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Older gardens have a marvelous sense of stability and a unique character. They're restful to wander around in or sit inside. Not that they're static, no garden ever stays exactly the same. But they have a depth of spirit, you might say, a quality that's almost indescribable.

The gardeners and the gardens seem to have reached a balance that means, usually, less work. The more plants there are to fill the space, the fewer the weeds and, often, the less water it needs. The plants that do well have been allowed to spread, the ones that didn't work out are gone. The shrubs and trees are full grown. Stability amid change, that's what a mature garden says.

Nurturing stability

A stable piece of land has a good plant cover, often three or four layers from ground covers to tall perennials or shrubs. No bare soil, no expanses of mulch, means less maintenance. This ideal may take a few years and many plants to achieve, but it's a worthwhile goal.

Nurturing meaning

Meaning is always personal, something to give to an object in the outer world, a way of melding inner and outer reality. You can always add something with meaning to a garden, a statue, a rose planted to honor a friend, a special rock from your favorite place.

The more meaning infused into your garden, the more the garden as a whole with feel uniquely yours, and the more energy you'll have for working with it. In a way, gardens are like sandboxes for grownups. We play around, change the furniture or the decorations and when we get bored we find something else to do.

Nurturing possibilities

Brainstorming is a good winter activity, or even something to occupy yourself in the midsummer heat when you're not going to actually change anything. Seed catalogs arrive, you. have time to look at gardening sites online or the beautiful books of photos that tempt us into bookstores.

And brainstorming is, by definition, separate from decision-making. Ideas, lots of ideas, are the purpose here. Write them down, collect photos, let your imagination roam. Practicality comes later.

Older gardens have a marvelous sense of stability and a unique character. They're restful to wander around in or sit inside. Not that they're static, no garden ever stays exactly the same. But they have a depth of spirit, you might say, a quality that's almost indescribable.

The gardeners and the gardens seem to have reached a balance that means, usually, less work. The more plants there are to fill the space, the fewer the weeds and, often, the less water it needs. The plants that do well have been allowed to spread, the ones that didn't work out are gone. The shrubs and trees are full grown. Stability amid change, that's what a mature garden says.

Nurturing stability

A stable piece of land has a good plant cover, often three or four layers from ground covers to tall perennials or shrubs. No bare soil, no expanses of mulch, means less maintenance. This ideal may take a few years and many plants to achieve, but it's a worthwhile goal.

Nurturing meaning

Meaning is always personal, something to give to an object in the outer world, a way of melding inner and outer reality. You can always add something with meaning to a garden, a statue, a rose planted to honor a friend, a special rock from your favorite place.

The more meaning infused into your garden, the more the garden as a whole with feel uniquely yours, and the more energy you'll have for working with it. In a way, gardens are like sandboxes for grownups. We play around, change the furniture or the decorations and when we get bored we find something else to do.

Nurturing possibilities

Brainstorming is a good winter activity, or even something to occupy yourself in the midsummer heat when you're not going to actually change anything. Seed catalogs arrive, you. have time to look at gardening sites online or the beautiful books of photos that tempt us into bookstores.

And brainstorming is, by definition, separate from decision-making. Ideas, lots of ideas, are the purpose here. Write them down, collect photos, let your imagination roam. Practicality comes later.

Gardening with Skill and Delight

Growing the forgotten annuals

With beautiful annuals crowding spring nursery shelves, few people venture into the esoteric realm of hardy annuals, those that sprout in cold soil and are unfazed by light frosts. For $3 or $4 you can have a hundred plants or more. Why are these ignored?

First, most seed pack directions say to plant where they will grow because they don't transplant well. Like a lot of info this gets passed around without verification. No, digging them up or breaking up a flat of them isn't a good idea, but planting in 4" pots gives excellent results.

I've had poor results from direct seeding, unless the seeds are large, like nasturtiums. The weeds overwhelm the seedlings or we get a dry period right when they should germinate. I'm sold on the 4" pot technique, myself.

And, if you're skeptical, just look at the list of annuals at one of my favorite online nurseries, "Annie's Annuals and Perennials." She's been selling hardy annuals like Larkspur, California poppies, Godetia, Baby Blue Eyes and Nigella in 4" pots for many years.

Second, many instructions say you need to plant them 6", 10" or 12" apart. Maybe you do if you want to grow prizewinning flowers for the state fair, but bushy clumps of three or four plants in a pot will do just fine. I put a lot of Larkspur seeds in a pot last year and just didn't want to cut any of them out when they sprouted more vigorously than expected. An opportunity to experiment or a way to be lazy, depending on how you look at it.

They ended up as a beautiful bush of blue flowers, maybe not as tall as they could have been, but definitely not in need of staking.

My kind of result!

Larkspur, Consolida ajacis

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