Your Garden Style

Rear Center Garden
What is your gardening style? Do you have one? Do you even want one? Aspire to a style? What is it?Heuchera Garden
Oftentimes we speak of and hear about gardening styles. What exactly is a style and how do you choose a style of gardening?
Front Sidewalk Garden
Well for me I think my style of gardening is considered cottage, eclectic, and maybe a bit crowded. Can that be considered a style?

Front Foundation Bed-Right Side
I find I garden in this manner because I am a bit of a plant collector. I not only want every plant I see, I also want A LOT of those plants.

Sunny Perennial Border
I like lots of color and I want color all year long. As such, I must pack in a lot of plants in order to have something blooming all year. These plants must be planted in big enough drifts to make an impact when their neighbors are out of bloom.

Greenhouse Garden-Sunny Side
At the same time they must be close enough together so that they can carry the color when their neighboring perennials are out of bloom. A hard mission for any garden let alone the numerous ones I have here at Tiger Gardens.

Northside Shrub Border and Walled Garden
I want lots of textures, foliage, and blooms too. The whole garden should work together but how do you get the look you want? I really crave a succession of blooms and can anticipate when the next plant will bloom but putting it all together is a challenge. I do not want to see any ground in between the plants and the less grass I have to cut the better.

Crabapple Garden
So I keep packing in the plants wherever they seem to fit and wherever I think they'll do well. Some things work and some things don't. Then of course I have to adjust my style. I dig plants, I throw out plants, I move plants, I simply abuse my plants in my quest to get the perfect garden according to me.

Greenhouse Garden-Shade Side
Did I mention my garden is sun challenged? No where on this one little acre of dirt does the sun shine for more than 6 hours at a time. That one little spot is in my driveway. Ha! What fun!

Spa Garden
So I garden with shade and shade plants. I enjoy the shade yet I yearn for sun loving plants. I adapt. As do the plants and that is a great thing.

Front Center Garden and Part of Forest Pansy Garden
I try to garden to please me and to find my exact specific gardening style. Gardening is an art that is never really complete. It must always be worked on and oh yes, let's throw in the fact that the gardener will change. We are not static. Just because I garden in a cottage type style now does not mean I will always garden this way. So I adapt and still I strive to find my garden style, but really the whole thing with gardening styles is misleading. The type of gardening you do should be called the "Piece of Me" gardening style. Because no matter what your style is it is uniquely yours and you leave a piece of you in your garden each time you tend it, plant it, edit it, prune it, weed it, well you get the idea.Northside Shrub Border
Don't get wrapped up in garden styles, just enjoy your garden for the reasons you do. And don't ever let anyone tell you what type of style you should have in your garden. Strive to be you and leave a piece of you in your garden. This is what makes all gardeners have a special connection to their gardens. A garden is uniquely the gardener's. You can have ten thousand gardeners gardening in a formal style and I guarantee you not one single garden will be the same. Forget about styles and garden the way you wish to garden. Find your own style...

in the garden....whatever it may be.