Flower garden stock-take time
If your gorgeous flower filled garden doesn’t thrill you any more, it could be time for a stock-take…
You’ve got bullies: this can be hard to spot, but a balanced mix of plants can go from looking astonishingly lovely, to dull, just because some of the plants in the mix don’t know how to hold back. Like loud, overbearing dinner party guests, they’ll dominate until the meeker plants nearby give up. The trick is to spot the pushy plants and either keep them pruned back hard or replace them with something similar that’s better behaved and willing to share the space: like the newer varieties of agapanthus (such as Agapanthus Blue Storm™) over the beasty old-timers.
You’re working your fingers to the bone: every gardener has made this mistake at least once if not many times. We are seduced by the promise of a glorious floral show and we ignore the fact that some of the plants involved will need a lot of care and maintenance. Of course it’s all worth it for the first season or two, but after that, the joy is deadened by the reality of constant watering, deadheading, feeding, spraying, pruning and frost protection. Solution? Give the fussiest plants away to some other victim and replace with look-a-likes that are known for being easy-care.
You crave new friends: gardens are like relationships in that they’re constantly evolving, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. Plants that you found fascinating at first can, over time, be a lot less exciting once you’re exposed to them year after year. Other plants promised to behave in a certain way, then didn’t, simply because every garden offers a different set of growing conditions – wind, shade, too much sun, munching pests, whatever. It’s no-one’s fault, but maybe it’s time to build yourself some fresh friendships. And this time look for the plants that you know will like living where you do.
The sickies: this will sound a bit brutal but your flower garden may be less than lovely because there are too many weaklings dotted through it. When we pick a plant to pop into the garden, we’re usually looking at its lovely face and, even if we’re warned that it has a tendency to suffer from various pests and diseases, we assume everything will be fine. But individual plants get reputations for being sickly simply because lots of people have noted that they… well, get sick. Now’s the moment to be honest and either pull them up to toss onto the compost pile or bonfire. Or if you have a gardening friend who loves to nurse plants along, hand them over, then fill the spaces with something easier to care for like Flower Carpet® roses which don’t have a problem with pretty much anything.
