Stress-Free Gardening

By Ken Moore

The intent of my gardening strategy is to replace the stress with enjoyment. Rather than struggling to enforce my design on Nature, I step back and garden with a lighter touch, letting Nature be my guide.

I have gradually altered the garden to favor desirable plants that plant themselves. They almost always perform better than the ones I plant. I was impressed that the volunteer Joe-pye-weed, Eupatorium fistulosum, at the edge of my patio did not require extra water as did the one I had carefully planted in a garden bed.

The garden changes with surprises each year because I take note of where plants naturally occur and shift my efforts to those new spots. I keep a sharp eye out for the late spring emergence of the perennial native vine, Passion-flower, Passiflora incarnata, which never stays in place. When I spot it, that’s where I place the moveable trellises. No water, fertilizer, nor toxic chemicals are required for a season-long display of foliage, flowers and fruit.

Another of my favorite native vines, Trumpet Creeper, Campsis radicans, volunteered close to the kitchen window where the orange trumpet flowers attract hummingbirds all through the summer. I never watered those vines during the drought. During the winter I enjoyed watching goldfinches hanging on the pods extracting the seeds.

I love my easy care ‘freedom lawn’ yard. I call it a lawn just after my infrequent mowing. When we have ample rainfall it’s green. During droughts, it turns brown with green spots of tougher plants scattered throughout. It returns to green each time it rains. A variety of grasses and flowering weeds provides year round interest and pleasure. Right now there are drifts of blue Speedwells, Veronica persica, and purple Henbits, Lamium purpureum and Lamium amplexicaule. Those colorful winter annuals will soon be gone, followed by clumps of perennial Blue Star, Amsonia tabernaemontana. Sometimes I collect the early tender leaves of edible Curly Dock, Rumex crispus and Pokeweed, Phytolacca americana. Later in the season I enjoy having the flower and fruiting stems of the dock scattered here and there across the yard. The poke flowers and fruits all summer. Watching the mocking birds and catbirds competing for the poke berries provides constant amusement. The ruby red color of the stems in the fall is more dramatic than anything I can plant.

A watchful eye helps me mow around volunteer clumps of wildflowers like goldenrod, Solidago spp. and wild asters, Aster spp., that provide summer and fall color.

Favorite drought tolerant perennials that I have intentionally planted include the Wild Blue and Wild White Indigos, Baptisia australis and B. pendula, Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosus, Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia fulgida, Purple Cone-flower, Echinacea purpurea, Sundrops, Oenothera fruticosa, and for a really late fall display, Climbing Aster, Aster carolinianus.

With my yard more in the hands of Nature, I have more leisure for my daylilies and veggies in containers on the deck, close to the rain barrels and away from the deer.

Whether gardening in town or in a rural area, your efforts can be carefree if you simply decide to let Nature be your guide.