A country garden primer - Cover Story - gardening

Flower & Garden Magazine, Nov, 2001 by Sandra Kazinetz

As we're putting our gardens to bed and deciding whether to trim back the coneflowers and grasses or leave them be for winter garden sculptures arching with snow, odds are we're also thinking about next year's garden. And if it's a country garden look you're pondering, then here are some tips to mull over (before the seed catalogs start arriving) that will also give you a good sense of where to begin once the sweet smell of spring starts making its way into your backyard, deck or patio.

* SOME BASICS

There is no blueprint for a country garden. Each garden is individual and reflects our taste and artistic sense--not to mention how we get the most out of our growing zone and soil attributes. But if you take these guidelines as just that and adapt them to your particular preferences, you won't go wrong. Refer to Plants For A Country Garden (page fifty-six) for plant selections that will be perfectly at home in your very own personal country garden.

PLANTS FOR A COUNTRY GARDEN

The following is a short list of plants that provide the defining
variety of a country garden. These plants work well in Zones 5
and above. Add your personal preferences and adjust for any
differences in climate. Note: Some of the plant families below
have several varieties within them, so check height if you want,
say, a taller lily in the back of the bed, and a shorter one in
the middle.

* TALL PLANTS FOR
THE BACK OF THE BORDER

136 inches or higher)
Giant allium
Boltonia
Cleome
Coneflowers
Cosmos
Dame's rocket
Delphinium
Ferns
Foxglove
Hollyhocks
Joe Pye Weed
Lily
Red Lobelia (Cardinal flower)
Mallow
Malva
Obedient plant
Salvia Coral Nymph
Sunflowers (shorter varieties also available)
Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower)
Rudbekia (black-eyed Susan)
Veronica

* SHORTER PLANTS
FOR THE FRONT

(Generally, less than 18 inches)
Alyssium
Anemone
Baby's breath
Carpathian bellflower
Dianthus
Lamb's ears
Ladies mantle
Pansies
Penstemon
Petunia
Snow on the Mountain
Stock
Violets and violas

* MEDIUM-SIZED PLANTS
FOR THE MIDDLE

(Generally, 18 inches to 36 inches)
Japanese anemone
Aster
Balloonflower
Bellflower
Columbine
Coneflowers
Coral bells
Coreopsis
Cranesbill hardy geranium
Dahlias
Daisies (Shasta, glorioso)
Daylily
Globe thistle
Iris (Japanese, German or bearded)
Jacob's ladder
Larkspur
Lavender
Lily
Maltese cross (red and white)
Phlox
Poppies
Rudbekia (black-eyed Susan)

* CLIMBERS

(Trail up a lattice or frame for visual contrast)
Morning glory
Trumpet vine
Clematis
Cardinal vine
Moonflower

* BULBS

Allium
Crocus
Crocosominia
Daffodils
Grape Hyacinth
Hyacinth
Lilies
Narcissus
Peacock orchid (a type of lily, actually)
Tulips

Short on Space? Micro Country Garden!

It's easy to create the visual effect of a country garden even if
you're space-limited to container gardening. Start with at least three
different-sized containers and tier them to gain depth. And while you
may not be able to pot up a tall delphinium, by elevating some of the
pots above others--say, on a bench--you can have all of the height,
texture and variety of a garden bed that tumbles down the bench, as
well as a wide mix of bulbs, annuals and perennials.

1. Exuberant--but planned--disorder. No formality here. If it's a country garden feel you want, resist the urge to plant your selections in a straight row. Think drifts or clumps, and if you have a plant you just can't get enough of (purple coneflowers and any colored phlox are my particular weakness), stagger it throughout or bunch it in odd-numbered groups--three work really well. Avoid planting two-by-twos; symmetry is more appropriate for a formal garden.

2. Depth perception. The beauty of a country garden is its depth. Whether you're gardening a large, wide bed or a corner of your deck or patio, you can achieve wonderful dimension by working up from shorter (but not necessarily smaller) plants to taller spires that make a glorious backdrop to the country garden's riotous variety. Include violets, grape hyacinths, tulips, lamb's ears and coral bells as your shorter plantings in front and foxglove, delphinium and cleome for the taller groupings. If you're working a center bed, plant taller in the middle, tapering off to shorter at the edges.

3. Plant thickly. Your flowers should flow from one to another as though nature planted them en masse; no bare spaces.

4. Variety of form, texture and plants. A mix of bulbs (from miniature tulips to the endless choice of daffodils to giant alliums), iris, lilies, perennials, annuals, biannuals and climbers, such as clematis or morning glory, all work well together in a country garden. For instance, the bold statements made by the flowers and leaves of rudbekias and glorioso daisies both complement and contrast with the lacy foliage of yellow, red or pastel yarrow. Johnny-jump-ups (violas) of any color look like they were made to poke up through the velvety gray of lamb's ears. Mix airy cosmos and cleome with sturdier centaurea. Combine spiky plants like veronica or cardinal flower (red lobelia) with rounded ones, such as lavender. The result is not only beautiful, but quite interesting as well.