Working with what you've got

One of the best things about gardening is that everyone enjoys it for different reasons. Some love the precision of clipped hedges and perfect roses, others may delight in bringing the wild to them and supporting local wildlife. One thing that may be universal: almost every gardener I know enjoys buying new plants, and I'm certainly no exception. Sometimes you just see something you have to try out. But one of my favorite things about gardening is using the plants I already have.

Humor me, will you? Once you've been gardening in one spot for a few years, you start to develop a clearer picture of what grows best in each area of the garden, and your vision for the garden has matured, or perhaps simply changed. Meanwhile, the plants that are well-adapted to their locations have grown sufficiently that they can provide enough divisions, seeds, or cuttings that you don't even need to buy more plants to fill in those bare spots that still need filling in, or where poorly chosen experiments failed. There's something wonderful about reaching that point. It's the next phase in the life of the garden, one step closer to maturity (but never completion).

This is the phase I'm currently enjoying in this garden. I've been doing some editing this winter, removing some things and spreading others around. I'm so happy to have reached this phase in this garden, even as I'm working on separating myself from it. I love editing. The area in the photo below was initially covered in Carex comans, because I had a lot of it. Unfortunately, it doesn't live long, at least not in any of the locations I've grown it. It does reseed, which is why I had so much of it, but I had grown tired of having to remove ugly old plants and restarting with seedlings. It also was looking rather dingy and ratty in winter, which I just couldn't stand. The sedges served as an early pioneer species in the ecology of the garden, something to quickly cover the freshly disturbed areas of new beds. As they declined, they were replaced with longer-lived plants, namely native deer fern (Struthiopteris spicant), non-native Acorus gramineus 'Ogon', and a bit of Primula veris 'Sunset Shades' for some extra spring color. I've already removed much of the sedge in this photo, but a few seedlings are still mixed in with the Acorus. To me, it's just one texture too many. 

In the next photo, I've removed the last of the Carex seedlings. It looks so much better, in my opinion. The sedge served its purpose, but it wasn't working anymore. I like this combination a lot more, and it keeps the weeds down better than the fine, hairlike leaves of the sedge did. I also discovered that the Carex made excellent cover, nesting material, and forage (the seeds) for rodents, more reason to eliminate them. It's not such a problem when one or two are scattered among other plants, but a solid mass of them is a hotel for voles. The Acorus is easily divided and spread around. The deer fern is slower, but could also be divided. I may yet do that. Neither of these plants need maintenance or renewal as frequently as the Carex, and they look far better through winter. I'll also be spreading more Primula seeds here after they set seed this spring.

As I mentioned in my last post, I love mature gardens and the processes that result in large swaths of plants in those gardens. Observing this process is my passion, more than the maintenance itself. This garden is old enough now that I've identified a good number of basic, reliable performers for at least some of the different areas of the garden, and they've had a chance to grow and multiply so that I can spread them around. At least for me, the importance of repetition and massing is proportional to the size of the garden. Repetition gives gardens cohesion and can play a major role in their visual identity. Massing plants gives visual resting areas or negative spaces, without them actually being empty. Larger gardens need more repetition and larger masses, but it's harder to do because you need more plants to accomplish it. With sufficient money, you could simply buy enough plants to spread throughout the garden (not to mention people to plant them), but most gardeners I know don't have that kind of money. Actually, most gardeners I know don't have the amount of space I do, either, but for those of us in the country, or with larger urban or suburban lots, it can take some patience and self-sufficiency to get that cohesive, mature feel in our gardens.

So when I looked around at the garden to take stock, I was so happy to find I had ample supplies to fill in some areas that have been a bit sparse, and to redo other areas that needed an overhaul. 

It was deeply satisfying to be able to take from one area where there was enough, even an overabundance, of some plants, and use them to fill in other areas without leaving any significant holes in the area from which they were taken. I had done well in selecting, placing, and caring for my plants, and they rewarded me with a bounty.

Below is an area I redid, removing some Juncus that had grown too wide and more Carex comans that had seen better days and was getting shaded out. Replacing them are divisions of Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire', extending their color further along the dry creek bed, underplanted with Primula veris 'Sunset Shades', Wulfenia x schwarzii, Ajuga reptans 'Black Scallop', Asarum caudatum, and Tolmeia menziesii, all seedlings or divisions taken from other areas of the garden. Freshly planted, it doesn't look like much, but the primroses, especially, will grow fast, and the rest will grow and fill in. 

As above, the photo below is a long way from pretty, but illustrates a new mass planting using materials on hand. Calluna vulgaris reseeds readily in one bed in my garden, and I began moving those seedlings to other areas several years ago. This section was one such area. It was a bit of an experiment, as it gets very dry here in summer and it's shaded by about 1:00pm. The initial transplants survived, however, heather being adapted to poor soils and tolerating drought once established. I do provide some supplemental water here in summer for other plants. This fall, I dug more seedlings from my source bed and transplanted them here to help fill it out faster and block out the weeds sooner. The photo below was taken shortly after transplanting and cutting back the transplanted seedlings. It's ugly, but sometimes gardening isn't pretty. The seedlings will fill in. I'll do some weeding and throw some compost around them to help them out a bit.

Carex platyphylla has been eking out a living in a very dry area with more sun than anticipated. I finally took pity on the stalwart clumps that had grown despite the harsh conditions. Moving them to an area with more moisture and richer soil, I broke up the clumps to create a sizable drift. The sedge should grow faster here, and I'll have that much more to use elsewhere, that much faster.

Luzula sylvatica has become one of my favorite plants for shade. Recently I found that they develop short upright stems that produce roots, so you can propagate it simply by tugging off one of these taller stems and sticking it in the ground. I wish I had taken a photo of such a stem to illustrate this. Instead, I have two photos of the results, having pulled off all the taller stems I could, then dividing the remaining basal clumps. These durable, resilient, and lush-looking grasses have become invaluable to me, even tolerating some very dry shade with poor soil. 'Marginata' on the left and 'Aurea' on the right (or top and bottom, respectively, if you're viewing on a smaller screen).

Naturally, having finished these projects, I looked around to see what else I could harvest from the garden to spread elsewhere. Below are a few of the plants in my scopes. 

Festuca rubra 'Patrick's Point' was added to the garden last year. It's filling in quickly and it's on my list to dig pieces and spread it around more. It surprised me with its tolerance of a range of light levels, from full sun to growing where branches of Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire' were practically on top of it. It got a little flat under the dogwood, but did not thin out. I'll prune the dogwoods this year to give the grass a little more breathing room.

Azorella trifurcata has surprised me with its fast growth. I was unsure it would even survive, as many plants native to far southern Chile and the surrounding islands tend not to tolerate heat well. It won't win any races, but it has spread much faster than expected. I plan to take pieces of it to help it spread around the bed it's in a bit faster.

These clumps of Astelia 'Red Devil' are large enough to divide now and spread out through this area. I love how they look surrounded by the Azorella.

Asarum caudatum is one of my favorite ground covers. Tolerating the deepest shade, even under bamboo (though the broad leaves do catch the fallen leaves from the bamboo) it's a tough and beautiful native bothered by few pests. Slugs can be a problem, but I have a lot of this in my garden now and nowhere do the slugs do any significant damage to it.

Much of what I've shown here has been dividing plants, and there's something personally satisfying about ripping apart a plant to make new ones. However, the easiest plants to spread around are probably the self-sowers, propagating themselves via volunteer seedlings. These volunteers may not move very far from their parents, depending on the type of plant and mode of seed dispersal, but it's easy to dig a few seedlings from around the parent plant and move them to new areas. Even easier, collect a few seeds to sow in new areas. Just make sure you know what the seedlings look like and can distinguish them from any weed seedlings that may appear. Reseeders work well in young gardens with lots of bare soil, as long as there isn't a bank of weed seeds to compete with them. Various perennials, sedges, and annuals can quickly cover a large area with a little assist from the gardener to spread their seeds. In my own garden, I've been spreading Primula veris through areas that don't get too hot and dry in summer. In drier areas, Salvia forskaolii and Helleborus x sternii have become favorite self-sowers. In a more wild area, I've been experimenting with a sedge which may or may not be one of the native meadow sedges. I have a lot of seedlings to dig and move in the next couple months, so they have time to establish before the rains stop.

This was an important stage for me to reach in this garden, as it brings a sense that I'm closer to having the settled, mature garden I want so badly. Much as I love planting, and buying new plants, I love mature gardens. They tend to be less chaotic, with a grounding tranquility that helps to settle my anxious mind and reminds me that I am but one small human in a large and diverse ecosystem, in a much larger universe. That may not sound so comforting to everyone, but I've always loved the humbling feeling I get standing beneath a canopy of towering trees, or standing on the side of a mountain, or staring out into the endless ocean. It reminds me that I can't control everything, and that nothing I, or any human, does is permanent. Conversely, taking seeds and divisions of my own plants to shape my own garden gives me a sense of control, reminding me I do have some power to affect my own surroundings. And that's true about a lot in life. We can't fix big, global problems all by ourselves, but we can each make an impact on our immediate surroundings. Many small efforts together can build into big changes. Pardon me for getting a little philosophical. These are dark days, both literally and figuratively, and I need to remind myself of these things to help keep my spirits up.