Playing Poker with a Garden

Setting up a strategy for change with native plants.

"The three grand essentials of happiness are: Something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for." — Alexander Chalmers

Hello Friends.

If there's ever a time to make a change to your garden, this is it. Too often, gardeners wait until spring, when nurseries are full of tempting options. This time of year, nurseries are practically giving away their plants, which is why I've been stocking up on the two-for-one deals with a focus on native plants. Those poor plants are like shaggy homeless puppies waiting to be adopted and could use a good home, or so my thinking goes.

It may not be a wise decision to bring home pot-bound plants, with brown leaves and dry stalks, in the hopes that I can get them back to life. However, this is how I began a journey of digging, dividing, and renovating my perennial garden over the past few weeks. After 20 years, it has grown into a mature mass of healthy foliage, reliable blooms, and an established root system that requires fortitude to break apart. The flip side of having healthy organic soil is that everything grows too fast and too big.

With every force of the shovel into a tangled root system, it is unclear whether this is a response to gaining control of the chaos happening in the world or the hope of a better garden. Fortunately, I have the confidence that I know what I am doing, a far cry from when I first planted my garden. Twenty years ago, I began with a rough design on paper, then proceeded to plant sections in 10-foot increments, following a five-year plan. It took a little longer than expected.

Even back then, I took advantage of the end-of-year sales at the nurseries, bringing home peonies, grasses, and all the plants that looked terrible in pots, which nobody else wanted. I had a limited budget that matched my knowledge of how to mix height, bloom time, and visual interest, yet the result has been pretty good. It’s been a good run, but after two decades of the same plants and the same routines, it has become a little boring. It is time to give it a fresh look now that I have become a more confident gardener, and will put my education about native plants to work.

When I wrote my first cookbook and was looking for recipe testers, I asked myself what defines a good cook? Is it someone who follows a recipe, or who understands how the ingredients work together? The answer is, of course, a combination of the two: information and confidence. This comes from experience, observation, and the ability to take the information you have and make a judgment call.

What defines a good gardener has to do with attitude as much as knowledge and experience, which is why I compare gardening to playing a game of poker. I've always held myself to a degree of perfection, and a garden can be humbling. Still, a garden involves strategies like risk assessment, negotiation, and strategic thinking combined with a basic understanding of right place, right plant. The wild card is soil, and making sure this part of your hand contains only the best cards, or there is no chance of winning.

A garden teaches the gardener that we can make mistakes because learning is essential, and while the stakes may feel high, they really aren't in the scheme of things. Educating yourself about plants, primarily native varieties versus the ornamental choices, and striking a balance between the two has been on my to-do list. Gardens are constantly changing and evolving, and once you think the garden is complete, it may be time to start over. Which is what I am doing, but it is not a pretty sight.

Most of the lost puppies I am bringing home and making room for in the garden are the native plants, which are looking pretty shaggy right now. Not meant to live out their lives in plastic pots. I'm hoping they will adjust and adapt to their new home. It may be time to apply what you have learned as a gardener to create a healthier habitat for nature to thrive through a game of strategy instead of simply chance.

From my garden to yours,

Ellen O.

Ellen Ecker Ogden is a food and garden writer, as well as the author of five books on garden design and cooking. Visit her on Instagram and at ellenogden.com