Garden Rules? Not on my turf LOL.

Annette

Since I have no idea what the "rules" are, I probably break all of them! :)

Ginny

I always plant using my intuition and go with what feels good.
I am a definite rule breaker when it comes to following my HOA rules: grass, one tree upfront, no furniture on loan, ask permission to build, plant, think or dig.
Like hairstyle or wardrobe - one needs to express their individuality and find their style, instead of trying to look like a copy-cat in a magazine. Even if HOA says you should :).
Live freely, people - enjoy your gardens! Go with works for you.
~Natalie

CMK, I agree about designing like the magazines. I don't really want my yard to look like a mag page. I want it to reflect me. However, that's no problem for me, because I probably couldn't get it to look like the mag even if I tried! LOL

I'm a big no rototiller person. So many people think you have to do that before starting a garden. But there are other ways that are so much better for the soil and easier on you. Especially if you have a little time and patience.

Don't ask me. I barely got out of gardening jail for breaking so many "rules". I didn't even get to pass go or collect $200 (presumably to give me more financial resources to break even more rules!)

I trample all over my fresh soil and wet spring soil; I don't plant bulbs nearly as deep as I "should"; I prune at exactly the "incorrect" times of year; I plant with wreckless abandon with no regard to any design rules; my paths are not nearly wide enough; I pull plants that I want to move out of the ground with my bare hands (if they'll yank that easily), yes, I'm very mean to my plants; rootbound = discount, who can resist; oh, I can go on and on.

I have to agree, I do get tired of reading all the rules we should be following as gardeners. My garden has never seemed to mind all the lawlessness that goes on around it. Sure, maybe if I followed some of the rules my perennials or annuals might bloom longer (deadhead), or maybe a plant would flourish a bit more if I divided it more often, but they don't complain so I don't worry about it.

I think overall both my garden and myself are pretty happpy with each other without all those rules!

Three rules...water a lot, use plenty of manure, and don't buy plants that aren't good in cold zones. And the last one, I do break, if I have a protected spot, out of the winter winds.

All the other rules? My handbook must have gotten lost in the mail! My mom will sometimes say...you're not supposed to do that....or I don't know how you can move that plant, bulb, shrub, tree (fill in the blank) this time of year. LOL

Despite the cold, weeds, deer and other challenges, my garden seems happy and healthy, so I just keep watering and telling them how proud I am of them (no, I'm not joking) and they seem to be doing fine :)

I guess my boulevard planting is my most recent no-no in this ultra-conservative town. And unlike most everyone else around here, I prefer my front lawn to be taller rather than be scalped. As well, as an apparently true revolutionary soul, you'll NEVER find me outside in a snowstorm shoveling the driveway.
Um, why not wait until it's done, folks? :)

Other than that, my biggest rule breaker is only doing a spot round-up (gasp) and thorough hand-weeding once a month. I can get away with that because my garden is finally getting more mature with fewer perennial weeds (other than grass) and no space for germination of annual weeds. That or my tolerance level for "weeds-I-can't-see-unless-I-look-for-them" is higher. I also never use any chemical pesticides - just BT, ladybugs and biological soaps.

And in my backyard, in an effort to subvert creeping suburbia, I have purposely planted a forest. I may be a gardener but I much prefer encouraging wildlife to cultivating a veggie patch. Although it would have been nice to have had room for both. With a chicken run too...

Adrienne- Can you tuck a few veggies into your front yard? I like the idea of a forest, in the suburbs :)

I read not too long ago that more people should plant trees and shrubs (especially hedge rows) in their back yards and between yards, to help the birds and other wildlife. I never deadhead anything anymore, just so the birds have something to eat or a place to hide, in the winter!

Glad I am not the only rule breaker here! I sure am enjoying reading everybody's comments...

-Susan, LOL! Oh yeah, I forgot about the one about 'not stepping one foot in your garden when the soil is wet because it compacts the soil' rule!! It is bone dry here in summer and a good portion of fall, but the rest of the time the soil is fairly wet! After winter thaws the soil is mushy and I couldn't trim back the ornamental grasses and do a clean up of the garden. It is usually wet throughout much of the spring, so no weeding in the weediest months!? So silly.
A garden show I was watching even went so far as to say that you should bring a wooden board with you when weeding in the spring to lay down across the ground to walk on, just so the soil wouldn't get compacted. Really?! Honestly, it might be easier to build scaffolding!!

-Natalie, good for you in stealthily breaking the HOA rules, lol!! An old family friend is currently living in one of those kinds of neighborhoods and the yards are soooo boring! One tree up front, one burning bush, one UFO evergreen, and the good ol' stella daylily! Lol.

-LL, I agree about watering. You pretty much can't go a day without watering over here without things croaking. I move things at all time too! As long as you give the transplant victim enough water when moving it in the summer it will be fine. And as soon as I see new growth in spring it is moving time in my mind! I also plant nursery plants during the summer with no negative repercussions.

OH! Another rule I take supreme pleasure in breaking... buying plants from big box stores. Everyone says the quality is lacking in plants or bulbs from box stores, but I don't agree at all. You get some great quality plants from these places that sometimes look better than the stock at certain nurseries! Plus it is a whole lot cheaper.
And as far as the issue of "supporting local businesses" is concerned, a LOT of the grocery stores and some big box stores here get their materials from a local wholesale grower. I have no clue where the nurseries get their plants from, not from any grower in Spokane I imagine.
CMK

Just read some rules that I didn't know were rules. I hope the garden police don't come after me. As far as buying root bound plants, I figure I might as well buy them before the nursery puts them in a bigger pot and ups the price.

CMK- That is so true about the big box stores! I called every nursery in the phone book...and no one had stock last spring. In fact, almost half of them didn't even know what I was talking about! Finally found some...at Fred Meyer's, of course :)

Up my way if you get to the big box stores right after they unload the truck you could very well luck out, a week later, forget it.
I can't say I've never bought at a box store but the local nurseries and garden centers in my stomping grounds usually have what I'm looking for, if not order it in for me. So for me I don't mind paying the bit extra and, the other plus is I never have to nurse anything back to health.

Annette

I have to confess I buy from the box stores. There are only 2 nurseries in my area along with 2 box stores and the 2 nurseries carry the same common plants that the box stores have but their prices are double and their warranty on their plants are not as good as the box stores. I would like to support local businesses, but if I want a specific plant I either order it thru the mail or drive 3 1/2 - 4 hours to the larger cities that have more nurseries.

Valree- I think it all depends on where you live. In our area (eastern Washington) some of the nurseries are very expensive and the big box stores have a lot of clearance items.

I've never had to nurse anything back to health, but I don't get the shrubs and flowers that are dried out, either. With our hot summers, it's pretty obvious which ones are going to have a tough time bouncing back.

Last year, I got John Cabot roses (on clearance from Lowe's) for $3 a piece! No one in our area knew what they were or that they were so cold hardy. This year, it was all knock-outs, but I did get 2 yellow ones, with the pink edges. My first knock outs, but they were $5 a piece and I wanted something to go with the pink and purple, in the fairy garden.

Some of our nurseries are really good (we're an hour away from Northland Rosarium) but many don't have the plants I'm looking for and when they do, they're larger plants and much more expensive. I'd rather get smaller plants and watch them grow...plus much easier to transplant and they do better in my cold, clay soil if they start young! :)

Rules?
Have you ever tried to prune roses by the rules? "Find a certain eye, count the leaves, get the right angle, dip the pruners, and on and on" I just try to shape them to what I like. They have never complained. LOL.

I do not do soil tests because all of my yard areas are different. i know that I live in an acidic area, and I add manure, bonemeal , and compost.

And composting rules? I just pile the stuff up and it does its thing.

Here's one rule I've never understood... "plant perennials in odd-numbered groups." Really? Maybe for the 1st 2 months after you've planted your little 4 inch pot you can tell which plant is which, but most perennials grow together into clumps with dozens if not hundreds of little stems, and who can really tell where one plant ends and the other begins? (Maybe there's another rule about plant spacing I'm also missing, but I hate the overly landscaped look of small plants separated with visible mulch...)

I've never felt that a clump of leaves and flowers looks "unbalanced" if they started out as 2 or 4 separate plants, but magically looks better if I started out with 3. Instead I go by the general shape I want the final clump to have. If I want a more round shaped final clump, I'll use 3 plants in a triangle. If I want to tuck the clump in between some other plants, often a diamond shape looks most natural, which means I'll use 4 plants. Other times, I'll plant an irregular drift of plants, where the number I use depends on how long the drift is supposed to be. There are even situations where planting exactly 2 together felt the most balanced to me--situations that spring to mind are when I want a short thin row of mid-height stems in front of something like a rose.

I also don't worry too much about planting short plants in front and tall ones in the back. Following that rule too strictly, if you want your garden to be seen from many angles, you'd need to grow everything in a sort of boring dome shape. What has a more interesting shape,

Well, I'm a believer in "ignorance is bliss." It won't go wrong unntil you KNOW it can go wrong. So I've done a lot of rule breaking without getting caught...as long as I was ignorant of the consequences.

One thing I did for many years was planting outdoors, in the ground, a bougainvillea at my mailbox. Now, that is a really tropical plant, and I'm not in a tropical zone where it can survive in the ground. After losing several of these gorgeous plants, which are irresistably beautiful, I stopped buying them.

Until, two years ago. Yeah, I broke down and bought a multi color bougainvillea from....HOME DEPOT. People OOOOhhed and AAAAHHHHeed as I carted this beauty in full bloom to my car.
Well, I did not put it in the ground. I put it in a huge pot with a dolly under it, and I fed it and I talked to it and I hugged it and I groomed it and bathed it.....and it spends the winter indoors in our sunporch. It is still gorgeous, it blooms every time I turn around, and I am so very happy to have this baby.

Where there is a will, there is a way.

Soil prep.
I dig a hole and plant.
The only time I ever tested the soil was when I first moved into my house and that was only because the kit was fun to use. I didn't actually DO anything with the results.

LOVE reading your posts!!!

-Merilia, well said!

-scully, you are my kind of gardener! Everyone always talks about soil test this, soil test that, etc. Even if you did find out what was "wrong" with your soil would ya' really want to go to all the work of 'improving' it? It makes more sense to plant what will work in that kind of soil rather than working at changing you soil into something it is not. I spread a layer of compost out in the garden every couple of years and call that ample! If a plant can't make a go of it with that than I don't want to grow it anyway, lol!
CMK

I didn't know there were any rules. Maybe guidelines based on one's own and other people's experience but rules? No.

I grow plants I like and see if they make it in my part sun conditions in a clearing in native forest. We've amended the soil with lots of organic matter to improve the drainage, so I know my gardens won't grow things that like poor dry soil in full sun, so I don't try those.

In the limited direct sun plants don't bloom as much and get a bit taller, but I can still enjoy them and the birds/butterflies/bees don't seem to mind either.

Also, since I attend free plant swaps I often start out with onesies in a garden bed & divide them or transplant the seedlings to make sweeps. Shuffling plants in fall and spring is fun work because I know I'll have a new look without spending a dime.

Deer mostly visit in summer, yet I'm cautious to seek out deer resistant plants if possible and try not to cry when they break off tips of plants when nibbling.

CMK - don't ever say anything like that about soil testing over in the vegetable forum! LOL.
I once asked an innocent tomato question without knowing every aspect of my soil's entire history since the dinosaurs walked it and I thought they were going to have a heart attack. :-)

My only rule is that I have to be having fun. I garden to relax and to pamper the butterflies and other wildlife that might wander through. My only sunny spots are right along the road in my cul de sac. So, I have tall, scraggly native prairie plants growing there. My neighbors all have beautifully manicured lawns and neat foundation plantings. They're lucky my daughter begged me to leave some lawn for soccer practice. I just love watching the miracle of nature unfold, both the large scale and very small. I only mow when I can see where I've been--not every Saturday rain or shine. I currently have a moderate layer of leaves on the ground that "should " be raked. But, I'll leave them to blow around until I have a dry afternoon off with nothing better to do. Though, I love to rake, so I might do that by choice anyway. Enough rambling. You get the picture.

Martha

Some people are just the type who like to follow rules, be fashionable, do what everyone else is doing, so it never occurs to them that what they are doing is unnecessary work. A prime example is the pruning of shrubs. If folks wouldn't put stuff that's way too big up against houses, shrub pruning wouldn't be an average part of yard maintenance. But it's been done so prevalently for so long that people just think it's the rule; shrubs must be pruned. Another example is the coppiced crape myrtle. If you enjoy that, go for it, but no way all of the people who actually do it are having fun. They're just following the rule. The same phenomenon causes some people to say things like, "I can't wear this anymore. It's out of style."

Those with too much time on their hands, and/or anal retentiveness, control freaks, often do odd and arbitrary things just so they can demonstrate their expertise to the rest of us and make others feel inadequate for not knowing the rules and/or not having the time/dedication to follow them. Like the way adults perpetuate the myths of Santa and the Easter bunny as a form of hazing against the kids, the newbies. This seems to be most prevalent in regard to lawn maintenance. The rule that everyone must have some kind of "good grass" with no other plants growing in a lawn just so it can be mowed, and that one would use chemicals to accomplish this is just not a rule I can accept, and definitely one I don't follow.

There are helpful hints, and then there are the arcane rules to which you are referring. Knowing how to decorate with annuals without having them killed by frost or that if you do a heavy prune on your butterfly bush in late fall in zone 5 it will probably die are helpful hints. Saying that daffodil foliage should be rubber-banded or that house plants should be misted daily are rules.

Scully, don't you fertilize with T-Rex poop? I heard it's one of the best things for soil! I laughed out loud at your post about the veggie forum.

I break rules all the time, most of them already mentioned.

"don't move things in bloom" - well how else am I supposed to remember which iris is which, the color of those lilies, or tell the daylilies apart. I often move things in flower because even a week later I can't remember which was which in a crowded bed.

"Plant in groups of 3 or 5 or more". Choice perennials are expensive. I buy one, then after a few years I have my 3s and 5s.

"don't plan your gardens around fleeting flower color, instead focus on architecture, texture, blah blah blah" If you've seen my gardens, I basically group things by flower color.

"don't work the ground when wet" If I waited for the ground to dry in spring, I probably wouldn't start before June. I do however, try to stay out of the garden beds, stick to the paths, and reach in, rather then step on the soil. I actually DO have some short boards that I lay on the soil if I have some heavy digging / transplanting to do. (yup, I follow that rule, and I have delicious, friable, organic-rich sandy loam)

"allow plenty of space for plants" - uhuh, I cram them in there, plant perennials over the tops of bulbs, etc. I like to get at least 2, sometimes 3 different seasons from one space.

"wash your pots with bleach every season or before planting" - who has time to do that? I just replant with no washing and have never had a problem.

"divide every x years" Sometimes I never divide, usually when I have to divide (like iris) it's twice as long as they suggested, saves a lot of time to skip this chore.

Oh, I forgot the rule I break, all the time. I never deadhead anything...ever! LOL The birds seem to like it and I can use the winter interest. Plus, I've never lost any of my Hidcote lavender, ever. The old flowers fall off, when the new ones start growing and they just disappear into the garden.

I rarely prune, either. Unless something breaks or is rubbing against another branch...I leave it alone. That's one reason I switched to old fashioned roses that are mostly once blooming.

My mom keeps telling me I should prune the lilacs. No way! They're sixty years old and they look fabulous...bloom like crazy and never have any problems. If it's not broke... :)

I never understood putting rocks at the bottom of a container before potting up the plant. Always seemed like less room for roots to comfortably travel. Now I guess the rules have changed and they tell us not to put rocks at the bottom. well I never did in the first place!

I almost always follow the rule "when all else fails read the directions" and I seldom *have* to read the directions (or rules). IMO gardening is just one big experiment so I often do things differently year to year. This year is the year of not 'babying' my roses so it was less watering and fertilizing and no winter protection. We'll see if I still have roses come spring but it's tough love for my entire garden from here on. :-D I don't have the time, inclination, or energy to continue to be a slave to my garden. BTW even with less water and fertilizer those plants bloomed like crazy.

I buy plants wherever I see what I want at a price I want to pay. Root bound doesn't have to be a problem if you know what to do with them - don't just plunk them in with the roots still going round and round. I've made lots of 'pity' buys at yard sales, grocery stores, and big box stores and have very few losses.

I've never understood how one can have a reliable soil test as every area of my large garden has different soil depending on how much (and with what) I've amended it and what's growing there. It would be totally unreliable and a waste of time and money for me. When plants start to have problems is when I'll look to see what's missing. Right now my maples are not happy so they probably need some sulphur or maybe to leave my garden!

I used to thoroughly wash and bleach all my containers but that's just too much work and totally unnecessary. They sit in my garden house all winter and any bad bugs will freeze.

Didn't do much deadheading this year, just had it weed-whacked in late fall after most of the birds had left. I did cut my lavender because I wanted to dry it to decorate my house. Eventually I'll use these lavender bunches as firestarters but for now they are grouped in a glass container on my tea trolley. These are from my 2 year old lavender so still quite small. I also gave away some.

{{gwi:766180}}

Gardening should be fun not another place one has to be rule-bound. My only reason for having a garden is to have something pretty for me to look at, not to feel guilty because I haven't done something someone else thinks I *should* have.