Lois de Vries' Garden Views

This septic system's mounded leach field is planted as a perennial garden. Working on the garden landscape is such an exciting pastime that it’s hard not to jump right in with every next big idea that comes along. In some ways, the garden industry is not very different from the fashion industry – styles come and go; this year’s “in” color is “out” next year; breeders are constantly tweaking petal profile, plant height, color, and shape; and trends, such as replacing the front lawn with meadow grasses, installing a Koi pond, or building a private water park, come and go.  Permits and professionals If you’re planning to make some big or important changes, do you know where to start? Practical matters come first. If you envision any major structural or drainage modifications, check with your local governing authority about what permits may be required and whether certain types of work must be done by an engineer or other professional. You don’t want to pay a contractor big buc...

Connect with Nature from inside the house as well as from outside of it! Every gardener fails at something It goes with the territory. Even the best of us have plants beset by insects, fungi, bacteria and other pests that are difficult to control and can wipe out an entire growing season’s work. Then there is the weather – early snows, late ice storms, drought, floods, etc., all take a toll. Gardeners learn that they have to be flexible and roll with the punches. That ability is also important when others, particularly loved ones, don’t share our opinion about the importance of gardening in the big picture of national or global upheaval. And if you can’t show perfect results in a hurry, some folks may be inclined to suggest that you aren’t very good at gardening. Are you intimidated by the gardens you see in books and magazines? Do you feel that, if your garden doesn’t measure up to some ideal, it isn’t worth having? Do you feel pressured to ...

Tour your garden just the way it is now. If you had never seen your garden before, what would you think? Do you like it? Not like it? If not, take the time to figure out why. Sometimes it’s as simple as the fact that you don’t like some of the plants, ornaments, or structures that are there. Perhaps they were put in by a former homeowner whose vision of the garden was very different from your own. If you’ve lived in the same place for a long time, it may be that the way your 60-year old self calls out to use the garden is very different from what you wanted when you were 30. No one has to live with a garden that doesn’t feel right. My garden is not likely to ever appear in a magazine, even though as a scout for a national publisher, I’ve had the chance to study hundreds of fabulous gardens and have interviewed scores of landscape designers. Why? Because I live in the middle of a woodland forest, which means that the garden’s primary summer color is green. It’s very soothing and t...

Once you’ve settled on a garden style, it’s time to break out the reference books and plant catalogs to create a list of what to buy and how much it all will cost. That's your wish list. Next, add up the cost of everything on your wish list. Even if you can afford everything on the list, think about how much time and effort it will take to install it all. Can you get it done in one growing season? If the cost is too far beyond your budget, or the work can’t all be done in one season, consider breaking your plan into more manageable phases. Don’t buy anything that’s not on your list, or before you know it, your garden will look nothing like your original vision. Stay focused and follow your plan; it’s the map to the garden of your dreams. Balancing the budget Creating a balanced gardening budget means weighing the financial cost of proceeding, against the psychic cost of denying yourself a meaningful pursuit. It doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition, of course. If ...

 If you feel unsure about where or how to invest your time, energy, or money, you're not alone. Making choices about how much money to spend, whether to grow your own plants from seed or cuttings, which plants to choose, etc., must also take into consideration where you are in your own life cycle. For example, if you want to plant oak trees in order to enjoy watching wildlife eat the acorns, remember that the trees will not produce any nuts until they are 20 – 30 years old. To begin, create a bubble diagram that shows your planned activity areas; hardscape and plantscape; an inventory of what will be left once you’ve moved, or removed, what you don’t like; and a rough indication of where you want various types of new features, ornaments, and plants. For some gardeners, the next step is the most difficult: Choosing how you want your garden to grow. Do you want to look out on masses of a specific color? Do you want to collect a variety of the same species of plants, such as rose...

Secret #2: Reconnect to Your Inner Gardener I enjoy Garden Writers conferences. What's your favorite gardening thing? Do you feel like you’re going through the motions of gardening without getting much enjoyment? The sense of satisfaction we experience from gardening comes from within. Dissatisfaction is a symptom that we've become disconnected from our inner gardener. This discontent can arise from several sources. Someone or something outside ourselves can cause us to want to abandon our efforts. For example, if a garden club friend makes a critical remark about your painted flower pots that leads you to abandon what you had thought was a fun project, the enjoyment you derive from decorating flower pots could temporarily leak out of your life. The cure is to recall the pleasure you get from this activity and affirm that that is a good enough reason to continue doing it. Another kind of leak occurs when something that used to hold meaning for us no longer does, f...

Secret #1: How to Generate That Magical Quality What's your ideal dream garden? Have you been to other people’s gardens that seem to have a magical quality to them, but can’t seem to create it in your own? What may be missing is you. The heady atmosphere we encounter in certain very special gardens is a direct expression of their gardeners' inner being. A fortunate few are able to garden this way subconsciously. The rest of us have to learn how to do it. And that's good news, because we can learn to paint our landscapes just as we learn to paint a picture. The tools we use are the myriad of greens and greys that nature supplies as a background, flowers that come in every color of the rainbow, and the bark, foliage, and natural features that add texture. But the ideas come from inside ourselves. The ethereal feelings, or atmospherics, manifest as we invest important parts of ourselves in the garden. We have to be willing to expend thought, energy, emotion, time, mo...