Gardening styles here and there ...

[Deleted]

Hi all,

Given that we have members gardening in (I think) the UK, Ireland, France, Holland, Belgium, Romania, the US and Canada, do you think there are significant national/regional differences in gardening styles? E.g., my memory of German gardens is that they focussed far more on evergreens and 'year-round' interest than on annuals or herbaceous perennials - possible for climatic reasons. Any thoughts out there? ... cheers ...

[obelixx]

I've met several serious gardeners here in Belgium who claim the English don't garden, they grow flowers - mostly with little regard for design or colour. On the other hand, they are also huge fans of good British gardens and can wax lyrical and at length about some British garden treasures.

There are, of course, good garden designs and bad in any culture but the best ones here do start with structure and a certain number of evergreens because winter can be so long and you need something of interest to look at as well as plants that survive the conditions. I often feel that too many people here rely on conifers and straight lines of red roses/red geraniums/red salvias in a narrow border with red and yellow tulips for spring.

It's the British equivalent of a lawn with a straight path up the middle and tiny borders either side with some straggly roses and lots of bare soil. It drives me batty but then it also makes my garden look very messy by comparison (you can see it in the beeb garden gallery on the design board) so now I'm trying to compromise and introduce some order and structure - with lots of lovely perennials bursting out in season and, of course, my clems and new roses.

My visit to Annevoie with Margi (see beeb gallery and Plocket's pics too) and a subsequent visit in summer with my gardening group have convinced me that formality is a good thing and can set off beautifully all my lovely flowers.

[chickadeedeedee]

Hmmmm. I think the gardening style is as variable as the gardener. Their likes, dislikes, temperature, climate, soil type, growing zone or zone denial. It also has a lot to do with what plants will actually do well for you and those plants who are doomed if they come home with you.

I know someone in California who has tried to have a very tropical jungle look to his garden with palms and things in the understory. He's even tried to get plants from the same geographical region, although not native to southern California. (Sorry WAV. LOL!)

Another person less than 20 miles from him grows only bromeliads. He has the best luck with them and he knows his plants! Many are mounted on wood or in pots. No decorative scheme at all but still each plant is pleasing to the eye.

One next door neighbour has a beautiful cottage garden. Another a few doors down has just roses.

In Ohio we have four seasons and we try to plant to have something of interest for each of those seasons, if it be a flowering tree in the Spring or a tree that has spectacular coloured leaves in the Fall or berries for the birds in Winter. We try to have a wildlife friendly yard and use no toxins. Other than that our particular style is known as semi-controlled chaos. ;D

C3D

[torontotrini]

It is hard for me to think of any particular, characteristic style that I've noticed for Canada; either personally or from what I've seen on TV in some of the garden shows that come on occasionally. That shouldn't be too surprising because there is so much geographical differences across Canada, coast to coast and north to south, and probably more importantly, the population is such a mixed bag, with people - new arrivals and third or 4th generations from immigrant families - from all over the world, and from so many different cultures. I think it's still safe to say Western European is still the dominant culture, but as we all know, even in that regard there is so much diversity; English, French, German, Irish, Italian ... I could go on. It is so hard to generalize but think the idea of a nice lawn area is probably a common feature in Canadian gardening. The use of shrubs, evergreen and decidious is also a reasonably common characteristic (long hard winters probably a strong influence there), with a good healthy infusion of colour in full borders and island beds of perennials and annuals. I think people are also becoming more conscious of the need to use native plants to create wildlife friendly environments. I would definitely say the English cottage garden style is not the common standard, but areas of a garden could have a very English cottagy, flush-meadow aspect to it. I also would say the very structured, straight-lines styles I hear board members refer to for some areas in Europe is also not the standard here. So what are we left with; a mixture of a lot of different styles? That's probably the best description. Personally, I like a nice area of lawn to set the foundation for my borders and island beds, with a good mix of evergreen and flowering shrubs and perennials. I try to have a mix that would give me colour right through the season. I also like a healthy mix of variegated and "coloured" foliage mixed in, both for the shrubs and the perennials. I'm usually dealing with fairly limited space so I like "well behaved" plants, and if there is a dwarf variety of a plant I like, I would probably go for the dwarf over a "regular" variety. I definitely keep an eye on having plants that bear berries and seeds or flowers that attract wildlife, and give colour in the fall. Now good luck in making sense of all that rambling.

[4pygmies]

This is a very interesting thread. It seems as if C3D has a fair point really - it's all down to the gardener. When I moved 70 miles from a small market town to a rural garden I noticed a huge difference even in that small relocation - just the fact that there are far fewer GC's and nurseries here so a great deal less choice limits gardeners "palettes". It's a fascinating topic though. Round here we have much wilder gardens generally - in keeping with the surrounding countryside I suppose. Plus we have things like deers and rabbits to contend with! Personally I prefer to garden with the "flow" so my garden is very pro wildlife and child friendly. I do love formal gardens though - just don't have the time or energy to do it with mine. It's interesting to hear Obelix's Belgium perspective - and it's true - we do love flowers, don't we? I think that could be connected with the current state of the world though, and our place in it - might be an interesting thesis to explore - our personal small space, general disenchantment, and a perceived reduction in our freedoms and choices( but it's too early in the morning for me!). I look forward to reading other people's posts here.

[Deleted]

I think a garden's appearance is dictated by the weather conditions it has to endure, including rainfall and how much shade is produced by buildings or large trees. The only shade I have in my garden is caused by fencing, I don't have any deep constant shade. My soil is quite sandy, stony and free draining, no where stays really damp all year, and as far as I'm aware it is neutral.

What I'm trying to say is that the growing conditions will often dictate the type of plants that will grow successfully and therefore, to some extent will dictate the style.

[beejay]

I strongly suspect that there are no longer any distinct styles in gardens in different countries. With gardening programmes, magazines, international shows more of us are able to absorb so many different ways of doing things. In the past most gardening was dictated by need (ie to feed a family) & fashion (particularly the large estate gardens). Now, although climate is still a factor, many gardeners are constantly trying to push the boundaries of what they grow, so we now have mediterranean style gardens in the UK (partly assisted by climate change), we will grow tree ferns & palms next to each other. Although there are still fashions, they tend to be on a smaller scale such as the use of grasses rather than going for the full Capability Brown look! In many countries gardening is still based on need & it is always interesting to see examples of such garden types at the big flower shows, but for many of us now it is anything goes!

[torontotrini]

I tend to think along the same line as beejay. I think the "global village" environment that we see in so many aspects of society, especially in business, commerce, technology, travel and the spread of diseases, is very much a factor in a lot of other less high profile situations, like gardening. Just by chatting on these boards, for example, I find in a few subtle ways my approach to gardening and plant selection has changed (eg. my interest in clematis has certainly been influenced by Plocket and Obelixx and others on the boards. I never used to pay much attention to clematis and only ever had one solitary clem in all my previous years of gardening in Canada; now I have 10, acquired over the past few months).

And I guess I make a distinction between garden style (which I think is heavily, but not entirely influenced by culture, traditions, etc.) and plant selection (which is heavily influenced by geographic and climate conditions); and of course plants in turn influence style. That is why I think that in a country like Canada, and I think to a large extent the US as well, where the population is so much a composite of immigration from all over the world, it is so difficult to find a dominant garden style.

[4pygmies]

The global village environment also opens up that whole debate about taking plants out of their natural setting and growing them in quite alien conditions (no WAV, please...). Just because fashion and style dictates say we like them, does that mean we should? Are we really sure we're not contributing to the depletion of plants in their natural home? And what about the influx of alien insects and diseases? I don't particularly have any axe to grind about it but I do think it's a strange juxtapositon that we are told that our native flora and fauna are under threat at the same time as all these plants are seen as desirable adjuncts to our gardens. Personally I think people garden (or not) according to their conditions, time available, pocket and level of interest. We all love gardening but all our gardens are very different aren't they?

[Deleted]

Interesting points made here. Re. importing alient plants - at what point does a plant cease to be alien? E.g., last century fuchsias, crocosmias and climbing solanums were imported by plant hunters into Britain and Ireland, and have since naturalised in the South-West of Ireland - and of course are very popular in gardens, or were until recently. But, technically, they are still 'alien' plants. It probably does not matter from an ecological point of view unless (a) they cross-breed with endangered indigenous plants (e.g. the bluebell issue), or (b) importing them depletes stocks in their native countries - although that has probably been halted by CITES.

I do think there used to be dominant national styles - e.g. the cottage garden was pretty unique to the UK and, to a lesser extent, Ireland even though other European countries had quite similar climates. Now it seems - here at least - that the fashion is for a more formal look, partly influenced by TV garden designers.
And, as C3D and Beejay say, there is definitely 'zone denial', also as a result of travel (after coming back from Lisbon last year I hankered after a bougainvillea, although I know perfectly well it can't grow in Dublin).

An interesting idea about our own personal space 4P - I think you're probably right. As life becomes more complex, it becomes increasingly important to have control of even a tiny bit of the environment ... cheers ...

[torontotrini]

This has turned out to be a very interesting thread; with some very provocative points being raised. Personally, I have no problem with taking plants from one part of the world to another if the environmental conditions in their "new home" are the same or close enough to their "native" home to allow them to do well. But yes, there are risks associated with that in terms of the longer term environmental effect on their "new home". Right now in southern Ontario there is a bit of a problem with purple loosestrife that was brought into the country/province (don't remember from where) It has gotten out into the "wild" and is spreading so fast that it is puting a lot of pressure on a lot of native wild flower plants, which of course results in a kind of chain reaction effect as far as wildlife goes. And it's not only a problem with plants and gardening. It happens with animal and insect life as well. Having said that though, there are a lot of good results from plants, horticultural as well as fruits and other food producers, being moved around the world from their native habitats. Oranges are not native to the Caribbean ( I think they actually originated in Spain), but they are now a major fruit in the area and a major contributor to the economy of some Caribbean islands; not to mention California and Florida. I think we all have heard at some time or another about the story of Captain Bligh and the transporting of breadfruit from the East to the Caribbean. It became, and still is, an important food supply to Caribbean populations. Mangoes are also an imported fruit into the Caribbean from the East. India I think, but not sure.

In my more whimsical moods, I think of the world as just one big, single nursery, and whether by wind, sea, animals - including birds - or people, plants have been moving around the world from "Day One", and finding new habitats that they change in some way, and in turn that changes them in some way. Same thing for people too actually, when you really think about it.

[Deleted]

Just think how many plants have been shunted round the world. Some to be thugs, some to just hold onto life. At least all over the world people have a need to see things grow.