Editor’s Note: While “sheltering at home” a good way to pass the time is to improve the look of your shelter. If readers follow the advice presented here, they get outside, relax while they work in their gardens, and bring a bit of beauty to the world. As we go to press, some garden centers are delivering, but others have restricted their hours and services. Please call ahead.
A few months ago, I submitted a design to a client by email, including a scanned drawing and a written proposal with pricing. I was astonished to find an email the following morning that said, “I like it, but there are way too many plants!” At first I was a little irritated, but then concluded that the design must just be outside of her budget. So I scheduled an appointment with her to look over the drawing together. I would listen and figure out which aspects of the new landscape she liked the most, intending to ask what her budget was. I would redesign the landscape to fit her budget.
We met later in the week. I began my strategy of discussing and probing. A bright woman, she suddenly turned to me, a startled look on her face, and said, “Oh, you thought I couldn’t afford to spend that much. Darling, that’s not the issue at all. There are just too many plants. You have plants within plants on this plan!” Then I realized what she meant.
In an area near the back of the property she had recently purchased, there is a fully mature Ulmus americana ‘Princeton Sentry’ (American Elm). That part of the property had been neglected by the previous owners and was filled with Ligustrum spp. (Privet), Nandina domestica that had sprung up in random places, Prunus spp (Cherry laurel), and typical weeds. When she hired me, she had said it was all just a jumbled mess. She wanted all of that cleared out and replaced with a more structured landscape. She feared that my plan would just mature into another jumbled mess.
In my plan, with the existing Ulmus in the back corner of the yard, I had two Cornus florida ‘Appalachian Spring’ underneath it in the foreground. Beneath those, I placed groups of Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Grenan’ (Nantucket Blue Hydrangea), Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Ruby Slippers’ (Ruby Slippers Hydrangea), and Aralia cordata ‘Sun King’. Then, between these groups were drifts of Helleborus x nigercors ‘Honey Hill Joy’ (a sterile hybrid of Lenten Rose with creamy yellow flowers). But what was really bothering her was that underneath all the Hydrangea and the Aralia cordata, I had placed a carpet of Ajuga reptans ‘Chocolate Chip’ (Chocolate Chip Carpet Bugle).
On paper, it seemed entirely too much to her. Though very bright, she was unfamiliar with plants and did not recognize that all of these plants had descending heights, that they would tuck underneath each other a bit like Matryoshka dolls, all fitting perfectly together. So, in desperation, I grabbed her a soft drink, told her to stay put, and ran outside to find all these plants on our nursery yard. I dragged two big Cercis canadensis (Eastern Redbuds) in 30-gallon containers over to use as stand-ins for the dogwoods, since I did not have those in stock. I then pulled lots of Hydrangea, not really caring about the type since they were deciduous and all still in dormancy anyway. Then I ran to the groundcover and herbaceous perennials area and grabbed the Lenten roses and a couple flats of Ajuga.
I quickly assembled all of these into a rough but smaller facsimile of what her garden would look like. I then brought her outside and explained it. She stared for a couple of minutes and walked around it. Resisting the urge to chatter excessively as a I sometimes do when I am nervous, I stood still and waited. Finally, she said, “Okay, I like it. That’s fine. I have to pick up the boys from PDS in a few minutes.” She swiveled in her Wellies (it had rained that late winter morning), causing them to squeak slightly on the pavement, and left. Big sigh of relief.
I refer to this design style as “designing in layers.” This is not to be confused with over-planting, a term used to describe plants of the same heights that are planted too closely together in the beginning, because the person doing the planting lacks the ability to correctly perceive their sizes at maturity. These different species grow into each other, endanger each other’s health, and look crowded rather than interdependent.
In contrast, planting in layers improves the landscape visually and functionally. The layers, at various heights, all work together to create a pattern of sights and textures that usually peak at different times of the year for year-round interest. But, more importantly, they all work together in a way that Diane Meucci, the well-known Memphis landscape designer, calls “a living mulch.” Like mulch, these layers of plants reduce the amount of sunlight that hits the soil throughout the year. This reduces weeds and moisture loss.
Now, to be sure, any new landscape installation will require mulch to suppress weeds and inhibit evaporation of moisture from the soil. But the goal of designing a garden in layers is to reduce the amount of mulch needed as the plants mature, the layers of plants themselves becoming a living mulch.
The key to this type of design is the groundcover. It is the part that many people forget. There are lots to choose from. I have a few favorites, in addition to the many cultivars of Ajuga reptans, like the ‘Chocolate Chip’ I already mentioned. They include Veronica umbrosa ‘Georgia Blue’ (Speedwell), Phlox divaricata ‘Blue Moon’ (Woodland Phlox), Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (Hardy Blue Plumbago a.k.a. Leadwort), Ophiopogon japonicus ‘Nana’ (Dwarf Mondo Grass), Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ (Black Mondo Grass), and Liriope muscari ‘Pee Dee Ingot’ (Gold Ingot Lilyturf), among others.
Ultimately, my wellie-wearing client seemed very pleased with the outcome of her landscape installation. At the end, when she was inspecting, she pondered it for a long time in her typical quiet way and then said, “No, it doesn’t seem at all over-planted. I like it.”
John A. Jennings is an experienced garden designer, garden writer, and nursery manager. He also holds degrees from the University of Richmond and the University of Memphis. Email him at gardener@memphismagazine.com.
