~by Denise O’Brien Van, Jefferson Garden Club
Master Gardener Cassie Dozier gave Jefferson Garden Club members a primer on perennial garden design at their November meeting.
Although classic garden design elements are useful in planning, “Plant whatever you like,” she urged. “Art is in the eye of the beholder. You can drink red wine with everything, you know!”
But if you plant something, and it doesn’t seem to look right, and you don’t know why you feel that way, you can always go back to the classic concepts for help,” she explained.
Concepts to consider when planning a garden are composition, which includes form, texture and color; roles plants play–as structure, focal points or ornaments; and design, which inpacts how the garden will appear when seen from both near and far vantage points.
“Everyone wants to go for color first,” she said, but the other garden design elements are often more important.
Today’s gardeners are moving away from formal design, Dozier believes, to the cottage garden concept, which consists of informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants.
“Another name for a cottage garden is ‘ecological garden,’ which means it includes plants native to its area,” said Dozier.
Dozier named four websites she’s found useful in planning gardens: bluestoneperennials.com ; wpt.org/Wisconsin-Gardener ; BHG.com/gardening ; and Gardeners.com
And she gave club members several tips from what she calls “Cassie’s Garden Guidebook.”
•Don’t weed whip. Curve flower bed borders to fit your mower.
•Don’t weed. Use spray weed killer instead of pulling. “You’ll never get all of that dandelion root,” she said.
•Use mulch. It keeps weeds down and lessens the need for watering.
•Make test plots. Buy two plants, or cut a big one in half, and plant in two different spots. As an example, Dozier said she planted one coral belle, known as a “shade plant,” which doesn’t require much sun near her deck where it got a little sun, and another next to shed that shade it. The belle that got a little more sun thrived so she knew to plant it in a sunnier section of her garden.
•Plant rocks. “They’re winter plants!” she explained.
Dozier gave a final tip about deer. She lives near a wooded ravine that’s home to many deer. She swears by Wireless Deer Fence, which uses negative enforcement to keep the creatures from dining on her plants and flowers. For more info, go to wirelessdeerfence.com.
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Jefferson Garden Club: Everyone interested in gardening or floral design is invited to join the Jefferson Garden Club, which meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second Monday of the month, April through December. Call 515-386-4610 for information.
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Master Gardener Program: Iowa State University Extension runs the Master Gardener program in Greene County. Participants receive instruction in a wide range of horticulture and related areas: Houseplants, flowers, turf grass, vegetables, woody landscape plants, plant propagation, botany, fruits, soils, wildlife management, pesticide safety/ integrated pest management, plant pathology and entomology. Instructors are state and local extension specialists as well as knowledgeable local gardeners. After completion of the training program, individuals become Master Gardener interns. When they complete 40 hours of volunteer community service, they receive the title of Master Gardener.
