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17/12/2020

To clip or not to clip?

8 Comments

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  Is a certain amount of shagginess 'cool' in a garden?

Cool meaning - 'hot' - of course, and 'hot' meaning popular.  All I know is that the naturalistic look is 'in'.   And naturalistic means a certain amount of shagginess. 
Probably not acceptable, if you are a neat and tidy gardener though - it depends on what you value most about your garden. 

Clipped edges and hedges or a sense of abundance spilling over ?
I am not such a neat and tidy gardener that I need my garden borders to be regimented in neat rows, or to be sharply trimmed. ​  And yet, even though I do like abundance to the point of chaos, I also like a little bit of shape, so that you can tell that the garden actually is a garden.
Picture
Unclipped Muehlenbeckia complexa climbing up rusted construction rods, although you can just see where I have started clipping it on one side!
Picture
Santolina - sometimes called Cotton Lavender. And much like Lavender, it lends itself to borders and low hedges. It's lovely silvery feathery foliage is also most attractive - especially when it is allowed to billow about.
 Farmers would throw their hands up in horror at the thought of growing Muehlenbeckia complexa as a decorative plant, because even though it is a native, it's all too common in the countryside, as a nasty  twiner which invades fences, gates and anything else it can find to smother.  It also sends robust runners under the ground which pop up everywhere.  As well as being super shaggy above ground!   

So like it or not, I simply do have to clip and contain this most invasive of plants
   OFTEN!!

As for Santolina, it's at it's best when unclipped and billowing about.  But when not clipped, it becomes woody, leggy and out of shape.
Like it or not, it appears I do have to do a certain amount of clipping even just to keep the abundant  tumbling look I prefer!  Because if I didn't, I probably wouldn't have a garden at all, but an unruly wilderness.  I wouldn't really like to see M. complexa smothering everything, as there would be no colour or shape left in the garden.  Or would I like to see soft feathery Santolina growing into a tangled woody mess.  

So it seems that gardeners are often pulled in a myriad of different directions - if you clip the garden too much it will become too formal and and rigid and not billow about enough.  If you don't clip it enough, it will become out of control and you feel you won't be able to manage it
PictureSomehow the clipped Muehlenbeckia complexa takes on an indecent unclothed look when it's been clipped to within an inch of it's life. So I'm back on the side of shaggy again!




​

Picture
The Santolina hedges look so miserable and thin and woody when they have been clipped. Well behaved - yes, but at the same time they look skinny, unfulsome and downright stingy.
Picture
Admirable though this clipped formal garden is, I don't know that I could relax if it belonged to me. I can't imagine it would vary much throughout the seasons. As long as there is someone available to clip it, it wouldn't change much from summer to winter, and that is the boring bit! The shapes in this garden have been expertly shaped and sculpted so that they look like living sculptures. But would I want a garden that looks like a living sculpture. I think I would sooner have a garden that moved and swayed in the wind - that changed colour in the seasons - that kept me amused!
PictureThis is more my sort of garden and it will be constantly changing. Even in early summer when this photograph was taken, the informality and looseness of this perennial planting is obvious. And by mid-summer, it will be everywhere, as the neat little mounds of perennials will become tall and floriferous - a riot of colour and the feature weeping rose, green after flowering - will be camouflaged as it sinks into the riot of colour surrounding it. All about change!

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8 Comments
Ruth Gardner link
13/1/2021 05:06:51 pm

I've stopped mowing my small back lawn, and am enjoying the waving seed-heads, the cornflowers I planted there, and the volunteer larkspur. I find I still need to clip the edges though.

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Ruth
14/1/2021 05:16:14 pm

Your lawn sounds lovely Ruth - I totally approve of not mowing lawns - much more environmentally friendly! I must call by and see it sometime! When are you home?
I think I've at last nutted out how to reply properly to comments!

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Henrietta Hall
13/1/2021 06:55:44 pm

I love it that no matter how experienced a gardener, the when and how much questions keep coming up. Easy for our garden - we're away on holiday!
Ruth, we couldn't quite not mow the whole lawn, buts have left wee bits to for & seed.

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Henrietta
14/1/2021 05:19:49 pm

Always Henri - that's why gardening is endlessly fascinating. You might enjoy looking at Ruth's lawn!
Just nutted out how to reply to comments properly after all this time!!

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Ann kennedy
13/1/2021 07:47:33 pm

Thank you Robyn,
Plenty to ponder here! I agree, shaggy is cool.
My garden is a mixture of shaggy and clipped. I do like the lawns and edges trim with flowering plants spilling out of their beds. This is makes for a very time consuming way to mow the lawns as I carefully tie my plants back, mow the lawn and then carefully release the plants - heaps of work but it looks good. Strangely enough, my roses are the tidiest plants I have. January is certainly a great time of year, colour and perfume everywhere.
Kind regards, Annk.

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Ann
14/1/2021 05:26:22 pm

Such dedication Ann to keeping your garden 'natural'!!
I love it! Do you think you could give up mowing like Ruth?
Syd might not agree! Men love their lawns to look neat and tidy.
At last have nutted how to reply properly to comments!!

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Penny Zino link
16/1/2021 10:31:52 am

Gardening has changed and the very formal looks now somehow seem out of place! Too restrained and managed! Like you Robyn I love the informality of naturalistic gardening it somehow feeds my soul!

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Penny
16/1/2021 02:02:08 pm

Quite right Penny - as the more natural look brings us closer to nature which we love

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    I AM A GARDENER, GARDEN WRITER AND ARTIST.   AFTER SEVERAL YEARS WRITING REGULARLY AS A COLUMNIST I HAVE MISSED WRITING ABOUT MY GARDEN, OTHER GARDENS AND GARDENS IN GENERAL FOR THE GARDEN PAGES OF THE PRESS SO HAVE RESOLVED TO SET UP MY OWN BLOG AND WEBSITE.
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