Gardening tips: Swallowing pride for a better layout
GARDENING is a form of living art, where plants keep changing, although at a different pace. With time, plants grow and fill what was initially seen as a bare layout, turning it into an overgrown bush garden.
By Winifred Rukidi
GARDENING is a form of living art, where plants keep changing, although at a different pace. With time, plants grow and fill what was initially seen as a bare layout, turning it into an overgrown bush garden.
Of course, an expert gardener should know from the start the size of fully grown plants and be able to give them enough space when planting. However, at times the need to fill space is overwhelming.
Recently, some European designer thought that the croton I had planted in a row of 12 plants, spaced every three metres, were too much to the eye. He was also against the colour scheme, which was intended to create a contrast between green and purple.
I was furious with him and went as far as asking him if he had any knowledge of plants, to which he replied he had only 2%.
However, over time, as I kept visiting the garden, I agreed that he had a point. I had been overzealous with this new plant on the market and since it was attractive, I had over-used it.
So, I opted to tweak the plants that had got out of control.
In such a scenario, one has to take a good look at what is out of place about the garden and make changes until one achieves the desired appearance.
Back to my case, I uprooted six alternating crotons and bang! The scenery became less-crowded and much more at ease. The colour scheme did not change.
GARDENING is a form of living art, where plants keep changing, although at a different pace. With time, plants grow and fill what was initially seen as a bare layout, turning it into an overgrown bush garden.
Of course, an expert gardener should know from the start the size of fully grown plants and be able to give them enough space when planting. However, at times the need to fill space is overwhelming.
Recently, some European designer thought that the croton I had planted in a row of 12 plants, spaced every three metres, were too much to the eye. He was also against the colour scheme, which was intended to create a contrast between green and purple.
I was furious with him and went as far as asking him if he had any knowledge of plants, to which he replied he had only 2%.
However, over time, as I kept visiting the garden, I agreed that he had a point. I had been overzealous with this new plant on the market and since it was attractive, I had over-used it.
So, I opted to tweak the plants that had got out of control.
In such a scenario, one has to take a good look at what is out of place about the garden and make changes until one achieves the desired appearance.
Back to my case, I uprooted six alternating crotons and bang! The scenery became less-crowded and much more at ease. The colour scheme did not change.