Right-Sizing Garden Tips

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of writing a piece on right-sizing garden tips for one of the top ten gardening blogs, Cold Climate Gardening .  I received a lot of positive feedback about this article based on my new book, The Right-Size Flower Garden.  I hope you’ll enjoy it.  To learn many more tricks, design tips and outstanding plants, please buy the book!

We’re busy, we’re aging, but we love gardening! Are you swamped with a job and family; or an over 50 gardener that doesn’t move at the same pace; or a city dweller with a passion for plants but little space to work with?

I bet you fall into one of the above scenarios.  I fit two of the three.  Everyone loves flowers, but who can tend a garden that demands too much time and energy to keep looking beautiful? And how does one incorporate environmentally responsible gardening in this out-of-control picture?

Below are some of the steps I took to regain my sanity, cut maintenance time by 50%, and renew my passion for gardening.  Many more, including time-saving design solutions and exceptional plants are in my new book, The Right-Size Garden: Simplify Your Outdoor Space with Smart Design Solutions and Plant Choices.

First, repeat after me:  Plants are not your children or pets.  You can ditch those that are too much trouble or never performed well in the garden.  Many of you reading this are women.  We tend to be nurturers and caretakers.  And that’s good, but we need to draw the line on needy plants!  No more making excuses for troublemakers that cause frowns – this only creates more wrinkles.  Grab the shovel, pop ‘em out, give ‘em to friends or the compost pile, and celebrate one less hassle to deal with.

Replace mixed perennial beds with flowering shrubs. For years I’ve been a perennial collector.  I loved creating gardens massed with tried and true beauties as well as funky, unusual, eye-brow raising specimens.  Unfortunately the reality is that most perennials are more demanding than shrubs.  Perennials typically need more water, fertilizer and routine maintenance.   A single shrub that struts gorgeous flowers and flattering leaves, with little preening on my part, wins the beauty pageant! Plus one shrub can efficiently hold court in a space that would require numerous perennials.  I had a head thumping, ‘I could have had a V-8’ moment and started replacing sweeps of perennials with flowering shrubs.  Oh what a relief it was!

A few of my favorite spring blooming picks include Fothergilla (Bottlebrush, pictured ‘Blue Shadow’); Azalea ‘Northern Hi-Lights’, Syringa ‘Bloomerang’ (a repeat blooming lilac), Cornus ‘Golden Shadows’ and Daphne ‘Carol Mackie’.  Summer champions include almost any Hydrangea in the paniculata or arborscens groups.  If my arm was twisted for specific cultivars I would name p. ‘Quickfire’, p. ‘Little Quickfire’, p. ‘Limelight’, p. ‘Bobo’, p. ‘Tardiva’ as well as a. ‘Incrediball’ and a. ‘Annabelle’.  Before I mention a few other summer blooming sensations, I want to point out that leaving out bigleaf (mophead) Hydrangeas was not a typo or a senior moment.  I am fed up with their blooming inconsistency in colder climate regions, plus they’re water hogs, (wilting in afternoon heat) and I’m into water conservation and saving money on my water bills.  Sayonara!

To read the rest of this article featuring more shrubs and design tips, go to the blog post I wrote for Cold Climate Gardening.