Phase I of the Garden: The Bare Bones

Reader Contribution by Cindy Murphy
Published on May 15, 2009
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My spring project this year has been the new hillside garden. Mostly shade to partial shade, I think it would be pretty planted with a few Eastern Canadian Hemlocks, one of our most graceful native evergreens, and lots of rhododendron, don’t you? But no, no, no – the only thing it’d be in a year or two is “pretty” dead. When planting a garden all site conditions need to be taken into account – the amount of sunlight, moisture, wind, and what soil types are present. Although hemlocks and rhodos grow in shade, they can not handle the conditions in this particular garden: the wind, heavy soils and sand, and eventual inconsistent watering.

Landscaping is like building a house – you start from the ground up, and hopefully in the case of a garden, the foundation is composed of good soil. If not, don’t fret – even in poor soils, a garden need not be doomed to failure. The 300-and-something yards of soil we had brought in last fall to bury an old, crumbling and poorly built retaining wall, came from a construction site, and is very typical of the soil in this area – there was very little top soil. Here, it’s said if you don’t have clay, you have sand. The new garden is comprised of both; there are areas of heavy clay, and other areas are sandy. I’ll be working with what I have – I’m adding no topsoil or additional soil amendments.

I’ll also be practicing elements of xeriscaping; once established, most of the garden will receive little-to-no supplemental watering except what nature provides. Mention “xeriscaping” and many people wave their hands in dismissal, having a vision of a harsh, barren landscape of desert-type plants and rocks. Some of the misconception comes from the word xeriscaping itself. The “x” is pronounced as a “z,” which leads people to think “zeroscaping,” a term that is sometimes used as a synonym for a xeriscape, but one that is very misleading. Other terms synonymous with xeriscape are water-conserving landscaping, drought-tolerant landscaping, and my favorite, Smart Scaping.

With careful selection, the plants I introduce to the adverse conditions of this garden will thrive and provide a lush landscape not only beautiful, but environmentally sound once they are established. There are those words in italics again – “once established.” Few plants, if any, can be stuck in the ground to fend for themselves until they develop a root system strong enough to pull them through periods of drought. It could take one to two years before I can stop providing consistent water to this area.

The trees that frame the garden are already established. A large, mature maple provides most of the shade. An elm, a serviceberry, smoketree, a white spruce, and two clumps of river birch serve as a backdrop. When planning a landscape, work from large to small; after the trees, comes the shrubs – the bones of the garden.

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