(Buddleias - Lo and Behold)
In the garden: Now’s the time to make plans for spring
These are the planning days, planning for the season ahead. My current garden has been established for about 25 years and didn’t have much planning in the early days. It was more a case of adaptation as requirements changed. The front yard received more consideration. The back had to evolve somewhat on its own as it passed through a number of unavoidable stages.
It started out as an unfenced, blank palette and then, once enclosed by a solid barnboard fence, it held a small vegetable plot. It was a playground with equipment for a while, then came the addition of flower beds along the fence, followed by patios, pathways and a pond. The space gradually filled in until today, the lawn is barely large enough park a wheelbarrow.
The flower beds expanded drastically, trees grew, many shrubs and perennials were tried and died over the years. I made many mistakes, but most things have worked out, despite deviations due to the eccentricities of the head gardener. More than anything, it brought me a lot of joy in the process. Certainly, had I planned it more directly, it would probably look like a different garden, but then, any blank space can be designed in a million different ways to create a garden.
If you are in the early stages of developing a garden, either by design, evolution or adaptation, there are a few things to consider that will prove helpful in developing an attractive design and at the same time help you avoid costly or annoying errors, especially with the location of trees and shrubs. I have two trees that could have been better placed (although they’re not entirely without merit), but any change now would require drastic action, as in a chainsaw.
Trees and large shrubs are like heavy furniture that isn’t easily moved — and unlike a couch they improve with age, making them even harder to part with. And they grow, slowly maybe, but a small suburban yard isn’t the place for a monster maple.
Too often, trees are planted much too close to the house where they can interfere with drainage or even cause structural damage. So before planting any tree, seriously consider the location and the potential height and spread of the skinny sapling in the pot. Four or five metres from a building is a good guideline.
Many trees have been bred with small yards in mind, especially new varieties of witch hazel, serviceberry and crab apples. These are all trees of small to moderate growth, as are Japanese maples. Orange Dream and Shirazz are a pair of new ones that I’d love to squeeze in if I had the room.
There’s been a lot of work done in creating smaller, compact shrubs, too.
Spilled Wine Weigela is a beauty, growing only to knee height and about as wide, and Proven Winners has a series of dwarf buddleias called Lo and Behold — Blue Chip, Lilac Chip, and White chip — that are less than a metre high.
An advantage of incorporating smaller trees and shrubs into a garden design means there’s room for more plants. And if you do find you’ve planted one of these smaller shrubs in the wrong place, they’re a lot easier to dig out and move.
Good planning is important, but it’s only part of the final result. A garden is a living thing, never static, and will constantly attempt to thwart the designer. I’ll leave you with the words of Scottish poet Rabbie Burns, whose birthday is coming up on Wednesday: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.”
