Combining A Cutting Garden With Concrete Fountains
What could be more appealing than the riot of shapes, colors, and textures to be found in the flower-cutting garden interspersed with outdoor sculpture and concrete water fountains? It is easy to begin one with just some basic design and planning tips.
What is a Slicing Garden?
The cut flower garden is designed to be functional by the nature of its very existence. Slicing gardens first began in the 16th Century for the purpose of bringing them inside to decorate the home and this tradition continues to this very day. Nearby concrete fountains were common not only for drinking water, but also for watering the garden plants.
A massive slicing garden makes the perfect setting for weddings and other events and gatherings. Many people don’t have massive spaces to dedicate to a slicing garden alone, but a perennial border left with blank spaces will suffice quite nicely for slicing flowers to be brought inside.
A Slicing Garden Should be Informal
Combining flowers, fruits, herbs, and vegetables, the slicing garden (also called cut flower garden) style is the perfect solution for today’s busy gardener who wants a gorgeous garden and also wants to be environmentally responsible. Instead of depending on pesticides and fertilizers to achieve a lush garden, the slicing garden style gets nature to work on your side with crop rotation, dense planting patterns, organic soil amendments, and a variety of plant types. The crop rotation principle applied to the slicing garden is a way in which the slicing garden style emphasizes a perfect approach for modern homeowners with small yards. If a water source is nearby, a small concrete fountain is always a nice touch or cascading water features.
The most important thing to remember about slicing gardens is that they are very unpretentious, catholic spaces, easily achievable, and certainly within everyone’s grasp. They don’t require huge budgets since additional structures such as trellises or arbors are kept to a minimum and most of the plants can be grown affordably from seed. You won’t need to employ a landscape architect, because that will be your job. You won’t need to cut the grass each Saturday morning, because there won’t be much. For at least half the year you won’t have to pay high prices for organically grown cut flowers because you’ll have your own. Ideal of all, you won’t have to attend night classes on garden design, because there aren’t any. Naturally, you’ll look for amusing color, height and texture combinations, but symmetry and equilibrise are not paramount considerations.
The most successful slicing gardens are easy ones that work directly with nature. These are the gardens that are the healthiest and therefore the loveliest. Authentic slicing gardens were not contrived affairs, being the result of country artisans who were short on free time and whose aesthetic senses were closely linked to the countryside. It is this demand of sophistication that makes these plots tick, and the surest way to ruin a slicing garden is to try to make it formal or to try to “tidy things up” with boxwood hedging. Neatness has been thrown on the sacrificial altar in favor of unashamed exuberance and bounty. Cast stone fountains also need to be of easy design in the flower-cutting garden. A cast stone fountain that looks like a watering can is an example of informality.
The result of all this freedom and profusion is a great deal of flexibility for the plants themselves, not to mention the gardeners. In formal gardens, spring bulbs must be ripped out in order to make way for bedding plants, which reduces them to the position of high-priced annuals. Bulbs can be stored and replanted. Strictly herbaceous borders planted heavily with bulbs and perennials offer no nooks and crannies for cut flowers. Neither of these approaches is characteristic of the slicing garden.
Evaluate What You’ve Got
The first consideration for making a slicing garden will be to review the existing permanent structures and plant material on your property. Rather than trying to hide garden sheds and garages, “tart them up” with climbing roses, trellises and window boxes full of slicing flowers such as nasturtiums, pansies and little zinnias. Plant colorful annuals, tender bulbs and sturdy perennials. Add a rustic bench or two and a surround fountain or concrete water fountain for an elegant touch.
Elizabeth Jean is an outdoor gardening writer and frequent contributor to Garden-Fountains.com, a favourite world wide web destination for water fountains and garden statuary.
