Draw plans for a new landscape, or plant what you find?

I have three lace-cap hydrangeas, that come up faithfully each year. In March they are a desolate patch of raggedy broomstraws. Buds appear in April, a profusion of green leaves follow, then finally in mid-summer, I'm rewarded with the delicate circle of pale flowers surrounding a center of small buds. One has variagated leaves--light green and white (Hydrangea macrophylla "Mariesii Variegata). Very beautiful.

When I walk in early morning in a quiet beach town neighborhood, the sky misty gray before the sun climbs up and burns off the coulds, intensely dark blue-purple hydrangeas welcome and contrast with the grays of the early morning and the muted paints of the houses.

I admire the deep pink hydrangeas anchoring an old house as I drive past to the grocery store.

A large hydrangea with pure white flowers looks mysterious and bright, yet soft as moonlight, in a friend's garden at night.

I'd like to have a big, beautiful hydrangea with the full, round blossom, not the lace cap type. Shall I dig up a few more yards of lawn and put in another plant in the lawn that's left?

Or should I make a garden design first for the only side left that has any lawn?

When re-did the east side, I first made a garden plan. I looked at lots of books and magazines from the library on landscaping. Over a two-month period, I made about 6 plans, then kept coming back to the simplest one. I finally went with that one.

Chopped down a couple of small trees, killed all the grass, put in a gravel path, a 4' wide planter out of decorated stone (to get 8" of raised soil), made many trips to nurseries.

I pretty much stuck to the plan, but I did add more plants than I originally intended. It would have been better done more simply. But it's so beautiful now, with a year-round skeleton of evergreens (arborvitae, 2 kinds of grasses, a rhododendron).

The rest is mostly perennials that come back each year: a spring flowering blue "mountain" phlox, a mound of pink coreopsis (Coreopsis rosea)--a bed of thyme--a few feet of a flowering wild grass with tiny white flowers in early summer--a big bleeding heart (pink flowers)--a bunch of very pale pinkish lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Jean Davi)--a hardy purple/red blooming fuchia--and some blue star creeper that grows by leaps and bounds instead of creeping. The blue star creeper, the thyme, the blooming wild grass, and the pink coreopsis soften the edge of the gravel path. And one large deciduous variageted weigela with fragrant spring blooms.

So plans are good. But the other side of my yard just grew in bits and pieces--with not as much planning. I still put in evergreens as a border for a year-round "skeleton' to build on--few scattered arborvitae (I like them this way, rather than always in a row), silver king euonymus, evergreen azaleas, nandina, pieris japonica, viburnum.

I also planted perennials and another weigela. For perennials: Moonraker phygelius, with cascades of light yellow trumpet-shaped flowers all summer; Lavatera "Barnsley" (Tree Mallow), one of the fastest-growing plants on earth, with continual pink flowers all summer--must be pruned back each spring, and lasts for years in the Pacific Northwest (it might die off in colder areas), and groundcover Phlox "Scarlet Flame" that puts on a great spring show.

Then I couldn't resist--found a lovely fragrant Clematis armandii "Apple Blossom," an evergreen vine with white 4-petaled flowers in very early spring that have a strong apple blossom scent. I put it in the ground by the patio and it's grown to be 6' tall and has great promise for more growth and blooms next spring. Sometimes I see a plant that I just love and will find a place for it, and this was one of those.

Now I'll go for a walk in a local "wilderness" park, with haphazard, tangled field grasses, woods shrubs, old gnarled oaks, completely unplanned, yet more beautiful than anything I could dream up and design, weeds and all.


Tip: to kill or prevent black spot on roses, mix 1 part milk, 2 parts water, and a drop or two of dish detergent; spray on foliage every week in muggy weather, and every other week in hot, dryer weather, or as needed. Works great!