Yesterday I mentioned that I have been reading a book whose sentiment has really stuck with me. In The NEW Low-Maintenance Garden
Low-maintenance conjures up gardens that are anything but lush and beautiful. When you search google images for “low maintenance garden” the results depict uninspired, dull spaces full of boring plants combined in lackluster arrangements. Easton admits as much: “The term low-maintenace doesn’t exactly bring to mind the lush, sensual, productive gardens most of us long for.” However, don’t let the title discourage you. In Easton’s mind, “low maintenance” means a thoughtfully planned, simplified, intimate space that is tailored to the needs of the people using the garden.
Hopefully my fellow container gardeners picked up on the word initmate in the above paragraph. Because Easton is arguing for more human scale gardens, the book seems to concentrate on creating vignettes around patios and decks, and on creating raised beds that are both beautiful and functional. Most of her ideas can easily be transferred to a balcony garden, and Easton includes a whole chapter on creating carefree containers that focus on simple combinations of plants that are almost all easy going perennials. Even though the other chapters don’t focus exclusively on container gardening, those of us who garden on patios and balconies will find much that applies to us in the chapters titled “Design With Maintenance in Mind,” “Natures Rythms,” “Eat Your Garden,” and “Smart Choices: Editing Your Plant Picks.” For those of you who have a hardscape that you are free to alter, or who have access to a small yard, you’ll find even more ideas in this book.
In the sidebar of the Garden Rant blog, they’ve posted their own manifesto that says, in part, “We…are bored with perfect magazine gardens. In love with real, rambling, chaotic, dirty, bug-ridden gardens….” I’ll be interested to see if someone there reviews this book as well, because I suspect that it speaks to some of the sentiment expressed in their frustration with the status quo in gardening publications. While none of the pictures depict bug-ridden or dirty gardens, they do show “real” gardens of “real” people. The sort of authentic beauty achievable by regular folks like you and me, as opposed to gardening super-heroes who spend every waking moment plucking dead blades out of their chive plants and would certainly deadhead their echinaceas long before they dropped all of their petals.
