I do often wonder if less knowledge is actually empowering. Let me explain...I'm a novice gardener only starting four or so years ago. I had an idea of what I wanted, Japanese Garden, big cottage flower beds etc because I had seen them elsewhere and appreciated them greatly and I knew the names of a number of plants, but I knew nothing of sowing and growing. I bought tiny plants from Lidl in March and planted them out straight away, I put plants too close together on a number of occasions and have since had to move them. I put sun lovers in the shade and shade lovers in the sun and stuff seemed to work out ok. As gardening became more and more of an obsessive pastime and my lifeline health-wise, I started to read more, and watch gardening videos on YouTube and TV. I couldn't get enough of it! But then gardening suddenly felt not so satisfying. Now I was analysing everything. The trouble with many of the garden make-over programmes is that unless you have a load of cash to throw at the garden and buy all of the plants in one go there will always be a constant juggling and rejigging of plant locations. I on the hand, have bought plants over time. Usually the kind of 100 perennials for a a fiver kind of offer where the plants that arrive are so tiny they can take up to two years before they are 'garden ready'. I do grow a number of annuals which serve to fill spaces but also because I like them. When I watch the likes of Chelsea with its immaculately designed plots, interestingly enough I don't find them particularly inspiring. There is usually too much hard landscaping or 'designer elements' for me. I did look into the RHS garden design courses and quickly decided that it wasn't for me but I came to ask myself the question, do I consider myself a gardener or simply a plant collector? And you know what...I think its the latter.
While I want my plants to fit with their neighbours, I am not looking for a perfectly curated space with a particular colour palette, although there are areas in the garden where certain colours dominate, I can't say I pay any attention to leaf shapes and textures, it all about how I feel when I am in the garden. Of course I have my favourite plants, but I also have some that I'm really not that fussed about and are simply there to fill the space. I take more inspiration from visiting other peoples' gardens and finding new plants to collect. One of the most disappointing elements of the pandemic is the cancellation of the SGS open days, my own included. The ones that have plant sales are my favourites. Here you can pick up plants that may not usually be available in garden centres such as the Corydalis elata that I purchased as a tiny cutting from a wonderful plants-womans' garden just a few miles from me in Ardersier. That was two years ago and this year, at last ,I'm seeing the flowers develop. Since deciding to open my own garden I have felt immense pressure to 'get it right' which in all honesty is absolutely stupid. I have rearranged plants that really did need shifting.
The hellebore's were not thriving in the cottage border and since being moved 10 feet away to the sun room bed are positively thriving. so what does 'right plant right place' really mean? There was no apparent reason for them not to be happy where they were. It was shady, a bit more damp, now they are on a north wall in a windy spot, but with a little more room around them. As half my garden goes into deep shade for what would be the hottest part of the day, it was hard to fathom why the ligularia wasn't really thriving in the middle bed, but it wasn't so I moved it to the back of the pond where it is just as dry and now gets more sun earlier in the day, its shooting up! But I am still looking at the cottage border and feeling that its not quite right. When I look back at pictures from last year I love it, well parts of it. I can't make up my mind if I am just impatient or if I really do need to take every plant out and rejig the whole space. I guess this is not the worse dilemma to have in the grand scheme of things.
