Garden Themes
Gardeners often enjoy planning a garden around a theme. The idea for the theme may come from an object, a season, a holiday or a color and grow into a lovely flowerbed that brightens our all too brief growing season.
I've visited a garden with plants from Shakespeare's poems and plays, another with plants that had ranges of either red blooms or red foliage, and one with plants that hummingbirds love. Theme gardens don't have to be large, they just need a theme.
The White House has a Rose Garden and you could too. I worked with someone who grew the most wonderful roses and who shared them with those of us who worked with him. What a delight! Rose gardens seem to be made for sharing.
If there are small children you'd like to get interested in gardening or share your pleasure with, a children's garden would be a wonderful project. Plant vegetables that the child likes to eat and are easy to grow from seed sown directly in the garden. Beans, cucumbers and pumpkins or squash are large, easy to handle seeds. Radishes are fast growers. Colorful zinnias and large sunflowers grow quickly and sunflower seeds are edible by humans and birds. Or let the child pick a theme to work with such as a pizza garden and include pizza ingredients such as tomatoes, onions, basil, parsley and sweet peppers.
How about growing an Italian vegetable garden with Roma and other tomatoes, eggplant, sweet peppers, cannelloni and Romano beans, broccoli, zucchini, fennel, sage, basil, parsley and oregano. Perhaps a heritage bed showcasing flowers and/or vegetables from your own ethnic background is more to your liking.
Butterfly and hummingbird gardens are popular with many gardeners. A mixture of annuals, perennials and shrubs planted close to the house or to an outside seating area will be enjoyed by both you and the creatures. These gardens require a little research for the right mix of plants but we already grow many of them. Both hummingbirds and butterflies enjoy marigold, daylily, hollyhock, purple coneflower, bee balm, sedum and lilac. Hummingbirds will appreciate plants with tubular flowers such snapdragons and petunias. Do include plants for the caterpillars.
A small fragrance garden planted near a window might be a good theme garden for a small space. Plants for various seasons could include peony, sweet alyssum, bearded iris, lily, stock, hyacinth and sweet pea. Include herbs that give off fragrance as you brush against them.
English Cottage Gardens have been described as controlled chaos and are among my favorite gardens. There's no special formula for this garden, just lots of color and texture all season long and usually close to the house or potting shed. Most often the plants are "old-fashioned" ones like foxglove, sweet pea, and delphinium but can include "new-fangled" plants as well. A cottage garden follows the typical plan of tall plants to the rear, closest to the structure, low growing plants to the front and middle-of-the-road plants in the center.
A theme garden can be fun to plan and a joy to grow. Our public library has a large variety of gardening books and there are many articles on the Internet to help you in your planning. Pick a theme and start planning. Hmmm, I think I'll plan a Secret Garden theme this year.
Mary Lou Marchand
Beltrami County Master Gardener
