I have yet to decide if I prefer "farming" or "gardening." While I enjoy the satisfaction of growing and tending to something I will eventually eat, I also enjoy coming home to a pretty yet organized scene. Last fall, I segmented off a little rectangle in front of the house and planted hyacinths. Being me, I followed the rules and planted them, in alternating colors, exactly six inches deep and six inches apart, and while they came up nicely in the early Spring, I was a little disappointed that the garden looked like a Lego scene. I noticed that wherever I looked, daffofilds were coming up in clumps and other bulb plants that shot up in the spring were always close together and not so organized as mine. "How could that be? Did no one read the directions? Am I the only one who cares about the rules?" The better question is, "Whose looks nicer?" Grumblingly, I will admit that a full bushel of flowers looks nicer than what looked like 8-bit clip art.
So I went to Shelley's and bought two ice plants (green anenome-looking plants that spread and shoot off little fuschia-colored flowers), two white salvias and two gallardia goblins. Again, I planted symmetrically: the ice plants in either front corner, the salvia in the middle, staggered by the dying hyacinths and the gallardia side by side in front like gates. Still, the garden looked a little Spartan. It just so happened that, as a member of Arbor Day International, I got a postcard in the mail and "free" with my donation, I would get a mixed bag of perennials that would bloom in the summer! So I sent away and in the mail came 10 gladioli, 10 peacock orchids, some allium molies and something else. I decided I would force myself to be spontaneous. How? Well, I lined up the gladioli in the very back row...too close to be adherent to the rules! The same for the peacock orchids in the front – no way that is a sanctioned planting depth OR distance from the other bulbs! AND I await to see what colors will come up, since I had no hand in being able to alternate colors! Oh, the insanity. What if three are red, then one yellow, two blue, one pink and so help me if they're any multi-colored things running about. I may have to dig them up and create a pattern.
