As a garden designer, many of my design requests from clients come with a list of plants as long as my arm that I must somehow cram include in the garden plan. Being an inveterate plant addict lover myself, I always find it fun to help these folks fit each of their plant friends into the garden.
I mean – plant fanatics – those are my people, you know?
But every so often a client requests something different. I had a client recently who couldn’t care less about flowers, told me she’d not be doing any garden maintenance if she could help it, and just wanted things to look green, lush, and fresh – with interesting structural and textural contrasts in all that greenery. The plants, in other words, were to play a supporting role in the landscape, with broad swathes framing the patio and the house.
That’s the kind of design request I imagine architects getting. Most landscape architects seem to design with plants in broad brush strokes, using 50 of this and 20 of that to create an effect. And that’s really fun to look at, but those gardens often lack something. Soul, life – just a few of the touches that show the designer actually loves the individual plants they chose. Does that sound too hippie?
So I was stoked to get to design in a way that’s different to what most of my clients request, and to get to do those broad architectural drifts with a plant-lover’s eye. The garden hasn’t been installed yet, so I don’t have any photos for you, but doing this plan made me wonder…
Are you a drifter?
Do you design with broad brush strokes and use plants en masse for their structural qualities, or do you fall in love with ten new plant-friends at the nursery and then bring them home and try to find places for them all? Or something in between?
Let me know in the comments below…
7 responses to “Are You a Drifter?”
Gen, This is a great question that got me thinking about my garden vs. the ones I design for clients. When it comes to my garden, I definitely find new friends at every nursery I go to and then try to find places to plant them. I like to do that though so I can evaluate them (or at least that’s what I tell myself!) before I use them in a client’s garden. The other thing I’ll do is buy three of the same plant and plant them in different areas to test how they do in full vs. part sun, etc. When I find a plant I love and that thrives in my garden, I’ll often buy more and then ‘design’. So I guess my garden is more of a test garden or a collection of plants.
That’s an interesting direction, Debbie, and one that’s inspired me. I almost want to do a post now about the differences between how I design for others and how I design for me!
I’m just like you for my house. I would despair of myself if I were my own client! Luckily, I’ve let my expectations of design brilliance go for my home garden, and just loosened up and enjoyed the ride. Lots of hardy tropical-looking things and fruit. Lots and lots of fruit. 🙂
While planting in drifts is by far the most effective way to create movement and lushness in a garden, I am obliged to plant in clumps because most of my clients have small urban or suburban gardens with flowerbeds that are more suited for clump planting.
I’m an overexuberant plant buyer trying desperately to become a drifter. By far, the garden I’ve seen that I love the most are drifted gardens, but when you’re first starting out in gardening it’s very hard to envision that and you end up buy a few of the many plants you love.
My garden is entering phase two, or maybe even phase 3, and as I redo things over the years I’m working hard to incorporate more drifts. If I could have those blue hydrangeas in your picture I might just have drifts of those!
Allan, that’s a great point. I’ve seen even urban and suburban gardens done in drifts, but it really is like using the plants as “plant material”, as the ladies over at Garden Rant would put it. Less room for soul if you drift in small spaces.
Erin, I’m with you – I started my garden with the one of this, one of that style, just because I kept buying plants! Now I’ve found a tiny bit of restraint at the nursery, I’m trying to limit my buying to getting more of what I love, and more of what works.
I do appreciate flowers and plants but gardening is not
my hobbies…Very nice post!
Hi Maggie. Love your name. I have two larger gardens in my backyard, one on each end of the yard. After so many years, I am trying to incorporate perennials in drifts. However, like a lot of people, I continue to find new flowers. Problem- running out of room. You may have heard the song “give me forty acres”- well I wish I had some of them. Everything seems to be a jumble right now. Thanks for listening.-Phyllis