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Archive for the sharing tag

Sharing the edge: Gardening along property lines

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It’s tough to bring our green, growing stuff to a graceful end at the edges of our property. Here what could be an abrupt finish is softened by a seed-laden shawl of Clematis recta wisely grown to cover only a portion of the picket fence. Full coverage would simply replace one vertical wall with another.
It’s tough to bring our green, growing stuff to a graceful end at the edges of our property. Here what could be an abrupt finish is softened by a seed-laden shawl of Clematis recta wisely grown to cover only a portion of the picket fence. Full coverage would simply replace one vertical wall with another.

Article by Janet Macunovich
and photos by Steven Nikkila

Sometimes while gardening, sinking my fingers and soul into the earth, I forget where I am. Entranced by a boundless web of life anchored to the plants in my hands, my own boundaries move outward and I float free in the universe.

Until my work takes me up to the edge, that frustrating place where my property butts up to a neighbor’s. How stifling to the artistic gardener, to be hemmed in with such unequivocal straight lines. So tough to bring our green, growing stuff to a graceful end at that all too rigid but oh-so-necessary political boundary.

Perhaps the toughest kind of line is the edge of a small property, a city lot. Already too confining for some gardeners, that space seems to shrink further when filled with people and pets, outlined with fences and weighted with public sidewalks.

In front, the property line slices through and lays claim to what appears to be a sliver of the neighbor’s lawn. A non-gardener may cede that land to the lawn-owner, but the green thumb, already chafing about lost ground in other areas, sees it as a strip garden marooned on the far side of the driveway. Adversity being the mother of invention, the garden grows from there.

A conventional solution

Maintaining dominion over that strip is simplicity itself—draw a straight line and plant. Hedges are conventional, safe plantings for such a spot. Or are they?

Hedge trimming is often the rub. How to keep those shrubs neatly shaped when access to their far side requires crossing the line? If each neighbor prunes his or her own side, timing and technique become issues. Through an open window one neighbor might hear, “I wish the Simons would trim that hedge, it looks so scraggly on their side!” Of course the Simons will have their rebuttal, muttered or perhaps stage-whispered over the rattle of pruning tools: “Hmph! We didn’t plant it, we didn’t get a say in what kind of hedge it would be, but we have to prune it!”

Even with synchronized pruning, uniformity of maintenance may become an issue. “Look at the weeds coming through the hedge from their side!” “Wouldn’t it be nice if they would mulch their side too, and use the same mulch we do?” “Couldn’t we continue the Christmas lights over on that side?”

For more height in a herbaceous hedge, consider using ornamental grasses, vines on a trellis, even asparagus (pictured here).
For more height in a herbaceous hedge, consider using ornamental grasses, vines on a trellis, even asparagus (pictured here).

A straight line of plants need not have straight sides or tops. It can be tall at one end, short in the middle, medium height at the far end, as in this edge garden of black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’), ravenna grass (Erianthus or Saccharum ravennae), pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), perennial sunflower (Helianthus x multiflorus) and Viburnum opulus.
A straight line of plants need not have straight sides or tops. It can be tall at one end, short in the middle, medium height at the far end, as in this edge garden of black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’), ravenna grass (Erianthus or Saccharum ravennae), pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), perennial sunflower (Helianthus x multiflorus) and European cranberrybush (Viburnum opulus).

We ought to plant narrow strip edges with a shorter turnover in mind. Daylilies, peonies, black-eyed Susans, and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ make excellent short hedges that can be cut to the ground without harm when needed.
We ought to plant narrow strip edges with a shorter turnover in mind. Daylilies, peonies, black-eyed Susans, and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ make excellent short hedges that can be cut to the ground without harm when needed.


The perfect hedge

Sometimes neighbors agree in advance to plant or replace a hedge, decide together on the species of shrub to be used, even splitting the cost. Such jointly-owned hedges often straddle the lot line. “True enlightenment,” one might think.

Only if people stayed planted as long as shrubs do. Our roots have atrophied, though. Homes change hands far more frequently than they did when hedges were king. Hedge care falters in the transition. Ownership of boundary plants becomes fuzzier with each new tenant. Hedge co-owners sometimes find themselves suddenly hedgeless, victims of the neighbor’s landscape renovation scheme—a neighbor who did not know he or she was only part owner of the plants.

In recognition of all that can go wrong, we ought to plant narrow strip edges with a shorter turnover in mind. Daylilies, peonies, black-eyed Susans, and sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ make excellent short hedges. Individual plants in the hedge are much more portable than shrubs, can be cut to the ground without harm when home maintenance work demands a clear path, can recover in a year if damaged by a new driver’s wayward steering, and can provide far more color than shrubs which lose some flowering wood at each trimming.

For more height in a herbaceous hedge, consider using ornamental grasses, vines on a trellis, even asparagus. Although these selections may fall a few months short of a full year presence, they make up for that failing in speed of establishment. In just two years, a row of zebra grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus’) can make a solid six-foot wall. The wall disappears from April 1 until June 1 as the plants are cut to the ground and bounce back, but it’s there in full density during the height of the summer barbecue season and the windiest winter storm.

Even within a narrow rectangle, an edge planting can have a curvaceous top or side. These beds of peonies, Veronica and Sedum form a wavy line along an edge that could have been a boring rectangle.
Even within a narrow rectangle, an edge planting can have a curvaceous top or side. These beds of peonies, veronica and sedum form a wavy line along an edge that could have been a boring rectangle.

Creative curves

What about the gardener’s need for artistic expression? He who loves curves can become frustrated with long, narrow spaces that seem to demand long, straight lines of plants.

However, a straight line of plants need not have straight sides or tops. It can be tall at one end, short in the middle, medium height at the far end. It can consist of several types of plants of naturally varying widths and heights or a single type pruned to create a curvaceous top or side.

Try it—draw a narrow rectangle. Now draw a wavy line within the rectangle, along its long axis. To plant the line, stagger plants to trace the crests and troughs of those waves. As you maintain the bed, remember to preserve open space between the straight edge of the bed and the plants. This may mean strict use of pruning shears or careful selection and thinning of plants.

Window walls

Deviating from a straight line can have advantages in neighborliness. No one likes to feel that he or she has been walled out of an area. One way to break up a forbidding wall is to interrupt it with an inviting window or door.

Think it through before making the breach and it will be inviting without being a blanket invitation to peep or enter without knocking. Place the opening carefully and you can offer a pretty vignette yet preserve privacy. Set the door in a logical place and neighbors—even children—will use it. If you don’t want it used too freely, sink a pair of posts and hang a gate.

Think ‘outside the box.’ A neighbor’s garage can be a good background for a climbing rose, even if the neighbor won’t let it be planted flush against the garage or attached to the wall, as was the case with the unattached rose in this photo. So long as the rose is in front and the wall behind, the combination works as if the wall is yours.
Think ‘outside the box.’ A neighbor’s garage can be a good background for a climbing rose, even if the neighbor won’t let it be planted flush against the garage or attached to the wall, as was the case with the unattached rose in this photo. So long as the rose is in front and the wall behind, the combination works as if the wall is yours.

Invisible lines

Sometimes although we want to garden along the edge we don’t want a line at all but some less divisive visual flow from one property to the next. That’s the place to step back and take a wider view. Design the edge to continue an existing bed on the neighbor’s lot, or one on your lawn across the driveway. Even if the outlines of your edge bed and the other don’t join directly, you’ll achieve a unified effect if it appears the two beds’ edges would flow into one other if extended.

Another way of connecting isolated beds is by planting them to repeat species, color, texture, shape or alignment of plants in other areas. The link can be strengthened if the same or related non-plant items appear prominently in the beds. If an abstract rusted metal sculpture with a southwestern desert feel anchors one bed, repeat that theme in the next.

Give and take

Sometimes house placement and fencing isolate an area from foundation to lot line along one side of the house. The area may be accessible to its owner only by a long walk around and across the front yard, and then can be viewed straight on only from the neighbor’s driveway or patio. Some people leave such an area in lawn for ease in care and neatness of appearance. Some garden the space for the fun of gardening and the pleasure it gives the neighbor. Others cede care of the area to the neighbor if that person has both the best view of the bed and a desire for more gardening space.

If you’ve granted gardening rights to the neighbor on such a space, ask for compensating land elsewhere along your shared line. Who knows, maybe that neighbor is fed up with gardening the strip along the driveway and will let you take it over to expand your lawn!

Janet Macunovich is a professional gardener and author of the books “Designing Your Gardens and Landscape” and “Caring for Perennials.” Read more from Janet on her website www.gardenatoz.com.

Shared Gardens, Shared Lives

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Garden space and tasks can be divided and shared in numerous ways

One couple, unable to compromise their divergent tastes, drew a line down the middle of their yard. On one side, she gardens with wild abandon. It’s quite the contrast to his beds, which are a study in formality.
One couple, unable to compromise their divergent tastes, drew a line down the middle of their yard. On one side, she gardens with wild abandon. It’s quite the contrast to his beds, which are a study in formality.

By Janet Macunovich / Photos by Steven Nikkila

Some people wear all hats in a garden: designer, supreme commander, sole worker, and undisputed owner of all praise of their property. It’s an exhilarating kind of gardening, if a bit lonely.

It may also be the exception. More people are gardening than ever before and households consist of ever more diverse collections of people, so gardens are now being shared by partners, teams and even opposing camps. Today, horticultural skill no longer guarantees gardening success. A gardener needs a green thumb plus diplomacy, humor and the art of negotiation.

Looking at relationships that grow within shared gardens and examining your own sharehold is a way to improve your own non-horticultural gardening skills.

Gardeners’ interests change, and their garden sharing agreements should, too. Young children may like open areas, older children may want seclusion. All of them like water.
Gardeners’ interests change, and their garden sharing agreements should, too. Young children may like open areas, older children may want seclusion. All of them like water.

There are traditional ways to share a garden. One gardener designs, while planting goes to the other(s). One grows ornamental plants, leaving vegetables to the other(s). One mows, the beds belong to the other(s). One is master of everything woody in a yard while dominion over “soft” plants—flowers and vegetables—goes to the other(s). Each gardener may have a distinct area, as when two gardeners agree that one gardens in front, the other in back. Or distinctions may be by pecking order as when one directs while the other does as told.

Children, given an area to plant, will often choose plants quite unlike what an adult would have predicted. The author thought her children would like “lady in a bath” – the old English name for bleeding heart…
Children, given an area to plant, will often choose plants quite unlike what an adult would have predicted. The author thought her children would like “lady in a bath” – the old English name for bleeding heart…

Division of duties might be mercurial—some gardeners modify their agreement for each plant and project. It can also be adversarial – I’ve seen gardeners make controversial changes while a partner is out of town, hide expensive purchases, even call in referees. The resulting garden might be uncomfortable for some, but not for those who like some spice, have a keen sense of humor or revel in a challenge.

There are also unique approaches to sharing. One couple employed the “distinct area” approach—he gardened in front, she in back—until he became bored with the front. Its public aspect was restrictive of personal expression. They began gardening the front as a team but in back, unable to compromise their divergent tastes, they drew a line down the middle of the yard. On one side, she gardens with wild abandon. Across the way, his beds are a study in formality. The view from the back door can be bizarre, until one learns to focus not in the middle but to left or right.

But Cory shunned it for bigger, bolder canna.
But Cory shunned it for bigger, bolder canna.

Another unusual sharing is “my year, your year.” The people I saw employing it were partners who had done standard sharing for many years and had reached a base agreement as to overall layout and annual budget. In odd-numbered years now she is head gardener, with sole authority to redesign, while he is “under gardener.” In even years, the roles reverse. These people are not overly competitive and secure in other aspects of their relationship, so the results are fun to see.

In gardens shared by children and adults, a common approach is “I made this for you,” in which the adult designs and plants a play area within the garden. Another standard is to give children distinct areas: “these two rows in the vegetable garden,” and authority with some strings attached: “you can plant anything you want so long as…” Less often, kids are encouraged but not required to garden and carve out places of their own over time.

What is your garden sharing arrangement? How do you and others involved feel about your roles? Is change or clarification needed?

One woman learned abruptly that she and her husband had divided yard work by type of tool involved. Everything that could be done in the yard that involved power tools was “his.” Everything that required small tools or fingers alone was “hers.”

Sometimes garden sharing is divided along the lines of tools – power tools to one person…
Sometimes garden sharing is divided along the lines of tools – power tools to one person…

Hand tools to another.
Hand tools to another.

One man redrew his sharing arrangement when his daughter bought a home and needed landscaping help. His wife—always the planner and director in their shared garden—was out of town so he tackled the landscape renovation on his own. He was surprised at how much fun it was. He and his wife now deal as equals in their garden – the wheels of that change having been well greased by the fine landscape he designed and executed at their child’s home.

Joint responsibility for pruning may be one of the rarest arrangements in shared gardening. I first realized this after a neighbor borrowed my pole pruner. His role had previously restricted him to the lawn and vegetable garden. Upon the loan, he discovered both joy of pruning plus the power of the right tool and cut with such glee that his wife said, on returning the pole pruner to me, “If you ever loan him this again I’ll divorce both of you.”

Children grow quickly. Their interest in a garden sharehold can change as often as their shoe size. When my children were very young, they shared as spectators in the garden. From backpacks on our backs, they saw what we saw and heard what we said but were not at first allowed to touch. Later they were assigned to certain areas and allowed to do as they pleased.

Sometimes the best way to share a garden is to give each gardener a distinct area and complete dominion.
Sometimes the best way to share a garden is to give each gardener a distinct area and complete dominion.

As they grew and their interests changed, we tried to change their shareholds to match. For a time, when our son found destruction to be a fascinating pursuit, we included him in anything that required the use of an ax or hammer. When both children developed a yen for privacy, their garden area moved from a central, open spot to a secluded corner. We didn’t make or assign that move but came home to a fait accompli, a corner having been usurped and redesigned, complete with water garden. We might have been angry except that we accepted the mercurial nature of our shared garden contract.

Now that our children are grown, their corner is one of our favorite places. It may represent the first time we realized that our gardening relationships are worth far more than our gardens, but it won’t be the last.

My husband, Steven, and I started out sharing our yard by plant category—lawn was his, everything else was mine. His share of the bargain decreased as my beds encroached on the lawn. With less mowing to do he paid more attention to what I was doing and developed so much interest that he went back to school and completed a degree in horticulture. This called for a new garden sharing arrangement!

Enjoy your garden. But treasure and protect your garden sharing relationships.
Enjoy your garden. But treasure and protect your garden sharing relationships.

By gradual degrees and mutual consent, I retained responsibility and authority in the beds while he increased his participation in a way that pleased me and satisfied his intellectual and proprietary interests. His role is now that of occasional helpmate, full-time sounding board for ideas, sympathetic shoulder for tearful disasters, and proud partner in celebrating successes.

He was in his role as helpmate when I came home the other day. Coming in the door, I said, “Hi Cory. Where’s your Dad?”

“Padre got home about half hour ago. He’s in the back yard, weeding the patio.”

“Aw, isn’t that sweet!”

So I went out, sat down next to him and started pulling weeds from between the flagstones. We talked for a few minutes and then I thought to tell him, “Oh, you know that white turtlehead? That little piece that’s been struggling along for the past three years with just two stems? Well, I was out here this morning and it has three stems!”

As I said this, I walked over to where the turtlehead was planted, “It’s over here and this volunteer columbine is trying to crowd it so I… Steven, where’s the turtlehead? You didn’t pull the turtlehead?!”

Steven was not looking at me when I whirled around, but was already sifting through the pile of weeds he’d pulled.

Staring again at the turtleheadless place, I said, “LOOK at this, you didn’t even pull out ACTUAL weeds right next to it! And you left its roots in place! If it was a weed why did you just yank the top off? I really appreciate the weeding, dear, but come on now, did it look like any weed that you know?”

“Yes, it did look like a weed… I can’t remember right now which one, but it did. Here it is. No, wait, there should be one more piece…”

Holding the bits of plant in my hand, I reflected that my response was endangering a garden sharing arrangement worth far more than any plant. “I’m sorry. It’s okay. In fact, it might be very good. Will you help me pot up the pieces, like cuttings? They’ll probably root. And since the original roots are still in place to sprout again, we can end up with at least TWO plants. We’ll put them in two different places and double its chances of survival.”

Enjoy your garden. But treasure and protect your garden sharing relationships.

Janet Macunovich is a professional gardener and author of the books “Designing Your Gardens and Landscape” and “Caring for Perennials.” Read more from Janet on her website www.gardenatoz.com.

 

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