Ground Rules

Introduction
Some of us are born with a talent for gardening; others come to gardening later in life. Whether you’re experienced or a novice, there is much to learn in order to be able to create and maintain a successful garden. This book contains 100 essential “rules” for you to discover and use. It’s my hope they will steer you toward success at every step and help you avoid mistakes.

Successful gardens are healthy, thriving places that lift us up and create joy. They are places where practicality and aesthetics are wedded. A garden must work well within its local conditions and the framework of your life. Gardens form an important link with nature and the changing seasons—the cycle of life. Many studies have shown time spent in nature benefits us by lowering stress levels and making us feel better emotionally. A garden that focuses on plants rather than hardscape like pools, decks, and patios can be an extension of nature.

Gardens give us the satisfaction of creating and tending a special place with our own hands. They are places where we both give and receive. Imagine sweet fragrances wafting, soft leaves rustling in the breeze, shade on a hot afternoon, and an ever-changing array of flowers embroidering the yard. Imagine too the joyful songs and forms of bright yellow goldfinches against the clear blue sky, a velvet-upholstered bumblebee on a purple salvia, butterflies like snips of tapestry, and hummingbird duels over crimson blooms—all elements of life you have enabled. Gardens can be your own personal paradise.

This book is divided into six complementary sections that take you from the very first planning stages, through the joy that plants bring, soil and its important underground processes, how to be wise with water, how to be a good garden parent, ways to invite wildlife into your garden, and finally to creating a garden of earthly delights. Taken as a whole, it offers a system of practices and design considerations that address every aspect of gardening.

This is a distillation of what I have learned through my many years of gardening and designing gardens professionally in the United States and around the world. It is an effort to engage everyone with the many pleasures gardening offers. I love the subject more and more each day, and I hope you will too.