Vignette Gardening,......ooh, La La!

Oh, I know, "Ooh La La" is not French, but I don't know French. (So give me a break) I am just fortunate that I finally figured out I was spelling Vignette wrong! (Thanks to my partner.) So, let me get on with this.

One of the things I like about gardening is the freedom it gives you to work with the ground and get it to perform as you want it to. You can do almost anything you care to in your garden, and as long as you provide the things the plants need to prosper, they will. For me, that opens a lot of possibilities! (I have a very vivid imagination!) I have in the past, planted flowers in patterns, of different types and color which all had the same basic requirements, and used them to paint a picture. (I will never do that again.) I chewed my nails back to my elbows waiting for everything to fill in and bloom before I knew if I had been successful or not! Do you have any idea how difficult that was? Well, don't try it, or if you do, don't expect miracles! That's all I will say on that matter, except, we all have our failures! I had no idea deer actually do like flowers allot more than grass. (I was a newby!) I had watched a couple of "Gardening By The Yard" shows and just knew I could grow flowers on my head if I wanted too! (Never mind I can't even get the stuff that is supposed to be up there to grow let alone flowers!)

I have learned a lot since then. I know that human hair around a garden keeps away deer,(Not my own of course, cause I don't have much left!) but I still have never attempted a picture with flowers again. Maybe some day. For now, I have come up with other ways to work out my artistic frustrations in the garden. Now I paint the picture in my mind, and put it together in the garden. I build the garden in small scenes, or vignettes, until I have created the vision I have in my mind. (Hope I don't run out of ground before that happens.) What you end up with in the end is a garden that has life and interest in every nook and cranny. No kidding! .I break down my overall vision into smaller, more manageable bits. Each bit, a vignette. I call it Vignette Gardening. Yes it sounds a bit nutty, but you know me by now, (Unless this is your first time to tune in, and if that is the case, you must be totally lost at this moment.) I am.

Anyway, as I mentioned in my last article, (Sorry, I know they are called Hubs, but just make me happy, okay?) I love nature, and the garden I have pictured in my mind is one of a forest floor garden. Shady, with fingers of light which filters down to kiss the earth and highlight the beautiful, but hardy plant life that drinks in the energy from around them. Both from above the earth as well as below. Of course, there is a whimsical side to this "Natural Garden" in that there are Gnomes who reside there. (I heard the snickering. That is enough.) In fact, though the overall vision is a natural woodland setting, we loving refer to it as the "Fairy Garden".

Allright, now that you think I may be just a step beyond "Nuts", let me confirm it for you. Attached to the "Fairy Garden", is another little area we refer to as "Strawberry Fields", and the home of the "Mushroom Fairy". Laugh if you will, but check out the shots. (You laugh while I stuff my piehole with fresh strawberries!)

By the way, just for the record, the "Mushroom Fairy" was in place well before the strawberries spread down to her domain. The funny thing is though, everytime it rains, we get this tremendous crop of mushrooms all around the area where she resides! No kidding! Really! I'll try to get some pictures!

Okay! Okay! Jeez, keep your pants on! I just want to work you into this gently. You know. I don't want to shock your system or anything. I mean, we are gonna stretch the envelope here a bit. Of course, We are used to that. In fact the Wisteria I have mentioned in a few of my comments with another reader refer to a Wisteria vine which is growing on a trellis off our patio. This beautiful specimen is only hardy to zone 5, but being the daredevils we are, we are attempting to grow this magnificent plant in Zone 4. (Wow! Talk about tight rope walkers! Whew!)

Maybe sometime we will talk about how you can find places in your garden where you might find variances in your temperature zone. (Believe it or not, every garden has places which are sheltered and are capable of supporting plant life which need a higher temperature zone, generally.)

So, on with the subject of this article. Vignette Gardening. Or as I already stated, breaking up your vision for your garden, into smaller, easier to manage pieces, which can help keep anyone"s sanity intact.. (And that"s a good thing. Take it from me.) This way, you can picture your garden in your mind as grand and illustrious as you care too, and tackle it in tiny bits. That way, you don't mess up your yard (Unlike me) with your grand vision, and just build it up in small parts. People who choose to view your gardens won't fall into the hole you dug for the pond, but still haven't had time to finish out yet. (Not that I am talking from experience or anything.)

Let me put it this way. If my wonderful mate decided to write some Hubs, they would probably be entitled in some of the following ways:

"Never give a Bi-Polar a shovel!"

"Things I would do for a finished project!"

"The giant fish pond that almost ate my yard!"

"Grass, what the hell is that?"

"Things I would like to bury in the hole this moron dug.in my back yard."

and of course,

my favorite,

"The day I called my son, the one who owns a Landscaping company."

Just kidding! She knows she just has to give me a couple more years, and I will have another piece of it all done, (Until then, the orange cones should be enough to keep another family member from being maimed.)

So, like I said before, I have this picture of this very beautiful and shady, faux, get away. A place to relax after digging those @%#$@%# weeds out of the vegetable garden on one of those 95 degree, 99% humidity days of the mid-west, with 0 MPH winds and mosquitoes the size of pigeons, and these really annoying gnats that think your head is a fine place to nest as they fly into your ears, eyes, nose and mouth, not to mention burrowing into your skin. (and removing enough blood between the two to render you light headed and resembling a prune.)

You say, "Well use some bug spray then!" In Minnesota, "Off" is considered bait for mosquitoes and only makes them intoxicated. (A drunk Mosquitoes is not a pleasant sight. they get very belligerent.)

What was I talking about? Oh yah. The garden I picture is one that a person can relax in. Kick off the shoes to feel the cool stone patio and Scottish moss grout beneath hot and tired feet.. A place to sit and hear the waterfall and the babble of a stoney brook emptying into a tranquil pool with Koi bobbing to the surface and looking for a hand out. A place to sit and look at the lush annuals and perennials, showing their vivid colors of purples, and blues and Yellows, and the splashes of pinks, whites, and reds against the background of green foliage of non-flowering plants. A place to view the Lilly Garden that contains Tiger, Channa, and Day lilies of every hue, along with the Irises which are blooming over the pond. A place to sit and watch the Hummingbirds and Butterflies and Bee's, collecting and drinking Nectar from the flowers all around, and getting lost in the aroma of the earth, the flowers, and the water as they blend into an aroma that would be priceless if sold in a scent shop, all the while being soothed in a shade that is several degrees cooler than in the sun. This is the place I picture i my mind, at least for this garden.

The place I found to begin such an endeavor was supplied by nature. (And an unknown Arborist, who planted these three magnificent Silver Maples in a row in our back yard.) They are fairly mature, so they provide a lot of shade. Not quite enough for my vision, so I needed to improvise.

Now, as my Profile says, I live in Minnesota. Yes the Mosquitoes are big, but you know what else? They are noted for several cash crops here in the good ol mid-west. Corn, Soy Beans, wheat, not to mention Flax Seed, Sun Flower Seed, Alfalfa and Sugar beets, However, these all pail in comparison to the number one crop. This crop evidently is a self seeding crop which is more prolific every year. This crop to which I refer to is of course, the field stone crop which pushes up every spring right after the last freeze. You can see farmers and their families, on warm spring afternoons, driving their quads through the fields, gleefully picking up the harvest and throwing them into carts and wagons to haul off to their respective stone gathering place. ( A veritable treasure trove for a guy like me!) Surprisingly, and much to my delight, the farmers around here are more than happy to allow a person to actually go into their fields and take the stones, for their own personal use, in their personal own garden, for free! (Who'dathought!?)

So,.....I needed to get more shade, more shelter than I already had. Rocks. Big Rocks. They give shadows, and they block the wind, and they look extremely natural in a woodland setting, such as the one in the picture in my mind. They make very natural walls, and used in a waterfall, well, how natural is that? In our garden, there are rocks big enough that on one side, a plant requiring sun most of the day can be planted, and on the other, one which enjoys shade for about the same amount of time. A bit of water from a mister, and TaDah! You got two different plants, loving two distinct different environments, cohabiting, with a rock between them. Now how cool is that? And you only had to push some big rock around your yard! Awesome!

Well, lets see. Oh. You know what else works in a woodland setting? Drift wood. Especially if you are creating a scene with a Brook or stream. One of the things which happens in nature, especially in the mountains, is flash floods, or at the very least, streams swelling their banks.

So what?

Big chunks of wood get trapped in the water, and after a while pops up, and there you go. Drift wood. Completely natural, and therefore, natural in a woodland garden, with a brook. Pretty much a no brainer. Put a big hunk in the garden, plant some bulbs, some other stuff and there you go. Trust me. It will look great. (And if there are some deep pockets in the drift wood, try putting some potting soil in it and an Alyssum or two.) Pretty soon, you will have a thing of beauty that ;your friends and neighbors will be complimenting you on for the rest of the summer! I know! Cool!

Each little scene you create, will only make the larger picture look all that much better. (If you ever get done with the project, that is.) As you get each little area done, you will slowly see your overall vision coming into shape.

If you have only the weekends to work out there, then only bite off what you can accomplish in the weekend. If you have time to devote after work during the week, then again, only bite off what you think you can complete during the week. If you can do a combination of the two, well, (You get the picture).

By placing wood and stone into different areas, you can produce shade and shelter for more tender plants, as well as helping to maintain moisture in areas where it is needed more than other areas. Plants love the extra attention they get when you are trying to fulfill their needs. Not to mention the feeling of accomplishment you will feel when you get a plant to survive in a spot you designed all by your little lonesome.

Now I needed to give my little oasis something extra. Something that would show our whimsical side. Something different. So, not only did I divide my garden down into manageable parts, but also took the entire garden and divided it into four different sections. Each one with a mythical care taker. (I say mythical, but there are Gnome Statues, one in each of three sections, the Mushroom Fairy in Strawberry field, and a water Fairy who looks over the water fall, Brook and pond. (The Koi look after themselves, except at feeding time.)

Okay, I lied. The pond the falls and the stream are not installed completely, as of yet, but we are working on it. As for the Koi, don't worry, they still have their place at the Pet Shop, and only visit on the weekends.

I also used the earth itself to build areas which are more sheltered. With stone and earth, we created natural outcroppings of rock, and terraces. Plants needing more water or shade were placed near the ground level, while other plants with other needs were planted farther up, or along the top of the outcropping. Some plants have been placed so that they will grow out from the face of the outcropping. Still other plants have been planted so that they will cascade over the brook or pond.. (When it is there.)

So, this is what I call Vignette Gardening. I have spent many very enjoyable hours creating these parts of the vision within my mind. I look forward to many more, and hope for a few hours more to sit and enjoy it all when I finally complete the entire scene. But for now, I will enjoy what is there. In fact, I would love to share it with you, and as things progress, who knows. Maybe I will show some more pictures. (Another shameful teaser.)

Until then, get out there and plant something! The worms won't mind!