Garden Design for the Masses

We Takoma Hort Clubbers offer a nifty little service to all our members – a free in-garden consultation by up to four knowledgeable yet highly opinionated gardeners.  I’m one of the lucky four consultants and I say lucky because we have such fun doing  it, especially when we’re all together, and we learn a lot from each other. We disagree plenty, but one thing we usually agree on is that everybody’s plants need to be grouped into masses.  That’s because we see so many "onesies" or several of the same item spread too far apart.  We keep saying "masses" and "drifts" and "groupings" ’til we’re sick of hearing it.

So when it comes to tweaking my own 20-year-old garden, guess what I’m doing this fall?  Massing and grouping in drifts, of course.  I posted earlier about my crummy-looking daylilies and I’m happy to report they’re now massed up the wazoo and, I hope, hidden after they bloom by the lovely foliage of hardy begonia.  The lamb’s ears, some of which you can see in this photo, are all massed at the front of this border (though sure as hell not in a straight line).  Let’s see what else.  My newly expanded border has six new pieris and seven new nandina – how’s that for massing?  And now when I plant bulbs, they’re grouped in 3s and 5s, rather than carefully spaced a foot apart across an entire border – my first pitiful attempt at bulb design.  Even some items I’ve bought recently are telling me they need some pals to have enough impact, so the ‘Ogon’ spirea toward the back of this photo will soon be three and ditto a ‘Purple Smoke’ baptisia.  Don’t want to get yelled at by those three Hort Club nags, ya know.