I probably spend more time looking at and researching plants than I do buying them, planting, propagating them or gardening with them- if I am honest. Some gardeners who write have a very florid style, maybe in my own small way I do! But Dan Pearson is a thoughtful, honest and very straightforward blog writer, whose intention, it seems to me, is to convey the whole truth about the way that he gardens and why. I love the calmness of it, and the acceptance that knowledge is no guarantee of perfection.
We take knowlege on trust, but there is always chance- and risk, not neccessarily in balance either. But it is still worth developing knowledge and learning from experience and the stories of other gardeners.
Very much so. What helps me is watching what happens and deciding if intervention is needed β or not. Take my Agave americana in the front garden, on the stony, garrigue-inspired slope. It is a baby of my original Agave in Tostat, given by a friend in the Languedoc.
So, I planted it only 3 years ago, and already it is more than 1. It clearly likes it. I have done nothing except watch and wait. Reading about the use of allelopathic plants, those that secrete substances that deter other competing plants, I picked Achillea crithmifolia as low growing, aromatic, feathery foliage plant that does brilliantly in tough conditions.
I had tried it out in Tostat in a limited area,a nd had been impressed, as well as liking the Achillea as a plant in its own right. I think I started off with eight plants in a ring round the rose and the tree.
