Show
or no – your garden’s purpose
By Amy McDowell
I stepped forward to
the railing and the garden that unfolded below me was one I had seen in a
calendar photo some fifteen years earlier—the image so beautiful that I’d saved
it and pinned it on my office wall for better than a decade. Vast fluid strokes
of color washed through the valley below. It was the famous Sunken Garden at
Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and it took my breath
away.
Wordlessly, I
ascended into the garden like wandering through a dream world. The grating
voice of some crotchety tourist behind me broke into my mind. “Where are the
labels?” she complained loudly. “None of the plants have any labels on them!”
In the wonder of it all, I couldn’t have cared less about plant labels. They
were ordinary plants, after all; common, everyday annuals planted in
spectacular sweeps of color.
Rounding a bend in
the path, we came across a gardener planting mums. The grump pounced on him
about plant labels. With a loose swing of his arms, the gardener flung his
hands out, palms up, and said, “This is a show
garden, not a botanical garden!”
That simple statement made clear the garden’s mission. No apologies, no
question about it—Butchart and the gardeners on staff there know exactly what
they want to create. And I have no doubt that their clear vision is how they do
it so successfully.
So what about your garden? Do you have a clear idea of what you are
trying to create? Of course, there is much to be said for tottering in the
garden somewhat aimlessly, whiling away the time and loving every moment of it.
But a mission statement for your garden is the one way to assure that you
eventually achieve what you set out to do. Without one, you never actually “set
out to do” anything.
Every garden has some purpose; it may be something simple like dressing
up the home, producing edibles or for personal enjoyment, solace or healing.
The mission may change over the years as your family grows or your lifestyle
changes. With a mission statement, you won’t waste time, energy, money or even
thought on plant labels when your garden’s purpose is for show.
Amy McDowell is an Iowa Certified Nursery
Professional. She has a degree in horticulture and has worked in the field for
ten years. She lives and gardens in Polk County.
