What Makes A Good Garden ?

All those things Louise. Color and texture is important. Also like wild and unruly!

To me All gardeners gardens are good gardens :)))

Very interesting blog Louise and you are right,each to his own,my pet hate are borders with flowers in straight lines, I refer to them as flowers on parade,lol........

Very thought provoking Louise.........

It's what best suits a particular plot, size, aspect, requirements and personal choice. My front and back gardens are very different and I like them both for different reasons. Loads of bedding in the (small) back for summer impact and outdoors enjoyment, predominantly evergreen shrubs in the (larger) front for indoors enjoyment from the lounge in winter. Wouldn't it be boring walking along the pavements, garden watching, if we all liked the same things!

Lovely blog thank you

Hi Louise, You have just described my garden to a tee. All the things you don't like about a garden are exactly what my garden is like :-((
Flowers on parade....... Tick
Lack of thought (plants just plonked in)........Tick
Lolipops galore............Tick
Bedding, loads of it.......Tick
Backbone, absolutely zero (neither has the garden).....Tick
Hard landscaping, none (ha)
Pond none, (ha ha)
Height none.........(h...oh bu**er)........Tick
All yr. round, not at all. It will all be gone by the first frost...Tick.
I do have a good excuse though, this being my first attempt..... but I've got plans...... :-)))

Just thought I'd better say you haven't upset me at all. I'm learning fast and with all the help I'm getting I should have a half descent garden in about 15 - 30 years Lol :-)))

Lily, wouldn't it be just hideous if we all liked the same things :(

Ian my lovely person, as you just said ... you are brand new at this whole flower garden malarky and we all have to start somewhere :)))
In the short period you've been at it you've come on in leaps and bounds !
(being on a site like this makes us learn just through browsing through it, i've had my mind changed in a BIG way through being on here ..... i now like Dahlias !!! That is a very big leap for me !)

My personal likes have come about after being at the whole flower malarky for 25 years so i've developed very staid ideas in that time !!!

You either like something Louise or you don't and I don't see any reason to change. As we all know, flowery things and I are only recent friends so their layout etc. are still at the wobbly leg stage (you know what I mean, the stage just before a child starts to walk) but it won't take me long to be up and running. Not with all the help I'm getting any way. :-)))

I agree totally with your list, Louise and the day you see my lawn being just grass, with no weeds, clover or moss (all green) is the day you'll find me living on the moon.

Thank goodness we are all different otherwise our gardens would all look the same!. I agree with your list except like crisp edges to a lawn- it finishes off the garden to a tee. Don't like too many conifers, but I do like colour - hate all these just one colour gardens!! I like to go out and see a flower/plant and appreciate either its form, texture or smell - each plant has got to earn its place in my garden - its small and so dont have room or money to make mistakes (and then when they are a mistake wonder where to put them!!! - my friends garden has some unusual plants (gulp!!))

I think we are in agreement on Dahlias at least Louise! Are they classed as bedding? I have lots and I do agree with Lincslass about plants in straight lines! Perhaps a good garden is whatever makes it's owner happy :~)))

I agree, Louise! I'd add...the garden needs to be 'in keeping' with the house. If I made my garden ultra-modern and minimalistic, it would 'jar' completely with a 16th century cottage, wouldn't it!

Absolulely Barbara and a border as large and tall as yours wouldn't fit very well in my 15' X 30' council bungalow. Although it would be stunning! :-))

Hmmmm....what a thought provoking blog! I visit a lot of gardens (both private and public), and find that some gardens have that extra "something"....maybe it's the "X Factor" or the "Wow Factor"...I'm not sure what to call it? It doesn't matter to me if a garden has unfashionable plants, or is full of "bedding" or "lollipops" or gnomes or conifers....it's the feel of the garden that does it for me, and something that you can't quite put your finger on...

Do you think, as Spritzhenry says, it's all about making the garden 'fit' both the house and the gardener?

I think the garden should "fit" the gardener, lol :)
If the garden reflects the personality of it's owner, and the love and care that's gone into it....then it's a winner in my book.

Our individual preferences are a good thing and i'm sure that's why GOY is so popular.

Gardeners love to watch other gardeners, it's how we 'evolve'.

Yes 'thought' .... now that's what's not in my garden at the moment. I just plonked everything in so that they didn't have to spend another year in pots. That's why it looks so overgrown.

Sometimes plonking in is necessary isn't it ?
They need to get out of their pots !
I've plonked Tanacetums, i've now decided i don't like them that much !!!

Oooops!

Oh dear Louise :-((

I think Crazydi puts it very well - it is that indefinable something rather than a list of requirements.

My ideas have changed over the last few years - probably because I'm in a different location and the needs of the garden are different too - I used to live in a flat with no outside space except what we planted in tubs so annuals were good to brighten up the entrance but we had small shrubs (in pots )too and they gave more all year round interest...
Now I have a real garden and at first I did dot plant but now I'm going for more triangular planting of 3s, 5, 7s etc. I'm taking more cuttings, splitting more herbacious perrenials and trying to pull the garden together - particularly the gravel part which started more as what will grow here with no real idea of design - so now I know what grows well I'm back to front with my design plan!

Oops! Looks like I've got one right so far, the curvy bed!
I wish I'd seen the lollipop thing before I got planting, I spread all my plants out! Mind you, I dont have a lot in it yet, & things like the willow & the shrubs that are in should get quite big. Mind you, I'm the only one who HAS to look at it!

I like woolly and unruly but I also like grass with neat edges. I like neatly trimmed shrubs and I like shrubs just left to grow - in fact I like what I'm looking at at the time - lol

Where's a good place to "plonk" a sidalcea that's desperate to come out of its pot?

In the garden?........Lol

Nice one Ian!!

:-)))))))))))))))

We always know where to come for the best horticultural advice don't we Ian :~)
I'm like you KeithsMum, easy to please when it comes to garden styles but then I'm indecisive on everything. I drive myself mad - especially in the garden centre. Shall I have this....or this....or this....? Easy answer, have them all! No wonder my garden is not 'planned' !!

I completely agree with Lousie..a garden should have flowers,a little bit of colour throughout the year.

Oh, Ian - ha ha!!

Lol :-)))))))))))) (blush)

Definition of a great garden - a space you can be happy in - just like a sitting room should be. My personal preference is for crisp edges to lawns, and an emphasis on leaf colour, shape and form combined to make a pleasing, balanced and vibrantly colourful structure. But there should be somewhere to hang out the washing too...

What makes a good garden?
A gardener......... Lol :-))

Hello Louise- I do agree with most of your thoughts - a very interesting subject isn't it!
Well ........

Bedding - I have loads and loads and loads!
Variety - have that!
Thought - mostly!
Repeating - do that !
Lawns with edges - have them!
Bedding - front garden full to bursting! I try to a achieve a cottagy feel to my bedding schemes even though the plants are in rows. Not keen on just mixed busy lizzies or begonias - hope i don't offend anyone (blush)
Backbone - have that!
Hard landscaping - have that but I think it is in proportion to the garden!
Height- have plenty of that!
All Year round - have that!
Everyone should feel happy in their own bit of paradise - whatever style their garden is!

Just one thing though - where's the veggies!!!

The veggies ?
In the ideal garden ..... nicely shielded behind an attractive trellis of sweetpeas and climbers and growing happily there !

Do you have room for veggies there ?

In a previous life (!) i had an acre of ground, i sectioned it and i had a large veggie plot where i grew such a lot.
Situations change though :/

I got asked that very question on one of the open garden days...and I don't grow veggies! Only greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers. Too bad - I prefer flowers, so that's what I grow! :-)

All things considered... I think the urine of two bitches improves a small lawn no end... that's my excuse anyway for my rubbish lawn. Also a gardener who never quite finishes what she's started and who buys an object of desire (gorgeous, unsuitable plant) when she's nowhere to put it. A gardener who is stupid enough to think that whatever the books say, no plant can possibly perform better for being cut down, oh and of course, obviously, no garden is complete without welsh poppies:-))