The Big Picture. Not.

Salvia pachyphylla

A friend of mine asked me to send him an overhead/arial photo of my garden. It’s not that I’m unwilling to charter a helicopter and take photos of my garden. Well, actually I am. But really, my garden is small enough to capture, easily, just standing on the roof of my house. I haven’t sent him such a photo. I’m hesitant to do so. You see, since I have a small garden, although it is designed on a human scale in terms of flow, it is primarily designed to stuff in as many varieties of plants as possible. What that does, indirectly, is scale down the intimacy. When every square inch is planted to provide a variety of interests, then the focus is down to that scale. The garden is much more interesting inching along at a very slow pace. If you were to run (or walk rapidly) through my garden, it would be over in an instant.

I suppose my hesitation to send him such a photo is based on the fear that he would be disappointed. “That’s all?” he’d ask. The little plot of land on which my house sits is small enough that if you kicked a ball in the front yard, it would land on the far side of my neighbor’s yard.

I’m also always experimenting with plants. Something barely has time to get a few roots down before I’m digging it up, moving it, or replacing it with something else. As such, the garden never looks “finished” (as if a garden is ever finished). There is always something undone.

I’m also a propagator. I’m always experimenting with the propagation of plants in my yard. As such, a bank of plants is rarely installed at the same time. It’s more likely that a whole variety a species of plants is planted, some do well, others don’t. I then get excited and take cuttings like mad, of the plant that does well. The result is that of one cultivar there will be plants of various ages and sizes in the garden.

A good example of this is Salvia pachyphylla. I had no idea how well it would do in my garden, or even if I would like it. I planted two plants in my front yard, side by side. One plant is quite a bit more vigorous than the other, and has larger flower heads. My attempts to grow it from cuttings have failed, but I managed to grow some of the seeds. The seedlings, I have learned, are highly variable, some growing quickly, some growing sluggishly, and even just dying despite attentive care. Lately, I’ve noticed some self sown seedlings in the gravel, which also showed the same variability, one plant growing well and the seedling next to it dying for no apparent reason after a couple years growth. I suppose I’m selecting for those plants that do well in my microclimate, as well as those with the best form/color. So I’m left with some mature plants and some seedlings.

This doesn’t make for a great broad-scale photograph. But maybe I’ll post one some day.