I love my cottage-style garden, with its masses of flowers and greenery.\u00a0 At my place, the garden has plenty of classical elements including brick paths, hedges and stone walls, but the plants rule the roost. The flip side of all that cottage garden charm is that masses of flowers and greenery can easily become messes of flowers and greenery.\u00a0 All it takes is a spell of rainy weather or the temporary absence of the gardener and all bets are off.\u00a0 The thuggish plants\u2014both loved and unloved\u2014see their chance and take it.\u00a0 Crabgrass competes with Russian sage for hegemony in the upper back garden and perilla mint romps freely through every bed.\u00a0 Catmint goes on the prowl, pouncing all over better-mannered plants like coreopsis.<\/p>\n
I have spent the past three months working on a special, non-garden work project, which means that even on weekends the garden has taken a back seat.\u00a0 It is not as if all progress has stopped.\u00a0 The showy parts of the layout have received fitful attention and the privet has gradually been tamed.\u00a0 Even the mountainous oakleaf hydrangea\u2014Hydrangea quercifolia\u2014and the even more mountainous flowering quince–Chaenomeles japonica\u2014have been pruned, though not nearly enough.\u00a0 The hanging baskets on the front porch are, to coin a phrase, hanging in there.\u00a0 Mulching has happened, though more is always needed.\u00a0 I remind myself that mulch scarcity is a perpetual situation, even in past years when I have paid slavish attention to the outdoor scene.<\/p>\n
The worst part of my garden has always been the space on edge of the south side of the property, where a path leads to the gate that divides the upper back from the front garden.\u00a0 On one side, this strip is bounded by a PeeGee hydrangea\u2014Hydrangea paniculata \u2018Grandiflora\u2019–and several large holly trees.\u00a0 A few hostas hold down the fort below.\u00a0 The PeeGee arches over the path and in a few years, tall people will not have to bow their heads to get under it.\u00a0 The hollies\u2019 nearly-everlasting leaves crunch underfoot at all times.\u00a0 The other side is home to a lovely yellow-flowered magnolia tree\u2014Magnolia \u2018Elizabeth\u2019–and several standard-form roses of Sharon that bound the property.\u00a0 Two striped roses, Rosa mundi, also known as Rosa gallica \u2018Versicolor\u2019 and Rosa \u2018Variegata di Bologna\u2019 reside at their feet.\u00a0 Both are fragrant, once-bloomers that make a lovely show in the spring.\u00a0 Except for the path, the earth is completely covered by an intertwined combination of English ivy, Vinca minor and yellow archangel or Lamium galeobdalon.<\/p>\n
Though sometimes colorful, the whole area turns into a black hole when not tended.\u00a0 Shafts of sunlight often penetrate this mess, especially in the mornings, but they don\u2019t do much good, except to encourage the rampant growth of plants like ivy, which need absolutely no encouragement.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s a desperate and time-challenged gardener to do?<\/p>\n
The first step is to figure out what chores will have the most impact in the shortest period of time.\u00a0 Usually that means starting with the biggest plants and the roses of Sharon are ripe for it.\u00a0 This is not the ideal time for the pruning job, as they are either blooming or preparing to do so.\u00a0 Still, the roses of Sharon and the nearby plantings will be better off without the mess of branches that are growing every which way.\u00a0 There will still be plenty of flowers left when I finish with the pruning saw and the plants will look more like trees and less like bushes with embarrassing kneecaps.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the path, the hollies also need limbing-up for tidiness sake.\u00a0 Once that is done, I need to cut a new path through the rampant ground covers so I can get to the outdoor spigot without tripping.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>But what to do about the rest of that ground cover?\u00a0 It is so pretty in spring, with the snapdragon-like yellow archangel complementing the starry, blue-purple vinca.\u00a0 However, there is no plant on the planet that can outcompete English ivy.\u00a0 Left to its own devices, it will vanquish both vinca and archangel.\u00a0 It seems a shame to let it dominate the space so thoroughly.<\/p>\n
As in diplomacy and children\u2019s play-dates, compromise is the answer.\u00a0 I will eliminate the ground covers in some areas, around the existing roses and hostas, for example, and surround them with landscape fabric covered by shredded cedar mulch.\u00a0 This also increases lightness.\u00a0 If I keep a sharp eye on the remaining ivy, I should be able to prevent it from restarting its world domination campaign.<\/p>\n
Once I have edited out superfluous branches and ground cover, I can drop in some pots full of colorful annuals.\u00a0 Coleus will do the job handily, possibly assisted by some bright New Guinea impatiens.\u00a0 Both are on sale right now.<\/p>\n
Even after the current beautification effort is over, this particular corner of the property will need more thought.\u00a0 When bloom time ends for the roses of Sharon, I\u2019ll cut them back by at least one third, because they are too big in proportion to the size of the area they occupy.\u00a0 I\u2019ll consider calling the tree surgeon to continue slimming down the hollies.\u00a0 I realize now that I have been trying to squeeze an arboretum into space better suited for a couple of good-sized flower beds.<\/p>\n
The dark cloud of garden neglect is often lined with silver in the form of a fresh perspective on the plantings.\u00a0 This year I\u2019ve perpetrated the neglect and gained the perspective.\u00a0 As the result, maybe next year I\u2019ll need less time to curse the rambunctious roses-of-Sharon and have more time to smell the Rosa mundi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I love my cottage-style garden, with its masses of flowers and greenery.\u00a0 At my place, the garden has plenty of classical elements including brick paths, hedges and stone walls, but the plants rule the roost. The flip side of all that cottage garden charm is that masses of flowers and greenery can easily become messes … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[462,85,874,589,1232,154,81,1230,457,345,1231],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-cottage-gardens","tag-garden-maintenance","tag-garden-renovation","tag-groundcovers","tag-ilex","tag-invasive-plants","tag-pruning","tag-rosa-mundi","tag-rose-of-sharon","tag-shade-gardening","tag-variegata-di-bologna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1398,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions\/1398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}