Lessons Learned From a 25-Year-Old Garden

Mary and Lew Reid never calculate back after abandoning a beautiful show garden to start from boodle . But when you ’re moving from a denselyshaded gardenat the foot of sequoia to a sunny mountaintop venue , there is n’t much to regret from a horticulture standpoint . The couple made a pact not to bulge out a garden for a full yr — assume that clock time to devise a plan that would turn the fallow fields surround their Sebastopol , California , property into a magnificentlandscape . Over the 25 geezerhood since its origination , the garden continues to germinate and to instruct them daily lessons about design and sustainment . I sat down with the couple to hash out how their distance became the ultimate designers ’ classroom and to incur out what their garden can teach others about their own bed and borders .

Is there anything that you regret doing—or not doing—in your garden?

Mary Reid : Not planting a series offastigiateplants at the get-go . As you stand out on our terrace , you look out to this beautiful scene , and it was tantalizing as a gardener to plant things that would grow tall and block the view . But it was really important to me to preserve the view , so I felt that the whole center of the garden had to continue under 5 feet tall . I could have — and bid I had — used a serial of fastigiate plants that would be like exclaiming degree throughout the garden and would draw the eye upward and out onto the landscape painting beyond . Preserving a view does n’t think of you need to cut taller plants completely .

Lew Reid : I think the forged mistake that we made was putting a ground screen — cascara buckthorn ( Arctostaphylosuva - ursi , USDA Hardiness Zones 2–6)—rather than a lawn in front of the home . Once the grandchild came , they had no place to take on .

Mary : Water scarcityis an way out everywhere , and that ’s why I did n’t put a lawn into our original programme . But I ’ve come to realize that everybody can use a flyspeck jot of lawn — just to sit on or do a summersault on .

You’ve always kept diligent plant records. Is that something that is important to the success of a garden?

Mary : Every time webuy plants , I run in and put them on a root inclination , and every clock time we put them in the garden , I put them on the garden list — because , no matter the garden sizing , you block really quickly what ’s what . If a plant melt , as they occasionally do , I can easily find out what it was , where it was , and perhaps go endeavor to find it again — or not . Sometimes , the list attend as a monitor of what not to corrupt . You think you ’ll always remember , but as the age pass and the garden gets fuller , you do n’t . Trust me .

Do you have any tips or tricks for maintaining the bane of most gardeners’ existences: neat edging?

Mary : I’m not really heavy onedging . In the beginning , I keep the path and butt against crisp , and as things develop out , I maintain them trim back . But then I began to enjoy the womanishness of the plants spilling onto the paths and bed , obnubilate the edges . That strategy only works , though , if your design has crispgeometry . This whole garden is a serial publication of true circles and rightful rectangle . If there are curves , they ’re real arcs , not just shaky rail line . So when the plants start to sate out , that buffer the geometry .

commemorate , though , to make garden paths no less than 4 feet wide because , by the clip you get both sides contribute to the spill , you do n’t have more than 2 foot to walk in . Then you have to see down while you ’re walking , instead of look at the garden .

“ In the beginning , I keep the paths and edges crisp . But then I began to enjoy the softness of the plants spilling onto the paths and bed , blurring the edges . “

What keeps you motivated to continue gardening in the same space?

Mary : Because we live here ! Any garden is a challenge . But I think there has been a shift . I have back off of being as determined about the garden , which I was for 20 twelvemonth — out there every day and making lists . It was my only originative release . Now that I have other originative outlets , like painting , the garden is actually more gratifying to me than it was before because I ’m not feeling so driven about it . I can enjoy the garden more . That ’s something I have only bring in over time — and I recall a bunch of gardener fall into the same trap .

Lew : find unexampled flora on our travels and even just at the local nursery has helped keep thing fresh , too . We ’ve alsopropagatedthousands of plants ourselves . When you get fresh and interesting plants , you need to find a space to mix them into the garden and give them their just due .

Mary : Every year , dissimilar areas of the garden are being redesigned .

And is that from necessity or just from. . .

Mary : That ’s just part of having an older garden . It ’s always go to call for to be upgraded .

Lew : For example , when we first set out the garden , we purposely installed some plants that were go to grow quickly and make a show , like theeuphorbia(Euphorbia characiasssp.wulfenii , Zones 7–10 ) , and they were n’t appropriate later . You ca n’t be afraid to use those loyal fillers , but you take to remember that they are n’t going to be part of the design constantly , either .

Is maintenance an important design consideration?

Mary : The initial design of a garden is in the main about plant life arrangement and hardscaping . Maintenanceis really above all after the garden is in . And that ’s where it falls apart for most people because this includes replacing plants appropriately when needed — perchance even changing them if they ’re not doing the job that you envisioned . This basically means changing your original purpose .

Lew : The hardscape design may be permanent , but the plants really are fugacious . And they have to be change . They ca n’t stay the same .

Mary : They’re not slice of piece of furniture . They do have a life of their own , and they have a intellect of their own . They do thing that you do n’t wait them to do . If you do n’t like that , you could vary it .

Isn’t it hard, then, to get a cohesive look?

Mary : You’re not always transfer out everything — just a trivial here or there . But that brings up an important design rule I ’ve learned : Unless you desire a collector ’s garden , where there ’s one of everything , utilize chimneysweep . Put in five plant life of one kind rather of one , then ingeminate it somewhere else . You do n’t involve to have a Brobdingnagian garden to do this , either ; you may just need to scale back the sizing of the plants you use . Then , when you need to exchange one or two under performers , it ’s not as obvious .

What’s the biggest mistake designers make when planning a garden?

Mary : Betraying their own vision of the garden . You should enjoy introducing new flora and color but then stand up back and decide if this fresh direction is enhancing the entire scene . If it is n’t , have the courage to remove it . bring plants out is as of import as plant them . There are always other — possibly better — choices that can contribute to the magic of your place .

Design Lessons:Advice that never gets old

Make a map of the irrigation and electrical systems

Before you or anyone else travail a deep or lays a pipe for irrigation or electricity , make a detailed plan of where that stuff is located and always have it ready to hand . We ’ve used that piece of paper a million time — when things have gone amiss or when we ’re trying to plant large trees . That mapping was the smartest thing we did when designing our garden .

Don’t be afraid to change your mind

The English garden movement was pop in the 1990s and influenced our initial garden pattern . Several years later , we started to notice in books and powder magazine a batch of blistering - dyed compounding : coupling of Orange , purples , and reds . So we made an abrupt change and got rid of many of the pastels , which did n’t calculate great in our harsh California light anyway . Was it a lot of work to change over instruction ? Yes , but it lead to a better - looking garden in the end .

Don’t skimp on certain things

amend thesoil — before plant and on a yearly ground thereafter — is all-important . Oursoiltends to be more clay , so we convey in turkey manure to improve the texture ; that begin expensive , so we switched to duck’s egg manure . Every year , we top - dress with compost and mulch . There are no tricks to make this process easy : It ’s backbreaking work . But it help keep down the weeds and give to the nutriment of the soil .

Landscape cloth is never a good idea

If you ’re like us , you may expect at your freshly designed garden and call up , “ How am I going to keep this weeded for two years with all these picayune tiny plants ? ” Do n’t , under any luck , set up landscape fabric . It was a incubus using it , and it was a nightmare getting disembarrass of it . Every time you want to plant something , you have to get your scissors out and cut a gob in it . And it does n’t suppress dope if you mulch over it because the weed get right on top . We started taking it out of our garden after the first year , but every once in a while , we start out digging and we still see some leftover .

Danielle Sherry is a older editor .

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