Invite a Bit of Wildness into Your Garden

Relax and embrace the beautiful changes nature provides in your garden.

Rick Darke encourages us to do just that in his expanded edition of The Wild Garden by William Robinson. He says the wild garden is a balance of naturalistic and planned gardening.

Start with evaluating the soil, light and climate conditions unique to the smaller spaces within your landscape. Then match the plants to the growing conditions instead of changing these conditions to match the plant’s needs. Robinson includes both natives and noninvasive exotics in the wild garden.

Darke suggests you work from the ground layer up. Cover it with plants and mulch of leaves or other local organic materials to suppress weeds and conserve moisture.

Add and edit plants based on their ability to thrive and reproduce in the given growing conditions.

A bit more information: The wild garden is not a landscape left to its own devices. Like any garden it involves planning and proper plant selection, but avoids excess order giving way to diversity and beauty created by nature.