Winter Interest/Backdrops

Myrna in Montana wrote:

>That's interesting to me, because---in many ways---I envy city >gardeners!  For one thing, you have a boundary that you cannot exceed.

We find ways to exceed 'em!  We turned three of the city parkways in
front of our buildings into perennial beds (the city has so far
encouraged this) and we have a community garden in a small park a block
away that I designed.  But generally, you're right - the property lines
create a real limitation.

>But back to the backdrop thing, the garden-design books always talk <about integrating your plantings with your house, the larger landscape, >etc. How many of us really do that?

I have enough trouble with all the study of plants, Latin names, &
cultural conditions, let alone doing historical architectural research
to "match" the gardens to the buildings.  So our pseudo-Queen Anne
building is surrounded by a wrought iron fence (Victorian, but not too
bad) but has wooden arbors and trellises on one side, along with a lot
of rock work that defines edges & corners -- very country casual, but it
seems to work.  Not "planned" at all, though! 

>It's really neat and amazing how gardeners just plug away, trying to >make something beautiful against all odds.

So true! And variations in gardening approaches are part of the endless
fascination, I find.  (Sympathy for your livestock & weed problems.)
Since I've reached my physical limit with maintaining about 2000 S.F
of beds, my plans for the country some day will include a lot of
tree & shrub borders, with "alcoves" of perennials.  Anybody know of
a good book or website on planning & designing shrub or mixed borders?

Anne - Chicago

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