Of course the only blizzard worth speaking of in Toronto this year took place during the February planning meeting, the time when we usually gather to choose our plants for the coming season and design a polyculture-based planting scheme. Still, a couple hardy souls braved the storm and here is the result:
- We write the names of our pre-existing perennials and self-seeding annuals on slips of paper in green, then write the names of the plants we want to grow on slips of paper in black.
- We add notes about which plants do and do not grow well together.
- We check which plants need special growing conditions, like acidic or sandy soil.
- We pin our slips of paper to a bed sheet on which a diagram of the garden is drawn and move them around until every plant has the companions and conditions it prefers.
- We transfer the information to this diagram, remembering that it doesn't do justice to the ways the plants will actually occupy the spaces in real life.
- We recognize that many of our carefully-laid plans will go astray in the beautiful, changing serendipity of the summer garden!
