Studio Linda Lavoir has been around for 7 years! You will receive this as a gift
When I started my business I had never gardened before. Incredible, isn't it? I gained my experience with plants and maintaining a garden at the In Goede Aarde nursery. After 2 years the time had finally come... I got my very first garden in Rotterdam. It wasn't big (about 6.5 by 12 meters) but it was enough space to express my creativity. In the years that followed, I started to learn more and more about plants and plant combinations. I've tried as much as I could. And luckily it turned out well.
In recent years I have received many questions about my city garden. With the absolute winner: what is the name of the ornamental grass in the first photo? I don't think there is a better gift than sharing my planting plan to all of you. In this blog I give you three: those of the second year, the third year and the final year.
I wish everyone lots of gardening pleasure! The sun is starting to shine again and the birds are chirping, so enjoy it :) Oh yeah, I only use Latin names by the way. It may not be easy for everyone, but practice makes perfect.
Year 2
In the first and second year I didn't really make a planting plan for my garden. I simply chose the plants that I liked at the time, such as: Anemone cylindra, Deschampsia 'Palava' (yes, this is the beautiful ornamental grass), Sanguisorba 'Lum', Achillea 'Heinrich Vogeler', Euphorbia x martinii, Potentilla 'Miss Willmott' and Foeniculum 'Giant Bronze'. I supplemented this series with plants that I liked, but that I was not necessarily a fan of, such as Dryopteris filix mas, Persicaria 'Alba' and Molinia 'Transparant'. In addition, I had placed two extra trees (left side of the photo, you can just see them) that I happened to have left: Amorpha fruticosa. Actually it was a mixed bag of all kinds of plants. The nice thing about this is that spontaneous combinations arise that you would never think of at your computer, such as my favorite combination of Anemone cylindrica, Euphorbia x martinii and Deschampsia 'Palava'. All these plants together seemed to be the golden match and I will never forget that when we returned from our holiday in Italy, the garden looked like this. I enjoyed it immensely, but after a while I still missed some color in the garden, which I later added.
TIP: Deschampsia 'Palava' and Foeniculum 'Giant Bronze' can both sow (heavily). If you are an avid gardener, this is not a problem, the seedlings are easy to recognize. The Potentilla, Anemone and Thalictrum sow lightly. Be aware of this when planting these plants. I was happy with the seedlings myself. All the baby plants went neatly into a pot.
YEAR 3
The following year I removed many plants from the garden, but the basics were still there; Deschampsia 'Palava', Foeniculum 'Giant Bronze' and Anemone cylindrica. This year I added some new plants such as Stipa pseudoichu, Digitalis ferruginea, Helenium 'Red X' and Echinacea 'Magnus'. I also added some summer flowering flower bulbs. In a city garden with little space, you can add extra color to your garden with flower bulbs without taking up much space. Allium 'Red Mohican' is a good example of this. What I always try to convey is that the design of a garden often only counts for 25%. It is really the planting that ensures that your garden is a success and looks beautiful. You can create endless atmospheres with plants. And when you look at the previous photo you can clearly see that a number of new plants completely change the image. #thepowerofplants This year I wanted more color and lightness in the borders. A kind of meadow, but different. The garden made me very happy, but I wanted even more color. Let's go back into the garden with the spade.
Tip: Do you have a high hedge or fence in a small garden? Then do not plant plants that are too high. The plants grow towards the sun, causing the plants to grow crooked. If you want higher plants, use plant supports. I personally went for the last option. High planting makes a small garden even bigger and more exciting
YEAR 5
In the fifth year I removed almost all the plants from the garden, except for the Stipa, Dryopteris and the Molina. I neatly donated the other plants. Once again I did not make a planting plan for this year, but started working with numbers and percentages. In total I have 14 m² of border along my path, divided into two parts. If you calculate 8 to 9 plants per square meter, you end up with 126 plants. I then made a list of the plants that I either really wanted to try out, or didn't really like. The plants I really wanted were Cenolophium denudatum, Sedum 'Matrona', Schizachyrium 'Prairie Blues' and Sporobolus 'Cloud'. The plants that normally come in tenth place were Rudbeckia 'Little Henry', Sanguisorba 'Pink Brushes' and Salvia 'Blauhügel'. It may be a bit strange to put plants in your garden that you don't like, but this way you might also gain new insights. In this profession I always try to be surprised. I attached a percentage to all the types I had chosen. For example, Sporobolus 'Cloud' 20%, Sanguisorba 'Pink Brushes' 5% and so on (I once wrote this on a note, but of course I lost it a long time ago. Who knows, I might come across it when I move haha). I then set out the plants by eye. Actually, this is what I enjoy doing the most. Just put it out by eye. This is also a completely different kind of atmosphere. Warmer and there is more to see for the eye. I would have liked to see this plan in its second year, when the Sporobolus and Schizachyrium would have been more developed, but unfortunately that is no longer possible.
Tip: In the small garden, use flower bulbs that vary in flowering time. This way you can enjoy extra color in spring and summer with a small piece of border. In my book I explain which flower bulbs and which combinations you can use in the small garden.
Do I have a favorite? No, every year had its beautiful moments, and sometimes also less beautiful moments. Am I going to miss my garden? Yes, but I get something very beautiful and great in return. I am really looking forward to having a large garden where the weather conditions and the times of the day have a major influence on the plants, something I sometimes missed in my city garden. And with the new garden I hope to inspire you even more.
Thanks for reading, I'm going to stick my fork into my birthday cake.
Love,
Linda