Not all of us are adept at garden design and only some of us can afford professional help. What can we do to get beauty in our landscapes at a cost that still allows us to buy plants?
Of course there are numerous internet sites, software programs, and other web-based means of finding garden plans or formulating designs. But there is another, easily overlooked way to give yourself a quick assist in the design department—the catalogs and websites of plant vendors. Often you can make use of their expert plant combination and design ideas without spending a nickel. All it takes is a little browsing in the right places.
We all have specific garden situations that befuddle us. These include, but are not limited to: dry shade, hungry varmints, wet spots, sun-baked patches or awkward corners. You may have tried various solutions to these problems and come up disappointed. Or you may have commit the horticultural sin that I perpetrate frequently—getting started on a garden solution only to lose interest or run short of the time necessary to complete it.
Never fear, the garden gods forgive almost everything.
When you are ready to try again, turn to the vendors.
One of my favorites, Bluestone Perennials, lists ten separate garden plans on its “Pre-Planned Gardens” page, from “Lamp Post Garden” to ‘Expandable Perennial Garden”. If you click on the individual garden tabs, you can see plant lists and even garden layouts and planting guides that you can download or print out from your computer. While these layouts are designed to fit a specific space configurations and dimensions, you can easily adapt them to fit your individual circumstances.
Of you want, you can order all the plants from that vendor, or go to your local garden center. If you already have some successful specimens on the site, you can simply fill in from the vendor’s planting list.
Go to the website of the venerable New England plant purveyor, White Flower Farm, and click on “Garden Designs” to find listings for both container and in-ground planting schemes. The site shows a picture of the designated landscape—for instance “Meadow Garden”– and the “Product Details” tab provides a plant list, along with dimensions. You don’t get a plan to download, but you can figure out the layout by scrutinizing the picture.
Some vendors don’t provide plans, but do feature plant suggestions for specific situations. The website for David Austin Roses, for example, has an entire section on “Specific Situations”, and the available options range from “Rose Border” to “Shady Areas” to ‘Very Few Thorns”. In every case, the vendor suggests specific rose varieties that do well in the designated situation, along with mature dimensions for each variety. All you have to do is select from the suggested varieties in sufficient quantities to fill your space, and you are all set. Once again, you don’t have to buy anything, but can use the “Specific Situations Guide” for ideas and inspiration.
Some vendors offer curated collections of plants that will work together in selected settings. These collections take the guesswork out of plant and color combinations and assure sequential bloom times. The collections do not include planting layouts, but if you pay attention to the information provided about mature dimensions, you can figure out a logical layout. Select Seeds, which sells old-fashioned and heirloom varieties of seeds and plants, offers seven collections of various annual plants, which are suitable for either container or in-ground growing.
If you have a specific garden theme in mind, some merchants provide collections of plants that fit the theme. Plant Delights Nursery, which stocks an amazing array of species and varieties, features ten different themes, from “Rock Garden Plants” to “Night Gardens”. You pick and choose from among the offerings, using plant dimensions and requirements to determine which ones will fit your space and situation.
I like the ease offered by these vendor-conceived options and the fact that the selections can add a bit of cohesion to home landscapes. Even if I don’t use all of the suggested plants, I get ideas from the combinations and layouts. All vendors include lots of planting and cultural information, which also takes the guesswork out of installation and maintenance.
As winter draws to a welcome end, we are all looking for inspiration. It is closer than you think.