Combined with my gardening philosophy of doing what you want, when you want, this is what makes gardening such a fun activity. Instead of always worrying that a good garden design will be undermined by the need to get it right by the "rules" of the garden, sometimes let things take their course.
Some of my favorite places in my garden are the ones that just happened to be. I didn't plan them and I didn't even think about them. Birds, animals or maybe the wind planted some of my favorite spots. Most of the plants in these places come from plants I have or have had in one of my gardens in the past; However, there are a few cases where a plant that I didn't have in my garden started to grow.
One of these plants is Engelmann's daisy (Engelmannia peristenia). This native plant grows in wastelands and ditches, as well as in gardens. What is interesting about my garden is that it is grown in one of the most difficult places with little water or protection from sun and wind. Regardless of how the seed got there, it speaks to the heritage of the plant and why using natives is a good idea. I specially grow them now.
I have a beautiful autumn clematis (Jasmine paniculata) along my fence next to the greenhouse where I have compost, stones, unused pots and various other "treasures". It was transplanted from what I had in another part of my garden and is now thriving, making this ugly building even more beautiful.
Sometimes I buy plants that I don't know where to plant just because I like them or want to try them. (This also goes against the "rules" of gardening, which are to plan ahead and not make impulse purchases.) Since there was nowhere to put them, many of them were planted just about anywhere there wasn't room to spare. And this sometimes led to some amazingly wonderful botanical combinations that I would never have thought of.
Over the years I have grown parsley (Petroselinum crispum), Jupiter's beard (Centranthus ruber), autumn sage (Salvia greggii) and mountain sage (Salvia farinacea) in different gardens far from where they were originally. Some of them I left in place because they worked well where they came from.
I am currently working with several regions where tall verbena (Verbena bonariensis) grows. I like this tall clean plant and have tried growing it bushy in several places with minimal success. It has now appeared on three other sites and I am working on integrating it into or near those sites. Of course, any seed that grows where it lands without being planted there is very lucky and does well. This should be encouraged.
Such random opportunities are a welcome and fun surprise. They prove that even the best planning can't always outwit Mother Nature.
This article originally appeared in the Amarillo Globe-News: Guy Garden Column: Serendipity in the Garden.
