Sydney Eddison and Phoebe. Photo courtesy Timber Press
Sooner or later gardeners have to decide what to do when we no longer have the time, energy or wherewithal to tend our gardens. It could be we’ve gotten older and less flexible or we tire more easily.
The popular word is downsizing, especially once the kids are out of the house. But Sydney Eddison, an award-winning author, prefers the word simplify and it’s not always defined as leaving the garden you love.
When her husband died a few years ago, Eddison wondered how she would care for the landscape the couple nurtured for 50 years. She wanted to know how she could continue gardening, not how to stop. “I’ve not turned any beds back into grass,” said Eddison, who shares what she learned in Gardening for a Lifetime (2010, Timber Press, $19.95, hardback). She will speak about this at 2 p.m. Sunday (Nov. 6, 2011) in the Toby at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Sponsored by the IMA Horticultural Society, the talk is free.
An easy step is replacing perennials with shrubs that offer multiple seasons of interest, she said in a phone interview. “Ask yourself ‘do all of these plants make my heart go pitty-pat’? At first, you think you can’t spare anything.”
Start by evaluating how much work each plant is, such as pruning needs or messiness. Other candidates for replacement come after “all of the buts, such as I have always loved that plant, but….”
For some, simplifying does mean a move to a smaller place and garden or reliance on containers. That’s all right, too, she said.
It’s not just older gardeners who benefit from a simplified landscape life, Eddison said. These steps can help anyone whose life has changed, such as a new job, baby or an illness in the family.
“You’ll know when to start simplifying when there’s more to do than you can do,” she said.