Recently presented to a local garden club.

How To Evaluate A Garden

Part One: Plant Selection

How do you look at a garden- or any planting, actually- and judge it? Is it a matter of 'taste'? (it's not). Is 'beauty in the eye of the beholder'? (Yes, but we are speaking about design, not beauty). Is there a 'wrong' and 'right' when it comes to plant material selection?

Yes. And here are some simple rules.

First, evaluate the way plants have been handled culturally:

1. Plants that are next to each other must share the same light, water, and soil requirements. Seems self-evident, right? But how many times have you seem Philodendron planted next to Lantana, for example?

2. Plants need room to grow! It's not always obvious that plant spacing is a function of the mature size of the plant, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the size of the plant when it is planted. Lots of folks figure they can save money if they use lots of small plants rather than a few larger and more expensive plants. But the opposite is true: plants need room to grow, and over-crowding results in expensive removals.

Second, let's look at design:

Remember that often it's not possible to know the reasons that plants were chosen or arranged in a certain way; you look at a new planting as a stranger, and knowing the 'whole story' would tell a lot.

However, here are four simple ways to look at a composition:

1. Are the big plants in back and the small plants in front? (seems silly, but....)

2. Do the plants contrast well with one another? do they have dissimilar textures, or color, or growth patters that make the plants stand out?

3. Does the composition have a foreground, a mid-ground, and a background?

4. Does the composition treat the ground plane, and the middle heights, and the canopy.

Finally, consider the variety of materials used, and the way they are laid out:

1. In general, a composition with FEWER different plant species will be a better composition: easier for the eye to digest, less frenetic, and a lot easier to maintain.

2. Is mulch used as a design element? We say this over and over and over: mulch is nothing but a necessary evil. Whereever you see mulch, you see a possible home for a plant!

There are more than 1900 commonly available plants in Florida! At MSA, we know ALL of them.

Next question?

Good gardening from MSA Design, Inc.

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