain or even a pond if you have the space. In any case, the sound of water is calming and attracts a wide range of wildlife to your landscape.
Bigger water features require more care, but draw more attention. The one I built is 8 ft round by 2 ft deep and holds flowering aquatics, goldfish, numerous frogs and several larger Koi. It is a focal point in all seasons but winter.
Management Tips
Experience has taught me that the more you plant, the greater the commitment needed to manage your gardens. After spring cleanup, the weeds can grow faster than your ornamentals. (I choose not to use preemergent weed control in the plant beds because it would discourage reseeding of desirable flowering plants).
Lifelong experience has taught me to avoid plants that require a lot of effort to keep them free of insects and diseases. Instead, I use fewer control products, or alternatively use organic products such as AzaSol and Eco-1 40 instead.
Pruning trees and shrubs is not my preference, though growth regulators may have a place. They can make vegetation grow slower, but also increase root growth for a stronger plant.
Some years the gardens manage themselves well, such as when rainfall is plentiful. In the summer of 2024 the ample rainfall means that goldenrod has grown explosively and is hiding all my perennials. Warm, wet springs can also result in conifer needle casts, which means I need to attend to key structural aspects of my gardens, that normally require little attention. As our climate changes, different aspects of the garden will require your attention in different ways, regardless of where you live.
While you can follow my suggestions here, I encourage you try to build a garden that has personal meaning to you. Focus on aspects of the garden you enjoy, such as unique plants, hardscapes, or water features. Figure out what works for you, and what is a manageable level of maintenance, then build a space that makes you feel more at home. Create rooms outdoors, places to sit, nooks and focal points.
This blog post and its content was written by Rob Gorden, the director of urban forestry and business development for Arborjet | Ecologel.
All photos are credited to Rob Gorden.