Pre-planned gardens, part I

There are two ways of looking at this. We are either in the depths of one of the coldest and snowiest winters in the past 20 years. Or, for the optimist, only about 10 weeks away from spring.

Either way though, we are at a point where the symptoms of cabin fever are on the rise. For many of us, the treatment (the only true cure being spring) comes in the form of the new year’s gardening catalogs and our dreams of how our gardens are going to be so much better this time around.

Many, however, are new to this wonderful thing we call gardening and planning (let alone planting). And implementing that visionary garden or border can be a frustrating challenge.

There are so many questions when it comes to planning the garden: How big should it be? Should the garden be in the sun or shade, or will it maybe reach from the sunny side over to the shady spot in the corner? Will it be just annuals, perhaps a perennial border of English origin or a mix of these two with some biennials? And where, oh where, will you get the plants?

Everything you read says the greatest variety of planting material is available by mail or on the internet, but you do so well remember seeing at the store those incredible 2- and 3-gallon delphiniums, the luscious lupines all spiked out in pinks and blues, the 5-gallon peonies whose flowers and heavenly scent were to die for and the hostas with foliage rippled, dappled, splashed and willing to grow in the shade.

The panic soon sets in as you begin to remember that this garden is more than just plants. It’s also about planning and design. How in the world will you give it color and texture from April to October especially when some of the plants are short, some very tall and some others falling right in-between?

Or, for the more experienced gardener, the concept might seem simple at first. Until you realize that what’s blooming when, where and at what size doesn’t necessarily fit the plan in your mind’s eye.

Rest easy. The ultimate solution is patience and experience. The willingness to read, experiment and look to see what others have done and to have the courage to do what they haven’t.

But if you are ever so slightly timid, if you want a crack at a possible easy way out, maybe you should take a look at some pre-planned gardens and either try one or use one as the basis for your starting point.

My first exposure to pre-planned gardens was when I was in England visiting Blooms Nurseries in the early 1980s. I’ll never forget seeing my first Blooms of Bressingham catalog, which had hundreds of perennials that I’d never heard of or seen before.

There, on page after page, were designed garden plans incorporating all these plants. You could buy an entire garden based on the plan and all you had to do was place your order and wait until your plants arrived in the spring. Upon arrival, you just had to install the plants as per the plan, nurture the plants for a few months and you were well on your way to having a classic English perennial border.

These are always works in progress though, as should be every garden. But in a year or two, the garden was well on its way to maturity. And yes,

constant change. I say constant change because there is always room for at least one more plant, one more space, one more tweak.

Indeed, the garden is always being finished. Ha!

After seeing the wonderful potential that the Blooms program had, we realized that there was really nothing like it on this side of the big puddle. Not having the resources or background of the great English plantsmen, we hybridized their concept and began to make up simple but elegant garden plans using all the great mail-order nurseries in the United States.

On this side of the pond, we would design a garden—often based conceptually on a Blooms garden—and adapt it to the United States using plants available here. The result was “Perennial Border Designs,” “English Garden Designs Adapted for the U.S.,” “Cottage Garden Designs” and “Designs for Shaded Gardens.” We published these plans using line drawings and an IBM Selectric typewriter and for the most part they have long since vanished after 20,000 copies were sold.

In total, these books contained more than 70 very different gardens you could build. Some had only a dozen or so different plants in less than 25 square feet while others had hundreds of plants in a much larger and more complex arrangement.

The best part about pre-planned garden books (then and now) is that you can buy the plants anywhere and you can make changes to any of the gardens. And all the combinations, locations and blooming sequences have all been worked out for you. 
Beginners working with plans like these are able to have a certain sense of confidence instilled that they were 
striking out on their own, but in a safe way.

So don’t worry too much, there is a garden plan for just about everybody—from the planting novice to the most green-thumbed old hand in the garden. Next week, we’ll explore some of the best options for pre-planned gardens today. Keep growing.

Andrew Messinger has been a professional horticulturist for more than 30 years. He divides his time between homes and gardens in Southampton, Westchester and the Catskills. E-mail him at: Andrew@hamptongardener.com. The Hampton Gardener is a registered trademark.