McC Garden: Lessons Learned

The McC Garden: Lessons Learned

I think having a garden has been the most educational thing I've done in the last several years, outside of school. Through trial and error (mostly error), I've learned many valuable lessons:

Roses: lovely but high maintenance and painful to work with. I was tempted by the prospect of a lovely rose garden when we first moved here, but now the only roses we have are the ones that were already here. They're pretty, but a pain in the butt.
Soil types can vary wildly, even in a 37x125' yard. We have dry/rocky, wet/clay, dry/clay, loam over sand, and some decent clay/loam. A plant struggling in one place may only need to be moved to another bed, and just because the loamy soil looks so delicious and chocolately doesn't mean every plant will thrive there. Some plants actually like it hot and dry and rocky!
Overcrowding: The garden in April looks nothing at all like the garden in summer, or even in late May. Biomass accumulates so fast you won't know what hit you. This is important to remember when you look at the bits of green emerging from the soil in the spring and say, "This garden is so sparse! I should add some more plants!" Remember how wide each plant was last year. Take pictures. When in doubt, just wait. You can add more plants any time during the season, *if* you really do have gaps.
Vinca is a great groundcover, even in horrid growing conditions, but don't expect to plant anything else in that bed because vinca makes a dense mat of roots through which no water can go, and it doesn't stay nicely inside its bed.
Daylilies can rapidly get out of hand. I was thrilled to have drifts of the "wild" orange ones in our garden when we bought the house, but I have lately been yanking them out or just cutting them off at the ground so they don't crowd everything else.
Rudbeckia hirta, the native black-eyed Susan, is an annual. It drops so many seeds that in the spring the path to the trashcans is covered with tiny fuzzy seedlings, and every single one grows into a huge flowering plant by late summer. It seems like a crime to thin out such lovely plants! Luckily, they transplant easily to other parts of the garden, but there does come a time when I have to suck it up and just tear out handfuls of them, or mow them.
Rearranging: Plants can generally be moved easily, even if they've been in one spot for years. If they're struggling, I often find that the roots never got free from the initial root ball, indicating that either I didn't do a good job of planting, or the difference in soils is just too great (roots won't cross readily between soil types).
Spray for black spot on roses early and often!
The best way to control aphids, if the plant in question is small enough, is to just clip off the terminal shoots where the aphids are gathered. I'll go to great lengths to avoid having to spray insecticides. I've grown to love my bumblebees, even though they freak me out sometimes.
White Dutch clover, which can be purchased from seed providers on-line, makes a great filler for bare patches in the lawn. It tends to gum up the lawn mower a bit, but it covers better than grass and also can nurse grass seedlings once established. Also, very pretty.
Edging: Edging a garden, even with just a sharp spade line between garden and lawn, turns a hopeless jumble of plants into an intentional informal garden. It also makes the lawn easier to mow! Plain rectangular bricks are the best garden edger. That black plastic edging stuff is awful to work with, and it's ugly! I also like the short green wire fencing that comes in a roll. It serves a dual purpose of keeping the dogs out of the gardens and propping up floppy plants, and it's nearly invisible.
Letting go: If certain plants won't grow, just let them die, and don't take it personally. There are plenty of other plants...in the...sea...whatever. Don't waste a ton of energy babying the prima donnas; look at what does succeed in your garden, and plant more of that.
Natives, or native-like, plants, are always best. Always. They also help support local bird and insect populations that need those species to carry out their own life cycles. I really love the Illinois natives -- the grasses and purple and gold flowers, the butterflies they attract, the immensely deep roots and the fact that I only have to water very rarely.
Clumps, not rows!

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