CRS: Challenges of an aging gardener

It’s finally spring in my northeast garden. As I walk the beds looking for mulch to brush away here, a weed to pull there, my observations return to a single theme: What the hell is that?

The aging brain and flowers that disappear over a long winter are not a good combination. I’d diagram the garden, but you know I’d just forget where I put the damn diagram. Some years, I can remember what I planted where. Others, I cannot. Some days, I recognize the emerging leaves…others, I suspect I’m letting weeds grow (rather tolerate a weed than pull a plant).

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The trouble is that a perennial garden isn’t the plant-once dream I once believed it might be. I find myself rearranging my garden every year.

1. Getting rid of that aggressive purple coneflower that I put in to fill space.
2. Putting it back the next year because I miss it.
3. Repeat steps one and two. (I did find what I hope to be a solution to that one plant…I’ve put in some new coneflower cultivars that don’t reseed so readily. The lovely red, yellow and orange ones don’t put on much of a show in my northern garden, but a mini purple looks lovely…I’d tell you the cultivar if I could only remember the name…)

This year I’ve once again (yep, been down this road before, suspect I’ll be down it again) simplified (okay, attempted to simplify) my selection. I believe I have a lot of lilies of every sort (“of the valley,” Oriental, day, and everything in between), delphiniums – even though my luck there is spotty, and spring bulbs (including the frickin’ bluebells that I curse as I dig up their proliferating arses each year. How do those bountiful bulbs get so deep? I’d love to see footage of them burrowing down.)

The plan (which, if history teaches me anything, will go awry) is to put some annuals into the empty spaces (if I can find empty spaces). I’ve had great luck with ornamental kale and cabbage in my shady spots, but those are damn hard to find – forcing me to stalk the nursery for new shipments. And, of course, any time spent at the nursery puts me in danger of buying new plants. I can’t resist a pretty face. And then the whole simplicity plan goes to pot. (No pun intended.)

I have no self restraint when it comes to flowers. I have to mentally prepare myself to resist temptation with every trip to the nursery. But then, my grocery store displayed the prettiest pink campanula and, caught unawares, I was not ready to resist. (Could not resist the Ben & Jerry’s either…you’d think I should have seen that coming.)

I pulled out all my original landscape plants (ugly bushes) to replace with rhododendrons, azaleas and hydrangeas. (The one neighbor who knows me from my college days stood and taunted me as I chained the offensive, half-dug bushes to my car and slammed on the gas.) Of course, I now have to go collect pine needles from the high school lawn because my soil isn’t nearly acidic enough for those beauties. (So far, I’ve managed to do this at odd hours, sparing my teenage son from total humiliation.)

Yes, my gardening addiction has turned me into a crazy lady. I can live with that. What I can’t live without is my garden. But here I’ve gone on and on about me without telling you anything useful.

So, here are some tips…a reward for readers who’ve put up with me this far: I believe in workhorse plants – with a single specimen filling a lot of square footage with beautiful color for weeks. For me, those have been false sunflower, a delphinium cultivar that spreads out rather sending up the traditional stalk (again, sorry, can’t remember the name), a verbinum that progresses from a gorgeous mass of white flowers to re- then-black berries, and a giant rudbeckia. (Check the accompanying pictures for all but the verbinum.)

I also have luck with some techniques that I believe professionals frown upon. I get my beds in shape in the fall, complete with compost and mulch. It’s easier (if the mulch is too close to the plants, they manage to push up through it just fine, so I can be a lot less exacting with it), I can work on cool days, and I can work at my own speed without being rushed by a fast-approaching spring. I’ve been doing this for several years and have found no adverse effect on my garden.

I also put perennials in my pots. I throw a little compost on top each spring and add a couple annuals for continuous color. I’ve got pots doing just fine for four years running. It’s a lot less expense and less work. (See accompanying photo pot in its 3rd year.) I’ve also been putting shredded leaves down as mulch in my some of daylily beds for several years. Works great, it’s free and it’s lightweight! (Not as attractive as other mulches, but the daylilies don’t let it show through much.) I think I’ve rambled on enough. Or have I? I can’t remember. Oh, yeah, one more thing. NEVER plant anything with the word “weed” in the name. I’ve broken that rule and been very sorry for it. In fact, I’ve got to go pull up a bunch of %$#W%$@ seedlings now.

Terry Fleig is a very funny and clever lady— her copywriting is aptly named, “Original Copy and Other Oxymora”.

5 comments on “CRS: Challenges of an aging gardener
  1. Jean Schweikhard says:

    Great article Terry. I feel a lot of your same pain—esp. with the identifying of what is now coming up–weed or potential beauty(?) And I swore last year that I was done moving things around! Guess what I spent hours doing on Sunday?! But sadly, I must admit, unlike you all—I do NOT enjoy gardening. Love how pretty it makes my yard look INITIALLY every year—but then I forget to water and weed and it’s all down hill from there………..

  2. Lisa says:

    love this article, and yes can relate to the aging brain, but what about those aging knees! Once down on my knees for digging, planting, trimming or whatever it needs down there, how do I get back up!? Those old knees have a hard time pushing back up!

  3. Vicky Z says:

    Terry – I too am a plant addict. Although I have an acre -sized yard, my garden is the size of a mini van. I call it my “shoe horn” garden because I keep shoe horning in another plant I couldn’t resist or worse yet – a FREE plant from a local sale. Each year I enlarge the original circle by another foot. The rest of the yard is rock and hard pack sand covered with “Alpine ground cover”. The garden is only 3 years old, so there are always surprises. It used to have a hazel nut bush surrounded by orange ditch lillies, purple phlox and purple bee balm. Typical rural garden. Those have been “repurposed”. I also mulch with leaves (they’re free) & pine needles. Biggest challenge are weeds – all gardens would like to return to the natural state in which they were born.

  4. Terry says:

    Vicky,
    I am so there with you. If you haven’t tried it yet, I’d suggest you sprinkly Preen over you mulch. I hate to use chemicals, but I can’t keep up with the weeds without it. It prevents the weed seeds from sprouting (actually, every seed, though somehow the purple coneflowers manage to reseed).

  5. Beverly says:

    Terry,
    Great article. I was unaware of your gardening expertise. Although you may have mentioned it but like many of us in this middle aged state of mind I probably forgot. I wish I had the time for it or the knowledge to know what the heck to plant it. I did however do some major landscaping in my front yard this past weekend. I don’t consider myself as a gardener – but it actually turned out nice. I do feel the side effects though – knees, back and joints!