“When you plant a garden, you are caring for more than plants. You are cultivating knowledge, developing your own creativity, and learning to respect the connection between you and the earth.”
This is the view of gardening presented in “Gardening Made Easy” published by Better Homes & Garden. It’s one of my favorite gardening guide books. It writes about gardening in honest terms. Gardening is, after all, a kind of “love / frustration” relationship.
I think that’s why I’m so interested in allotment gardening. If you read this column every now and then, you will already know that my home has 12 trees in the three main garden areas.
There are a variety of mini flower gardens in both the back and front lawn. Right now, pale purple mothers are blooming in a long, rectangular mini-garden by the front entrance. It’s also my invisible compost heap, neatly tucked away under mothers and some other plants that have just emerged to be part of the gardening parade. I should charge them rent.
From these deliberate plantings, I chose to cover bare patches in the back lawn and some other areas with ground cover. Think of these as the occasional rugs (dare we say wigs?) For bald spots in your yard. Ajuga, an extremely reliable and aggressive ground cover plant, has taken over the west side of my garden. I just wave to it and let it slide.
There are numerous options for ground cover, some with names that I have never come across. I often consult How To Cheat At Gardening for its great advice and a pretty saucy take on gardening. As the author notes, “One of the most low-maintenance plants to add to your landscape is ground cover.” The author has listed the good and the bad.
The good list included sun or shade plants: Baby’s Tears, Creeping Jenny, Dichondra, Salal, Vinca, and Winter Creeper. Ice plant, which I spotted many times on my visits to Carmel, California, is my favorite. However, it is best grown in full sun. The “bad” list included Bishop’s Weed, Crown Vetch, Lamiastrum, English Ivy, and Lily of the Valley.
I let some plants appear in some patio pots. I have no idea what they are. But the County Extension Service, a gardening information gold mine, will solve the puzzle.
