Darren & Sandy's Garden
Est. 1993
page updated May 15, 2006
Quick Links: [ History ] [Why
all the ranunculaceae? ] [ Gardening
Philosophy ] [ Layout ]
History
In September 1991 Sandy and I purchased our first home.
I think we dug the first garden spot in the spring of
1992 to plant radishes, beans, etc. The weather was not
very good and the results were feeble. I recall the next
year we put in broccoli, beans, etc. The broccoli went
to flower and butterflies came suddenly although none
had been seen since we purchased the house. We had also
purchased two Aquilegia X 'McKana' a single Polygonatum
odoratum and a 4" pot of Hyssop officinalis,
all for the raised bed the previous owners had constructed
in the back yard. Above all, I remember that the tomatoes
were mostly green or tainted with verticillium.
As we began digging deeper to prepare the soil for the
more demanding and permanent floral tenants we planned
to add to our garden, we found that the past eight decades
of residents in our neighborhood buried a good deal of
rubbish in their back yards. Furthermore, large amounts
of arsenic treated lumber and railroad ties were used
for various half-assed landscaping arrangements.
Realizing that these things were merely samples of
things we knew were there, and the thoughts of what
sorts of things we might not know about made us nervous.
It didn't take
much to encourage Sandy to drop the idea of living off
the land in a yard full of buried coal cinder, car parts,
spilled motor oil, treated lumber, creosote soaked railroad
ties and several corroded Duracell batteries. The following
year, 1994, we put in the perennial plants that make up
the main bed (#4 below).
The decision to forget vegetables and grow flowers was
made easier when we realized that the cost of good organic
vegetables was quite low in comparison to the labor of
growing them myself, as opposed to the radical markup of
cut flowers. Also, we both agreed that from our own aesthetic
perspective, vegetable gardening is not very visually
pleasing, particularly at the small scale of an urban lot. I notice that avid vegetable gardeners
seem shocked when I point that out--I guess that it would
be odd to say that a vegetable garden is ugly, but it is
certain that a vegetable garden practically cries out
"work!" We wanted a good place to sit outside
and be with nature. Many vegetables are incapable of growing
efficiently without all sorts of unattractive trellises,
cages, rabbit protection, insecticides, etc. Given our
small yard and all the above factors, we decided to turn
our yard into a perennial garden and grow herbs in pots.
Instead of trying to feed ourselves, we're trying to biosequester
a lot of the nasty stuff in our soil, and to create food
sources for birds (that we feed and watch).
Besides, we have to manufacture a reasonable justification
for the absence of tomatoes in our garden.
We tried composting for the first 4 years.
However, when we thought about what we were trying to
accomplish with the biosequestering, we decided that for
a while, as long as our garbage company would pick it up
that we would not compost anything, but
rather take pains to dispose of everything. It's hard to feel badly about throwing
away lots of prime compost and wildflower seeds.
Eventually I will probably start composting again, but
for now, I prefer to use the plants to clean the soil,
and replace the nutrients they use with lots of organic
matter and organic fertilizer. My big eco thing
is collecting rainwater. We collect a lot, and plan
to expand the operation with the intent of almost eliminating
tap water--which is full of chlorine. We have noticed
a dramatic improvement in our plants since we have done
this. Potted plants are especially appreciative
of rainwater. Acid soil plants are especially
appreciative of rainwater.
Why all the Ranunculaceae?
For a separate article on my obsession with this noble
family of flowers, click here.
And, a whole page on Thalictrums.
Gardening Philosophy
Every good garden has a philosophical concept behind
it. There is the Platonic or Zen Buddhist evergreen garden, the
Cartesian formal garden, the Kantian annual garden, the
Transcendentalist vegetable garden, etc. At first,
the idea was to collect ranunculaceae, which considering
the obsessive nature, would be rather Freudian.
As we expanded and learned, the movement was toward biodiversity
and romanticism, which I characterize as harmonizing Aristotle
and Schopenhauer (or Darwin). Basically, I work
toward carefully controlling chaos. Given the open,
unmulched soil, many seedlings spring up among others.
After much practice, I have learned which plants work
well together. For those who might like to try this
type of intensive gardening, I have learned some simple
rules:
1) The primary rule of this type of garden is to create as much
biodiversity as possible, while also maintaining a high
degree of control. Control elements like a clump of
a single perennial are balanced by more haphazard
seedlings that I let grow, and annual seeds that I cram
into every possible space. These seeds are the
secret to creating the illusion of wild chaos. My
favorites for this purpose are Larkspurs, annual poppies,
nigella and Adonis flower. When planted in dense masses,
they make the whole thing look very wild, like a fantasy
meadow. They do require assiduous thinning in
mid to late May.
2) Figure out which plants tend to spread or sprawl to
cover significant space. For a novice gardener,
this is a long process of learning. Don't be alarmed
if things start out looking kind of like an explosion in
the greenhouse, or if some of your precious smaller plants
are choked out by their larger neighbors. It takes a while to see which plants
will survive, how much space they occupy, what they do
after blooming and during the winter, how profusely they
reseed or spread vegetatively, etc. Remember
that this "wild" style of gardening is not
designed to create architectural effects, but rather, the
illusion of chaos.
Many
perennials require "breathing room" to
survive. Use plants that can tolerate crowding, and that reach
appropriate heights before other plants will choke them
out. For instance, a ten inch marigold will
be smothered by a Japanese iris 12" away. Plant spring bulbs in these
radial zones around low plants that spread broadly, such
as hostas, pasque flowers, dicentra, etc. Leave a
space between that plant and other herbaceous
perennials. An 12" high x 24" wide pasque flower can have daffodils and
fritillaria 4" away from where the crown of the
plant is, and tall lilies can surround
that. The pasque flower will bloom before the lilies
cover it, and the spring bulbs will be mulched by the
protective mantle of pasque flower leaves. There
are too many details to list here, but the careful
determination of size, bloom time, need for light and root
space all must be carefully considered. Rarely do I
take color schemes into consideration, except to exclude
certain colors I don't like, such as orange. I have
a preference for colors in the range of red to blue to
violet. I suppose that one would notice that there
is a slight slant toward blue and purple, though there are
yellows, whites and reds too. In our front yard
boreal garden, the shady conditions mean that shades and
textures of green make up the majority of the
features. There are some flowers out there, but
with shady and part shade conditions, it is difficult to
grow the really bright, heavy blooming plants.
3) Besides making the obvious spring and fall divisions,
you will need to do some digging out of overzealous upstarts
in late June or early July. Don't be afraid to rip
a plant out of the ground. If you have 40 thalictrums
scattered about, and there's one that is blocking the
sun or the view of some smaller plant, grab its stem firmly,
and yank it out. I'm kidding somewhat. It's
best to use a knife or shovel to sever roots. When
you pull plants up, it can pull others with it.
Still, once you have a mature and fecund perennial garden,
you'll find that it's often easier and faster to just
grab it and pull, once you learn how to do it well.
It takes a little practice, but it's a useful skill for
weeding too. It's a lazy technique, but it works
well enough for me. For plants with more
tenacious roots, I use a 12" meat carving
knife. Cut a vertical square or circle around the
base of the doomed plant. Make sure the blade cuts
in to the depth necessary to deal with the roots of that
plant, then lift that by either pulling the stem upward,
or insert your fingers into the cuts you made and feel for
the roots, which you then lift upward.
4) Don't hesitate to divide and move things around dramatically.
Most plants are very tolerant of abuse. Make it
a point to learn which plants do not like to be moved.
Plant those very carefully, and have fun moving the others
around. Digging and moving plants should not be
done before a plant flowers, unless you are willing to
lose those flowers this season. Flowers that bloom
in mid-summer or fall are not usually bothered by transplanting
in the spring, but it's best not to do it until fall.
Also, it's best not to do it in the hottest weather.
Spring and fall are the times to do this. Water
transplanted plants regularly and thoroughly for at least
a month, especially during warm weather. When
transplanting more fragile plants I pot them in quality
soil, and put them in a shady spot to recover for a week
before replanting.
5) And the most important rule in my technique: If you
plan to encourage self-seeding, avoid mulching, and get
to know the appearance of seedlings of that plant
so that you don't treat them as weeds. Let a carefully
controlled amount of seeds get dispersed naturally by
the plants, letting them fall among other plants.
For instance, I have excellent luck with Thalictrum
flavum glaucum self-seeding a few plants among my
echincacea and black-eyed susans. I prefer to let
them go in the places they choose. You can move
seedlings around, but when I'm not in need of more plants
to fill more space, I give away or kill the ones that
are in the wrong place (in my opinion). This
leads to what I see as the cardinal rule of gardening.
Learn all of your plants by name, and know what the seedlings
look like, what the flowers look like, etc. Be able
to identify every plant on your property. This helps
in weeding, and it helps in effective propagation of other
plants by seed. A few plants you are treating
as weeds may actually be attractive native flowers. I
have found at least four species of plants native to our
neighborhood that make pleasant garden denizens.
6) Rather than thinking in terms of the Cartesian
formal garden, where architectural metaphors and various
anthropomorphisms are forced upon nature to create
tranquil, balanced visual effects for humans, I try to
create a more complex visual effect. Instead of
architecture as the connective structure, I use
botany. In other words, any one spot of the garden
can be complex and varied, but the repetition of a few
specific species throughout the yard, or even a genus, or
a family, can help tie together the visual effect for
human eyes. Generally, the green parts of the plant
are more important for design decisions than the
flower. Keep in mind that most perennials spend only
about one month or less of the season with flowers on
them.
The garden can be divided into
several mini-ecosystems. For instance, I have a
small prairie zone where I let Echinacea and Rudbeckia
intermingle with Coreopsis. Certain other
species do well in their midst: Aquilegia and Thalictrum
flavum. The connecting thread is the Asteraceae
family, and the common habitats. Near this I
have a boggy meadow garden with Filipendula,
Eupatorium and Veronica. Among these I
find that Ligularia, Iris, Aquilegia and Thalictrum
rochebrunianum are quite content. In a showier
part of the garden where we have a standard "border
garden" along a fence, I put vines on the fence, tall
plants up against the fence in clumps, and small plants in
front. I also keep a series of open pockets between
these clumps where I sow annual seeds each spring.
For instance, a mass of Thalictrum rochebrunianum stands
against the fence. In front of them are oriental
lilies. In front of that is an open space for
annuals. Next to that cluster is another
cluster. In back are large asiatic lilies. In
front of them are Thalictrum aquilegiafolium and Aster novae angliae 'Purple Dome'.
Formal gardeners prefer to leave sizable patches of
empty ground between their plantings which they cover with
mulch. This "gap & cluster" approach
to gardening is very popular and it certainly can lend a
tidy look to the garden, as the gardener can know much
more easily which plants are weeds. To a certain
extent, I do apply this technique, but with a twist.
I let a few seedlings of other species pop up in the
clusters of many plants, and I use the space between the
clusters for planting annual seeds. Also, by leaving
some large holes between clusters, I have clearly defined
areas that I dig up and add compost to, which rejuvenates
the intensively used soil there, and I can bring this
cultivation up close to the mature perennials in such a
way that they too get some compost and soil
amendments.
Although an untrained eye might think that my
inspiration was Jackson Pollack, a little botany reveals
much more careful planning. I never pay much
attention to color effects, except for the colors and
textures of foliage. I want to avoid the
harmonious effects created by careful color planning, and
instead create a much more wild look. In some
cases I even go out of my way to create a strong contrast
or "loud" combination. I don't mean to
disparage the more formal gardens, but I do wish to
express my displeasure at the arrogance of those who
adhere strongly to such norms. If only I had a buck
for every time some unwitting "expert" has tried
to lecture me on garden design. Apollo's opinion was
not highly regarded by Dionysus.
See also my rant on the Botanically
Correct Garden Nazis who resent immigrant
plants.
About the layout of the Garden
Our garden is composed of 18 different areas:
1. The Circumpolar Garden [It
has its own page] Landsaping in our front yard, which
consists of a soil acidification project for cultivating
boreal species--especially ericaceous plants. Some
ranunculaceae are also
included.
2. The lily and Fritillaria bed in front of the
deck: An assortment of oriental and OT Hybrid lilies
makes up the summer show, while columbines, fritillaria,
daffodils and pasque flowers rule the spring.
The main columbine here is the stately yet rakish Nora
Barlow. Basically we enjoy tearing this up often for
sowing seeds and adding more summer bulbs. The
spring bulbs stay in their places. Mature
clumps of purple pasque flowers sit in the corners, consolida
(larkspur) seed sprinkled about for ground cover, and
then there is a tight mass of Fritillaria persica, F.
asyriaca, F. Imperialis (yellow), F. meleagris combined
with the Jetfire cyclamenus daffodil. I
am probably most dissatisfied with this bed. I have
long had the plan to remove the stately, healthy and
controlled arborvitae. The house came with three of
these in a row and two false spireas between them.
Being in a prime location in the backyard for sun and for
viewing, I wanted to change the look there to something
more personal. I left only the left arborvitae, and
began to root prune it and manicure it. The root
pruning helps keep the surrounding plants happier, and it
restricts the growth of the arborvitae. An elderly
Kentucky gardener taught me why my shrub looks so much
better at its advanced age than most: many
evergreens like arborvitaes, junipers and spruce are
accustomed to growing in situations where there is a lot
of competition for root space and moisture. When
they are given unimpeded growing conditions as decorative
specimen plants, they grow like mad and literally grow
themselves to death. By restricting the expansion of
its root zone, and pruning it carefully, it has become a
really attractive element--and it must be 18 years old
now. Eventually, I'd like to transform this bed into
an evergreen garden, but I think I'll try to make it
coexist with the thriving clumps of fritillaria meleagris.
3. The long bed. Installed in 1995, it stretches
from the garage to the deck along our west property line
with a chain link fence. The taller plants In the back row are
somewhat variable. The usual plants include various tall
meadow rues, dahlias, annual poppies, a trumpet lily and
grass clumps are planned for the future. In the mid range
are larkspurs, nigellas, geraniums, Japanese Iris, Monkshoods,
aster, astilbe, and more assorted lilies. In the front
are small annuals like marigolds. This is where
you can see most clearly my use of "gap &
cluster" gardening. The pockets between the
clusters are completely torn up, cultivated, fertilized
and planted with annual seeds, bedding plants and dahlias
each year. In 2005, the plantings of annual poppies here
were absolutely stunning. In 2006 we are
repeating this with minimal digging and seeding. I
put so much work into this soil over the last two years,
I'm taking a break. Plus, the weather did not comply
with the usual schedule for doing that, so we pretty much
left it as is from last year. Lots of poppies,
larkspur and nigella self-seeded.
4. The main bed. Installed in 1994, it is the
oldest section of the garden. It is a wider flare to the
south end of the long bed and is divided into a wet portion
and a drier portion. The wet portion forms an L along
the fence and then jutting inward with about 8-10 feet
remaining before reaching the back chainlink fence. It
contains dusty meadow rue, ligularia stenocephalla, trollius and Jacob's Ladder,. The drier
section is composed of prairie plants like gayfeathers,
grasses, pasque flowers, lance-leaved coreopsis, echinacea,
evening primrose, black-eyed susan, cosmos, grasses.
In the wetter section there is a cluster that I am very
happy with. It is brightly colored in late spring:
Thalictrum aquilegiafolium in deep pink, Jacob's Ladder,
Cimicifuga ramosa, blue Platycodon (balloon flower), and
Lemon Queen Trollius. They are closely packed,
and look great together. This area evokes the
impression of an exotic meadow.
5. The back 40. Installed in 1994
and greatly expanded between then and 1996. Behind the main bed, it was dug
piecemeal from 1994 to present. Currently we have it filled
with Monarda didyma 'Cambridge Scarlet', a local species
of annual foxtail grass that came with the house, Thalictrum
flavum, some biennial Lunaria, Aquilegia canadensis,
Mullein and Papaver orientalis. This
prairie section is bordered by the meadow section, which
is marked by a wall of Queen
of the Prairie, Joe Pye Weed and Ironweed. This is
the sunniest section of the garden, but it is in the back,
so it isn't visible from the central part of the backyard,
unless you walk to the back, past the wall of Queen of the
Prairie. This is the lowest maintenance area of the
garden. One thing is
for sure--a bit o'grass makes a wild garden look more
... wild. The nice thing about annual
foxtail grass is that you can easily spot the perennial
species in the Spring and kill them. The foxtail
grass germinates in May, and given good moisture will grow
to about 3-4 feet. In drier conditions, it's only
about 1 foot. It's attractive and extremely easy to
pull by hand. Pulling up last year's crop in the
Spring is good cultivation practice, and helps encourage
an annual cleanup of undesirables, and control of
aggressive species that might be overtaking others.
6. Alpine bed. The leading edge of the
transition between the main bed and the long bed.
Originally, this was intended for low growing plants and
bulbs. I put in several heathers in the front, and
kind of messed that up. Now that I have shifted my
heather fetish the front yard, I am free to recreate the
alpine bed here, perhaps with a scree. Currently,
this is the location of our birdbath. Around it are Japanese bloodgrass, a short species of
allium, small Fritillarias like meleagris, acmopetala,
asyriaca, the small Thalictrum coreanum, and the taller T.
rochebrunianum, and T. aquilegiafolium, Japanese Iris.
There is also a vigorous bed of hens and chicks, and some
of the annual seeds. The heathers have been cut way
back.
7. The shady bog. On the north side of the garage
is a dark, wet spot that even the maple tree can't seem
to dry out. Nevertheless a landscape cloth root barrier
defines a wonderful little clump where a clump of cimicifuga racemosa
is surrounded by hostas, bleeding
heart, sweet woodruff, vinca vine, etc. The cimicifuga
is self-seeding strongly.
8. The raised bed. This has two parts at least--the
shaded woodland bed and the sunny end. In the shaded,
north end is our collection of local and exotic woodland
plants including 2 ferns, jack-in-the-pulpit, variegated
solomon's seal, columbine leaf meadow rues, bloodroot,
Isopyrum biternatum, Anemonella thalictroides, I
keep this soil somewhat limed, and use coffee grounds
with Miracid to help the acid-lovers. The center point
of the raised bed is a silver maple tree surrounded by
a carefully sculpted black raspberry. This is a superb
way to grow raspberries. In the sunny end there are 3
different columbines, astilbe, Siberian iris, sedum, day lilies, tiger lily,
and varying annuals amongst them--usually larkspur and
poppies. On the Western edge of this raised
bed, the sunniest side in Winter, there is one of the
worst areas I have for frost heaving. An
important note: putting a raised bed around the base of a
tree is a bad idea in general. Apparently, it's
especially bad with maples. However, we did not
install it. It came with the house. Also, it
is working quite well for the tree, which is doing
extremely well. At this point, I fear that removing
the raised bed would be worse for the tree. If we
ever decide to kill the tree, we'll probably remove this
raised bed.
9. The triangle. Underneath our bathroom window
and next to our back door and deck is an attractive shady
nook that contains Thalictrum Rochebrunianum and
T. aquilegiifolium, Monkshood, medium sized ferns,
lots of Haquetia epipactis, yellow epimedium, foam flower,
goat's beard, and a lovely cream-yellow English Primrose,
all edged with railroad ties and Lady's Mantle. The goat’s
beard is, at ten years of age, really large and
beautiful. I think a
shade tolerant evergreen is in line, provided that it
is tolerant of winter sun. It took four years for this
section to really mature and look full. But it was
the Spring of 2004 that really set the standard. The
Lady's Mantles are now quite large.
10. The Hellebore bed. Near the previous
two shady beds, this shady bed is the show stopper for
spring. Two Helleborus orientalis, lots of gorgeous
sweet woodruff, fern-leafed bleeding heart, Thalictrum
aquilegiafolium, Thalictrum dioicium, Highbush Cranberry, assorted spring
bulbs.
11. Kevin's Fence Our neighbor erected a lovely
wooden fence that adds to the shade of the specimens.
There is another hole with landscape cloth lining it to
isolate the roots of two mature clumps of Thalictrum rochebrunianum,
hepatica, maiden hair fern, Hepatica.
There are also variegated Solomon's Seal, Cimicifuga and assorted daylilies.
12. The Raingarden This is a work in progress, but will occupy the space
between our house and our neighbor to the East. It is
brightly lit, but no direct sun really gets there once
the leaves are out, except
for about an hour at midday. A large maple tree in our
raised bed shades it, as do the houses. It stays moist
in there, so we plan to fill it with hostas, Haquetia,
Maidenhair ferns, hellebores, wild ginger, of course some
meadow rue and such. I have started digging the
hole for the raingarden, but I must remove a Viburnum bush
and a birch tree to do it right. After I get them
out, I plan to excavate a small pond-like hole about three
feet deep and twenty feet long. The idea is to
capture the roof runoff from our two houses and drain it
straight down through the sandy soil. Right
now, most of the plants here are woodland and shade lovers
that overflow from other area. Thalictrums, hostas,
ligularia, astilbe, European Wild Ginger, Anemonella,
Trillium.
13. The porch On the west side of
our front porch there is a tall cedar trellis reaching
to the roof of the porch. On it are a Clematis
tangutica, which sports yellow paper lantern flowers.
This fast growing vine climbs into and around a thriving
Dropmore Honeysuckle vine. Oh, is that ever nice.
Around the base of these we have an area that we tend to
rip up and redo every year. Generally, we put
in an assortment of tender bulbs
like calla lilies, peruvian daffodils, Tigridia
and whatever trips our trigger. There are also
several asters and dianthus, and various annuals we vary from year
to year. A New England aster has a permanent home
there.
14. The Boulevard In Minnesota, you drive
your car on the parkway and you park it in the
boulevard. Where we're from, they drive on
the boulevard and park on the
"parking." Anyway, that stretch of land
along the curb and sidewalk. Not long ago it was
illegal to plant things there. Now they are becoming
popular locations for people attempting to hide their
inability to cultivate grass there. Face it, in
urban environments where salting, sanding and plowing
occur during winter, weeds and some flowers grow much
better than grass. At first I didn't do much to prep
the soil. In spring 2005 I tore this up and added
amendments--gypsum, greensand, peat and compost. I
then seeded the whole thing with seeds I had gathered from
last year. There were annual poppies, blue
larkspurs, small blue delphiniums, small red delphiniums
(which have yet to bloom), blue aquilegia, white aquilegia
flabelatta, cledanthus, and then we fill in holes with
annuals and shellflowers. There are also two
leadplants, but these are still quite small. We haven't taken a lot of time to
prep the soil here. Mostly, I'm focused on actually
trying to conquer most of the weeds out there by
hand. It's a tough task, but after three years of
constant effort, I am finally starting to see the
results. There is a large bed about four feet wide
and twenty feet long that I have built up a bit, and added
lots of peat moss and greensand. We have been using it for an
annual seed bed. Two years ago the city installed
attractive street lights, and there is one right in our
front yard, so we grow flowers at the base of it, and at
the base of a tree there. However, all of these beds
are still very informal. I don't have any kind of
edging. I just do a lot of weeding. The wide
variety of insurgent forces is almost as messy and
unwieldy as Iraq.
15. The side bed When we bought the house,
there was a railroad tie bed on top of the sidewalk between
my house and my neighbor's lot. We let it
go wild for ten years, and in 2001 we tamed it, and
placed much better soil in it. We will edge the
house with beautiful perennials. It could be raised
a bit, but I'm not sure what materials to use. I
really don't like the blandly uniform interlocking blocks
that are so popular now. Stone costs too damn much.
Currently the soil is about 8" deep. I could
bring it up to about 10". An arrangement of
Thalictrum rochebrunianum in a clump on either side, flanking
a clump of yellow day lilies, balanced by Karl Forster
grass on the other side. In the center is another
New England aster. In front of all of this we plant
various warm climate plants like Mexican shellflowers
and nasturtiums.
16. The Rose Wall: basically, an 8' privacy wall
on the West side of our deck: Clematis and two hardy climbing
roses .
17. The deck--potted plants and herbs. These vary from
year to year, but rosemary, sweet basil and Italian Parsley
are always there.
In total, I imagine that it occupies some 2500 square
feet, so this small area is intensely cultivated and widely
varied with 184 species. It's a 120x40' lot, a
two-story house, a large garage and about 500 square feet
of manually weeded lawn.
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