Thoughts, ideas and inspiration from a country gardener

This is part three on the evolution of the four-square garden. To start at the beginning, go to part one.

The trouble with gardens is that plants grow. That is a good thing, of course, but no garden stands still, and before you know it is overgrown.

I think the problem with the four-square garden was too many different species crammed into too small a space.

Yes, it was beautiful, but it required far too much management to stay that way.

(Remember: we have more garden beds, this garden alone — at 44ft wide and long — is as large as many backyards.)

I had often imagined that the space would be much easier to take care of with one small ornamental tree in the center of each square surrounded by some sort of perennial groundcover. I envisioned a multi-stemmed crabapple with an under-planting of a low-growing perennial geraniums. The idea remained in the back of my mind while I hemmed and hawed and complained about how much work it would be to redo the garden.

If we did it, the boxwood hedge would stay, of course, but all other plants would have to be removed and either given away or composted. Just contemplating such destruction was a difficult hurdle to overcome! And the work: I shuddered to even think about all that digging.

What finally made it happen was a phone call in October 2010 from Bob May, the master pruner and landscape gardener, who regularly prunes our boxwood hedge. He and his crew were in need of a project, as his garden work had dried up near the end of the season.

My husband and I didn’t need to discuss it for long: if he wanted it, Bob had the job. Fortunately, Bob is a plant lover, and so he took many of the perennials that he and a helper dug out.

The rest we gave to another friend who had been a garden helper here for a couple of seasons. That way, if I ever want a piece of my favorite peony back, I know where to find it.

Leftovers were composted, and we replanted the bulbs into other garden beds.

Thanks to Bob and his crew’s hard work, by mid-October the garden was blank slate again. Meanwhile, I had no trouble finding the trees I wanted. The property behind us is rented out to Braun Nurseries, a large-scale tree grower and wholesaler, and there during a dog walk I found and tagged four multi-stemmed crabapple trees (Malus sargentii), to be dug for us in the spring.

In April, Braun’s truckers delivered the trees into our yard. I was shocked at how huge their root balls were.

How do we move them into the garden and get them planted? That was our next challenge.

Fortunately, the nursery foreman had the perfect solution: he would send around a team of four Mexican workers, employed by the nursery for the season, who would do the job after hours for cash.

The men came saw and conquered: within an-hour-and-a-half all four trees were planted. We were delighted to pay them three times their hourly rate for this amazing feat.

As for the groundcover planting, by now I had decided against perennial geraniums, in favor of lavender.

We had used lavender as an edging plant in the garden and it always looked nice, so I kept the lavender plants that were in the garden and ordered more to edge each of the four beds. It took all season before the lavender filled in, but by September it was in bloom and looked great.

I know that lavender isn’t the most low maintenance plant – it has to be trimmed in the spring, and in our climate it is not the most long-lived perennial, but for the moment, it will do the job.

Was it all worth it? I think so and I love the look of our radically simplified garden.

The last in a three part-series: Read Part 1 and Part 2. Our property is for sale: see listing.

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