Many gardeners dream of well-manicured gardens, perfect flower fields, straight vegetable rows and neatly trimmed hedges. Such a vision requires a lot of effort, but how to try a chaotic garden?
What is Chaos Gardening? Messy gardens are a current trend as gardeners take a more relaxed approach to their hobbies. While this exercise may be too difficult for the general landscape, a messy bed will still yield prized pumpkins with minimal effort.
What is Chaos Gardening?
Chaotic gardening mimics natural growth. It is an experience that combines pleasure with natural structure. In nature, plants do not grow in rows or are placed in any way. When birds drop seeds or plants grow, their growth goes out of control. With this concept, gardeners allow the garden to develop its own personality, style and design. When plants mix of their own accord, great diversity is created. Although the gardener is the primary architect of the plants that go into the landscape, a messy garden requires random placement and a disorganized design.
Benefits of a messy garden
One of the most obvious benefits of messy gardening is the ease of practice. In fact, this is a "lazy" way to garden. Instead of trimming the edges, pulling weeds and tending to every aspect, it takes more time to enjoy the unlimited growth and wildlife in your garden. Leaving plants alone creates a mobile, ever-changing garden. The effect provides seasonal drama and richness of form, color and movement throughout the year.
Another aspect of scattered gardening is creating habitat for beneficial animals, birds and insects. This chaotic landscape has food options, shelters, nests, spawning grounds and much more. Allowing seeds, flowers, and other plants to grow where they are rather than planting them in awkward locations will result in a healthier, more self-sustaining garden.
How to grow a chaotic garden
If you're just looking to dive into the Chaos Garden concept, starting from seed is the easiest and least intimidating way. Combine the remaining seeds, vegetables, herbs and flowers and plant randomly. It's a bit of an experiment, but that's half the fun. Everything that can be seen and developed in the area will determine these savings. The garden can be planted with only flowers, or there can be vegetables mixed with flowers.
Another option is to choose some favorite plants. Make sure they all have the same growing conditions, then don't plant them in a different order. The resulting cacophony of textures and patterns is very similar to nature. The only possible rule is to place large plants behind small plants so you can see them all.
Plants to include in your messy garden
There are no limits to what plants can grow in a messy garden. To reduce maintenance, perhaps choose only native plants adapted to the region. This further enhances and attracts wildlife habitat. If you choose multiple flowering seasons, focus on bulbs, roses, perennials and annual flower specimens. Add large plants for bird protection, shade and wind protection. Place the plants in layers and go to seed and grow as you wish.
Cultivating a chaotic garden
No matter how wild and unruly a garden is, it still needs a little TLC. Prune to remove damaged or diseased stems. Water the plants as needed. Provide them with nutrient-rich soil and compost every year. Take the seed heads and spread them randomly, giving more opportunities for future plants. Collect and use each food item. Share the profits with the animals and neighbors and save the seeds for next year. Consider installing tracks that make maintenance easier. Most importantly, enjoy the landscape as it evolves and changes from season to season and year to year.
