Articles
Is gardening an art or is true art really gardening?
Gardening magazines overplay the need for planning. The constant barrage of articles about landscape design, gardening with color and shape, and gardening for display are intimidating. Some plant collectors travel the world searching for perfect specimens which compliment their design. To answer the question, gardening is not art. Art and gardening can be combined to any degree which you find pleasing, or not at all if you find that pleasing.They will never be more closely related than complimentary. A collection of plants is quite sufficient for a garden to exist, even if it consists of only one species. All of the rewards of gardening are available in a garden without a single element of artistic design. Suppose that you require formal artistic expression to be satisfied in your garden. Here are two examples of the extremes to which you might aspire:
Landscape architecture: If you envision your landscape as an n-dimensional matrix
in which some elements are joined together to create pleasing paths, spaces,
and shapes; if you then search out statuary, trees, shrubs, and plants to
fill out those shapes in complimentary colors like a three dimensional painting;
then you are an architect of the outdoors. You will have spent
long hours in study and planning, and many weeks and months in acquiring
the objects and setting them into their proper place, and you will have spent
a small fortune. With perseverance and some luck, you will be pleased to
spend the rest of your days maintaining your dream landscape. You will be
trimming and pruning from time to time, and you might even have to replace
something that was damaged by the weather. Note that in
landscape architecture, plants are objects -- is that what you
want? Did you end up with architorture instead of architecture?
Keep in mind that each architectural element installed today can become a
severe limitation upon changes that you might want to make in the future.
Landscape
painting: If you envision your landscape as a canvas on which you draw
an outline of pleasing shapes to be colored with shrubs and flowers, and
perhaps some non-flowering plants with pleasing foliage or textures; if
you then study and draw up lists of plants that bloom in the proper weeks
with the proper hues and tints; then you are a painter of the outdoors.
You will have spent long weeks and months searching for the cultivars
in the colors you need; you will have 500 catalogs at your disposal; yet
some travel will be necessary in order to complete the search. More
weeks and months will be spent in arrangements and countless rearrangements
of living plants and shrubs, and you will have spent a small fortune. But,
you can count on endless summers of enjoying and fine-tuning your painting.
Every year you can make new acquisitions to fill in those troublesome
spots that seem to come into bloom a week earlier or later than you planned.
Your painting comes to life in living color several times each summer.
Note that in landscape painting, plants are just colors and shapes
-- is that what you want?
The first
two examples are extreme in the sense that only experienced gardeners
adopt these design styles, partly because that is what gardening authors
like to write about. These are supposed to be the goals of every would
be master gardener. In other words, garden writers seem to be saying that
our gardens are not worthy unless they pass the "display garden" test. The
examples I gave are also rather shallow in that a gardener's work is never
done, and the perfect finished landscape design needs a full time gardener
to keep it that way. I think those goals are out of reach of the average
gardener because of the tremendous investment in time and money, along with
the future commitment of time and money for maintenance. Design for
recreational gardeners should be simple, should concentrate on making what
you have look good to you, and should provide spaces for creativity,
learning, growing food, providing color, having fun, and a satisfying interest
in the plants themselves. Those books on landscaping and garden
design will serve you best if used to hold down the coffee table during
windstorms.
Take stock
of your landscape. You have foundation plantings around your home,
windbreaks, living fences, accent shrubs and trees, shade trees, lawns, gardens,
walkways, outbuildings, and waste areas. You don't need someone to tell you
what your property should look like or if it does or doesn't look good. As
you look at the property from different angles, you will see things that
could look better. You can move things around. If a shrub doesn't
look good anywhere, toss it out. Everything should have a function
which needs only unconscious acceptance, and either it does perform that
function well, or it doesn't. You can accept what is there, you can
replace it with something that works better, or you can open up the space
altogether. Space is an element too, and in some situations, it can
look and work better than anything else. Your local nursery will suggest
plants, trees, and shrubs that will work for any condition that you can
adequately describe. Change what you will, accept what will not be changed,
and move on. Overall design of your outdoor space is important, but
only to resolve the question of where to start. Before moving on to
the next phase of garden planning, two principles must be observed: First,
take care of what you have; clear the dead wood, do the pruning and trimming,
make the repairs, tend to the sick. Second, do not try to accomplish
too much too fast. To avoid being overwhelmed, limit the number of
active gardening projects to three at any one time, and before beginning
each day, look around your outdoor space. Develop the habit of saying out
loud "take care of what you have" as you go outdoors each morning.
The twenty-five
year landscaping plan for my two acres is basically a search for plants which
do well here, and which add to my enjoyment. Each year, I start 250
to 450 packets of seed for the purpose of expanding my collection of plants.
Each year, I place each plant in the next available open space in the
hopes that it is sited to best advantage for success. Each year, I move those
plants that were not sited correctly to what I hope will be a better environment.
Each year, I create new beds for plants. Each
year, I add as many plants for restoring or maintaining Nature's balance
as I add purely for ornament.
My computations indicate that
my two acres will be completely filled with plants that do well for me during
the 24th year of the plan. There will be no grass left save that necessary
to transport materials and escort visitors. Then, during that year, when
I am no longer able to maintain the property anyway, I plan to win the Illinois
lottery. I will immediately hire a professional landscaper who will
take stock of my thousands and thousands of plants. He or she will
then move each one to its proper place in the grand scheme of things.
Colors will be complimentary and appear in waves as the season passes.
Better Homes & Gardens and Architecture Digest will be calling every
day for an appointment. Martha Stewart will stop by for a chat, carrying
a fruitcake made from recycled tires. I will tell everyone that I have
been at work here for twenty-five long years. People will refer to
my place as a "botanic wonderland." Every visitor will be required
to take home two or three potted plants or seedlings. They will be glad --
and I won't tell them that by giving plants away, it is one of my
strategies for dealing with pillbugs -- I deport them.
1997 was the eleventh successful year of my plan.
In summary -- stop fussing about, but don't stop dreaming of what could be. The rewards of gardening are actually increased by hosting more plants than you can properly take care of -- it makes the occasional losses seem smaller. You cannot have any more control over your plants than you have over any of the other elements of your life, or your computer, but keep in mind that there is no employer so benevolent as Nature.
For holding down your coffee table, I recommend Penelope Hobhouse's "Gardening Through the Ages", An illustrated history of plants and their influence on Garden styles - from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day. First published in 1992.There is no other book that illustrates the purpose of this philosophy course for the beginning gardener quite as well. And, once purchased, there won't be much money left for architecture and painting anyway.