Beginner Gardening: "Wild" garden vs. tidy gardens which do you prefer, 1 by sstateham

sstateham wrote:
(jumping in) - I like a little of both. The front of the house and the beds by the driveway I like to keep tidy and controlled. In the back beds, anything goes, and the more "crammed" the better. I'm constantly digging something out, moving things from here to there, and I can't drive by a garden center without being tempted to get just one more plant.

Badseed: My neighbor told me once that it must be nice to have such pretty beds without a lot of work. She only sees the front, which pretty much takes are of itself. The back is where all the work is. Her dog is a little foofy thing that poops in my yard - darn good thing she doesn't have a great dane.

Breaking Ground is a great book.

This bed used to be all shade until this spring when my sweety, Skip, cut out a couple of damaged tree limbs. My pulmonarias shrived, and I had to make a sun spot in shade garden. Dirt spot at the front of this was just planted last week with campanula, delphinium belladonna, and veronica sunny border blue. They're itty bitty little babies, but they'll be nice when they fill in.