AN OVERHEAD VIEW SHOWS A GARDEN’S ISSUES

Check out the garden to the north of the house. Do you see that annoyingly randomly curved edge? This harkens back to an earlier time in my gardening life, when I compulsively created new gardens on a whim without a lot of thought as to what purpose they might serve or what they should look like. And back then, curvy was interesting, regardless of whether those curves served a purpose.

In case you aren’t seeing what I’m talking about, I drew it in on photo below (in the middle).

To be clear, I’m not against curvy garden beds. It’s just that I’ve learned that curves have to have purpose, like around a show-stopper shrub or tree, or as part of a larger, bolder statement. Compare the random curves on the garden to the north with the back/side garden. Although you can’t see the whole yard because of the foliage cover and shadows, you can tell that the bold edge creates an oval of grass. The grass is the positive space rather than the negative space, which is the opposite of what is going on in the other bed.

Thanks to Google Earth, I know I need to deal with the shape of that bed. I’m not entirely sure what to do, and creating more room in the garden is probably not the answer (yes, I’ve gotten to a point where I realize that I need to keep my gardening space to a reasonable amount). I may even do something to break up that really large area on the right side of that garden. It is an insanely deep bed struggling for some identity. The good news, I’ve got a lot of winter to think about it.