GARDENING PHILOSOPHY
(above) view from my front step looking NW, pre summer storm
(below) view from my patio area looking NE, late summer afternoon
By PHILOSOPHY essentially I mean your style. That is, how you garden will dictate what you do -- your thinking and action. While I suspect few people actually think of a style when they build or make changes to their garden, they do choose one or more by virtue of what they use and how they use it. For example, your emphasis could be a type of plant (say hostas or perhaps native, fragrant or a particular color) but philosophy also implies how/where you use the medium, just as paint is color (i.e., visual) and painting is stylistic. Moreover, what you use, as well as how, should be determined by where you are -- the location and conditions.
My central Indiana garden's primary style is naturalistic (i.e., less heavily manicured overall) and very eclectic, that is diverse. I like the naturalistic look especially when mixed with manicured, and gardening this way allows me to manage a larger area with less invested overall time -- although what most people sense is that it is has had little if any input (invested time and effort - WORK). Trust me, it has! Again, my goal is to give the impression that it is natural, that Mother Nature did all of it, when in fact it is mostly man-made, manipulated (especially via editing) by me to produce the effect I want. But what one sees and experiences in the garden on any particular day is but a snapshot in time. It will never look or feel just that way again. That is particularly true at my place. And, like it or not, your garden is largely man-made and ever-changing.
I was curious about the kinds of action (the work categories involved) and thought you would be too, so I spent some time thinking about the topic and generated the following assessment regarding me and my garden. Your's WILL be different but my assessment might be useful. - Thanks to Lisa & Dan Burnham for providing comments on a partial early draft
CORE CATEGORIES (18) OF GARDEN WORK
% (estimated and varies by season; furthermore, and again, every garden and gardener is different)
15 WEEDING - incl. unwanted woodies but other than edging (see additional comment below)
15 MOWING - had it down to about half this amount while my robo mower setup worked; unfortunately and inexplicably, the device drove itself outside a zone boundary and into a rainwater retention area full after a heavy rain thus ruining the circuitry; essentially drowning itself; I presumed it was attempting to return, like ET -- in this case to a local data center :) Truth be told, the device was acting erratically for several months prior to the suicide; I am considering a replacement using the insurance rider; see the accompanying pic below as well as my Jul 2025 rant essay MOWING, with emphasis on Robotic Mower
10 EDGING - incl. string trimming, tree aprons (a Mad Botanist original, rant essay upcoming)
10 PLANT MAINTENANCE - incl. pruning, cutback, deadheading, descaping, watering, lifting & storing overwinter; but other than edging, mowing and/or mulching
5 GENERAL CLEANUP - incl. seasonal put away and get out, gutters, sweeping, raking, blowing, picking up sticks, removing bird dropping, storm damage, water features, disposal -- adding to burn & compost piles; gathering litter discarded by traveling "Earth Pigs" see my Dec 2019 rant essay
5 INSTALLING IN-GROUND CONTAINERS / RUBBER LINER TO CREATE WET AREAS - in-ground containers will be the topic of an upcoming rant of the month essay
5 HARDSCAPE - incl. construction, repair, paths, roads, patio, painting, staining, fencing, art, rock work
5 MULCHING - wood chips, grass clippings and shredded leaves, NEVER dyed "pulled pork" mulch (there is NO natural equivalent, Mother Nature uses leaves)
5 EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES - incl. research & reading, sharing (talks, classes, giving tours), visiting other gardens & nurseries / garden centers
5 SUBSTRATE PREP AND HEALTH - incl. amendments - mycorrhizae, compost / other organics, sand, pH adjustment, fertilizing (I almost never use synthetic fertilizer, mostly my compost {I recycle}, Milorganite and occasionally worm castings); my soil is mostly aboriginal; I do no tilling even though I have a 1,000 sq. ft. vegetable garden area (see gardening myths); I gave away my tiller over a decade ago
5 PLANT INSTALLATION / TRANSPLANT - incl. new beds and bed revision
5 PLANT EXTRACTION - incl. dead / old / skanky, editing (different than weeding due to my style); trees if other than storm damage; professional arborists for most large tree removal & high pruning; I often leave the trunk of dead or fallen trees (less costly & wildlife habitat and I like the look); I have had some why? inquiries/complaints since it is different - I do not like or want my garden to look like most homeowners (i.e., the red maple / boxwood hedge look)
5 RECORDKEEPING, SIGNAGE, PHOTO DOCUMENTATION
1 BURNING - to dispose of branches and some dead plants; also related to weeding and edging but a technique most people do not and cannot do; unless one burns a "prairie garden" or rain garden each WILL be invaded by and taken over by woodies, I also use a propane blow torch to suppress my gravel driveway weeds and in certain other locations, see pic above
1 PEST / DISEASE MANAGEMENT & WILDLIFE FRIENDLY ACTIVITIES - see squirrel feeding station under SHOP
1 HARVESTING - other than leaves & grass clippings for mulch and compost
1 PROPAGATION - mostly seed germination, I do almost no cutting/grafting; this could be a much higher number for some of you
1 TOOLS/MACHINERY - maintenance, repair, fuel
100 TOTAL (18 CATEGORIES)
MOST ONEROUS TASK - anything to do with chopping or digging, especially removing stumps and dividing clumps of running grasses
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS & FACTORS:
what I do, time spent on upkeep and to facilitate garden change my way at my place, requires @ 10hrs/ac/wk; another 20-25 hrs/wk maintaining this website
some work is not ongoing (non-chores) thus seems more time-consuming overall than it actually is; seasonal work can occupy one but it is of short duration
I rarely go a day without doing something in the garden; key to having any chance of keeping up
I garden 12 months a year and my garden performs 12 months a year (I am hardcore)
gardening for me is a life style, not a hobby
I am 74, my garden/property is 2.86 acres, started here in 2010, and I do it myself (the gardener) not some landscaping company; regarding hired help, good lucky finding an individual or a company with maintenance expertise other than mowing, e.g., the few that I would recommend in the greater Indianapolis area would be well beyond what the average homeowner could afford; for hire qualified weeding is almost unheard of (hard work and requires botanical expertise); I have offered to train but it is hard and demanding work, have yet to get any takers despite the self-employment opportunity
I do little strenuous activity when the temp exceeds 85 F and rarely when 90+ F (esp. w/ high RH)
as my mentor Wesley Whiteside wisely said, follow the shade during the warm months and the sun when cold
many areas at my place receive little attention, perhaps a few hours yearly (scope & planned)
excludes commerce (i.e., activity related to selling plants of which I do zilch)
I do little standard seasonal/holiday decorating -- like mums or a pumpkin display -- which I do not count as gardening; almost all in-ground seasonal plant options require planning months or years in advance (availability and time to grow) not something you go out and buy; e.g., my winterberries are in-ground and most of the in-container options I use either get planted or lifted and overwintered/stored inside; overwintering is a slippery slope, i.e., easy to go overboard
I do much of the ongoing removal of woodies in the winter months when the ground is moist but not frozen, making sure to get part of the root system; I have an advantage in that as an experienced field botanist I can identify most plants when dormant, doing so in late fall to early spring also allows me to attend to issues not obvious when the deciduous species are obscured by leaves; an added advantage of dealing with the pretty but very invasive wintercreeper is that its leaves often take on a red coloration in winter, thus easier to detect AND extract when the soil is not bone dry
the average person knows more team mascots than they do plants, and have no interest in learning, so will be clueless, and it would be a mistake to presume your local landscapers do; moreover, there are helpful tricks in regards to removal that the inexperienced will not know; it is NOT, as many presume, as simple as buy a bottle or container and spray yourself troubles away -- you may find my comments offensive but I would wager them true which points out a value characteristic I admire, people in general and gardeners specifically, i.e., OBJECTIVITY; unfortunately, I rarely encounter it :( -- instead bias and ignorance prevail
I find myself playing mind games to make the ofttimes repetitive work less oppressive and, make no mistake, gardening involves a lot of labor; e.g., I rarely force myself into a regular regiment and when it happens I break the routine ASAP unless the task is imperative; spontaneity and change are good -- refreshes the soul
I change some of what I do every year; always some new activity/project and new plant species; testing, experimenting
I also rarely do two hard days in succession
frankly, most people cannot appreciate a good garden and are too labor-averse and lazy to be a gardener
fancy nails and gardening are NOT compatible
gardening is definitely therapeutic (mind and body) but it can also be VERY challenging
while gardening I am often listening to music and frequently stoned; moreover, I almost always partake of some liquid medicine from 4-6, in moderation
water features are a high maintenance feature; I have one large and one small example, if I had more the percent listed above would be higher
I attend only 1-2 plant or garden related meetings annually, formerly 2-3x that and am no longer a member of any organized groups
on average, I visit 5-6 other gardens annually and about that many garden centers
as with most gardens and gardeners, most of what I do goes unnoticed
this essay is related to my previous post on Gardening Injuries (Mar 2025) to which I must now add hand injury due to various types of excessive gripping and pulling (esp. pruning and weed removal, a little from squeezing lemons and limes for my 4-6 medicine :)
In closing, nice gardens come in all sizes but they all have these three things in common: (1) they require care -- notice that most of the CORE CATEGORIES listed above include some aspect of maintenance work, (2) entropy (i.e., there will be change and it will not be what most consider orderly and acceptable) especially so for the plant portion, and (3) getting and keeping a garden presentable takes time, effort, patience, and talent. The idea of an install in one day and walk away or buy it from some gardening business (quick and no maintenance) is an absurd pipe dream. However, I contend that most people, if asked, would think that scenario possible! DELUSIONAL
We ARE NOT a gardening society, thus there are very few quality examples out there. If you are fortunate to have one or more in your community, be thankful, and why not consider leading by good/better example?
Next month I will get back to what "native" means in the garden, and I will be direct.
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