Hope & Flowers
Amid Construction Chaos and Last Minute Planting Design Changes
The Challenge of Planting During Construction
A few days ago, I had to walk off the job site. We gardeners had been planting since the lovely, cool 6 AM breeze lifted sunlight over the marsh. Hundreds of plants sat waiting for us. But a new crew of wall-masons showed up, ready to toss bricks all over anything we did. Painters dragged canvas tarps, and Eddie pushed around 5 tons of gravel. Twenty-something, built like a stallion, Eddie is in charge of the brick, masonry and other hardscape. Not the vertical stuff but the drive and walkways. The ones everybody on the site needs to walk over and through his work. Eddie is the kind of guy who can shoo them sternly, repeatedly, and then slide right into a warm, personal conversation that makes them want to respect his space.
It might seem best for the gardeners, guarding our frail plants, to wait a few weeks, but it doesn't work that way when there are heavy, big plants, compost, and dirt mixing going on inside, near the other crews' work. Our water, drainage and power must go under their stairs. It has to be a dance. We all have one goal.
When Frustration Threatens Progress
But by 9 a.m. on that cool coastal morning, I couldn't see one place we could do anything without risking someone else crushing it. My heart sank like trash in that marshy river, and my anxiety rose like mildew on a hybrid tea. The best option was for the gardeners to go home. We left it all to the endlessly patient Eddie and his paver guys. In that moment of frustration, I needed some hope.
Inspiration from a Past Project
That hope showed up in an email. Last summer, I designed a perennial border for the conservatories at Reynolda Gardens on Wake Forest's campus. These historic borders were to be in the original style - pretty, colorful, joyful borders with a touch of English inspiration, the kind wealthy people would have wanted in the 1920s. But that work site, too was once a mess of construction. (Here’s an old Substack I wrote about that garden here.) The email brought photos of spring glory. Here are a few before and after photos:
Envisioning the Transformation
Those photos give us hope that this current construction site will be handsome and tidy in a few weeks. Then, over months and years, it will come into its own, becoming an integral part of the lovely coastal landscape.
The Universal Principles of Garden Design
No matter the scale of the place you grow your plants - from patio to palace - the design process is the same. The result is always to create a journey and functioning retreat that works for you.
In my new book, Secrets of Southern Gardening, the most challenging chapter for me was the one on design, titled "What to Put Where". The point of the entire chapter is that good gardens, yards, farm master plans, even patios can grow from an almost straightforward design process.
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Excited for your new book, and hoping to get some design ideas for the new yard. It’s too often overwhelming working on larger scale projects, I’m learning.
Creative gardening like almost anything else has its required steps but as you said sometimes real” gets in the way. I’m waiting not so patiently for the new book as I am once again starting a new garden and need your advice and help.