At Van Luyk’s, we’re happy to provide you with as many plants as you desire, but we also have a responsibility to ensure that your garden is successful in the long run!
Picture this: you’ve dug a new garden bed and you’re itching to get planting. You head to Van Luyk’s to pick out an assortment of beautiful perennials and nursery stock to populate your empty plot. But, after planting them, you find that your garden plot still looks rather empty.
Does this scenario sound familiar?
It’s a common problem, with a treacherously tempting solution: to return to the garden centre, purchase a swath of additional plants, and fill your new bed to the brim with colour and texture.
Though at the time, you’ll feel great about your garden and the compliments from your neighbours will flow, you’ll be setting yourself up for possible frustration later on. Those tiny, adorable shrubs you purchase in the spring may eventually grow to be six feet tall and wide. In subsequent years your garden, overplanted, will turn into a bit of a jungle! This is an unwelcome situation for a number of reasons.
First, your garden will soon require more maintenance than you bargained for. Plants will require constant pruning just to keep them in check. They will also require more frequent watering; plants crowded together will be competing for the same space.
Secondly, it isn’t good for your plants. Reduced airflow in a garden bed makes an ideal breeding ground for mildews and molds during the humid summer months, and the added stress of competition will leave many plants susceptible to pests and diseases that otherwise might not have been an issue.
Thankfully, there are some simple tips that will help satisfy your ‘full-garden cravings’ while also ensuring the lasting health of your garden in the future:
- Measure out your bed so you know just how much space you have to work with.
- Base your garden plans on a plant’s mature size, not their current size.
- If your garden looks empty, fill in the gaps with annuals or bulbs! These colourful fillers are often only meant to last one season. You can use annuals as temporary garden fillers each year until your perennials/shrubs reach their mature size.
- An application of decorative mulch or bark not only makes an emptier bed look more full, but also reduces watering needs and keeps the weeds at bay.
Looking to learn more about garden design? Check out our tips in Designing Your Garden.