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The Garden Life: Telling a story with your garden

The Columbian
Published: May 6, 2010, 12:00am
2 Photos
The fernleaf Japanese maple is an elegant, four-season specimen tree that fits nicely into a variety of Northwest garden styles.
The fernleaf Japanese maple is an elegant, four-season specimen tree that fits nicely into a variety of Northwest garden styles. Photo Gallery

I approach spring gardening as if editing the story I want to tell through my garden.

In a well-planned garden in early spring, empty spaces between shrubs and ground covers were temporarily filled with the blossoms of early blooming snowdrops, crocus and daffodils. In May those spaces come alive with buttery-yellow perennial heucherellas and the delicate silver-blue veined foliage of Brunnera “Jack Frost.”

Today I scoured the bare earth of a sleepy shade border in search of seven white flowering astilbes that I planted last year.

The first six were easy to find, their red stems shiny and tumescent, standing half a foot tall. At the top of each stem a little flag of unfolding foliage waved in the breeze. Number seven still eludes me.

In my search, I ran across a cluster of pencil-thin, leafy protrusions. It took a while to recognize this new plant growth as Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis).

I had planted them over two years ago and had not seen a sign of them since. I thought they had rotted away in the wet, winter soil, but here they were, strong and stout, only half a foot from the false spirea. I have come to expect magic, in the midst of anticipation.

Everything about spring delights me now. Daylight lasts longer and the sun rises higher in the sky with each passing day. There was more than one hour of difference in daylight from the beginning to the end of March.

Until now we’ve been tantalized by bits and pieces of color in the garden; a cluster of snowdrops here and a dozen crocuses there. With the onset of May, perennial flowers begin to bloom in abundance.

How serious are you about having your garden grow to match the image you envision in your mind’s eye? It is true that making a garden is an artistic endeavor, which allows for a great degree of creative expression.

On the other hand, a more critical approach to planning, which includes considering the maintenance necessary to maintain the garden, is equally important to a garden’s ultimate success.

I suggest that you take an inventory of your garden this spring. A successful business does an occasional inventory as a matter of course. One purpose of an inventory is to get a clear picture of exactly what you have.

Another is to remind yourself what resources you have to work with. When you are fully aware of this information and consider it in your overall garden plans, you will be more satisfied with the results.

Lessons learned

There is no better way to gather new ideas and to garner inspiration than by visiting other gardens. Still, whenever you consider changing your garden to incorporate a new idea, it is worth reminding yourself of the work involved in maintaining every detail of a garden.

A beautiful white picket fence may be charming but it has to be cleaned and repainted every year without fail to keep it looking its best.

From experience, we learn the needs of our garden plants and the limit of our efforts. As important as having enough time to take care of the garden we create is learning to consider, ahead of time, the requirements of each plant we are going to put in our garden. If you are considering planting a flowering cherry tree, part of the job of planting that tree is choosing a variety that fits the location.

It’s also worth noting that buying a plant does not guarantee that it will fit into your garden. Almost every garden has a secret cluster of plant purchases hidden away because the gardener cannot find a suitable place to plant them.

On the other hand, if you have a garden plan as well as a plant list, you have the resources you need to match any plant in any nursery to your garden’s specific needs.

Even as spring plants continue to emerge, I feel the desire to introduce new varieties to my own garden. At the same time, I see potential seasonal chores beginning to line up in the never-ending cycle of things to do.

As you edit the story of your own garden, it’s up to you to decide which task to perform first and then, the next and the next.

As for me, all of these open spaces trigger an impulse to plant and transplant. We each have our individual compulsions. I happen to be the type that goes for dessert first.

Robb Rosser is a WSU-certified Master Gardener. Reach him at Write2Robb@aol.com.

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