Gardeners, please join us for the next meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society on Wednesday, April 15 at 7:00 PM at SIGN on North Street. Our guest speaker will be Glen Tymiak talking about “Gardening 101”: good gardening basics, and a little more! Glen is an outstanding gardener, growing beautiful veggies, fruits and flowers every year, and I know that he will give us wonderful gardening information and advice. Bring along your notepad to jot down many helpful pointers! And again, a reminder: you can come to the meeting even if you are not a member! Interested gardeners are always welcome.
I found an interesting article amongst my file of clippings, and it had some ideas I’d like to tell you about. So make a cup of tea and sit down with me for a few minutes.
The article was from a past issue of “Garden Gate” magazine and the article was entitled “A Shapely Garden Plan”. The author is not listed, but he or she had the idea that “a simple grouping of easy-to-grow plants can show off lots of shapes!” The article went on to say that gardens with “square elements” give our gardens a formal, ordered, symmetrical look: picture square flower beds and straight little paths. Here is where you could use small, tidy shrubs like cotoneaster or barberry for edging your beds. “Vase-shape” gardens referred to plants that are narrow at the bottom and wider at the top, such as dogwood or lilacs. The advantage to this kind of planting means that your shrubs have their growth at the top, leaving you room to plant things around the base. The author also mentioned that if the shrubs are planted along a fence, the tops of the shrubs also add to the privacy of your yard.
“Over and Over Again” talked about how repetition in a small garden gives a “comfortable rhythm” to your plants because you have used the same plant scattered through the garden. Using the same forms, textures or colors draws your eye through the garden, but because there is not a huge variety of plants, it all looks very unified. The photo that went with this description showed a small garden, perhaps only eight feet across, with stepping stones placed randomly through the middle. The only plants used were clumps of hosta, clumps of golden grasses, and a very low ground-cover that might be lamium. The effect is striking and very relaxing.
The section I found most interesting was called “Round and Round”, where it said that “Bubbles, balloons, polka dots…there are lots of happy things associated with round shapes.” And think about it: round shapes in the garden are very pleasing. They are cheerful, and comfortable looking. The picture with this showed a wicker chair set amongst groupings of ball-shaped clay pots of various sizes, all planted up with shapely round clumps of red, yellow and white zinnias. It looked so bright and beautiful! Think of all the “round” flowers we could plant: marigolds, zinnias, hydrangeas, geraniums…the list goes on! Imagine if we chose one or two colors, maybe red and yellow, and focused on those “round” flowers and put them in ball-shaped planters. Wouldn’t that be stunning?
I never thought of “shapes” in the garden in that way, but it’s a new idea to consider as we get ready for our new gardens! As Great-Grammie and my Sweet Pea always said, you never stop learning!
Take a cuppa coffee outside one day and stroll through your own yard; you’ll get lots of potential ideas for this year! Have a great week
