Tulipa humilis ‘Magenta Queen’

I like to name my gardens.

I don’t like to force the names. I wait for the names to come to me.

The overall name of my gardens is May Dreams Gardens.

Repeat after me… “All year I dream of the days of May, when the sun is warm, the sky is blue, the grass is green and the garden is all new again.”

When I reviewed the garden designer’s plans, and realized the “east perennial border” would be planted to have peak bloom in August and early fall, it seemed natural to give that border the official name of “August Dreams Garden”.

Across the way from August Dreams Garden is the original perennial border, known on the plan as the “west perennial border”. This is where I’ve been planting perennials for years, plopping them in where there was room, where it appeared they wouldn’t grow taller than the plant behind them or wouldn’t crowd out, too much, those plants around them.

The garden designer has always been a little vague about any plans for this garden border.

I suppose it is a little daunting to think about moving some of those plants, though she has had me, or rather the digging guy, move some plants to other places, so she’s willing to do that for the sake of the design. 

There isn’t even an accurate accounting of what grows in there, anyway.  Plus, when I wrote that first email to the garden designer to introduce myself and my gardens, I indicated I needed a design that would allow me to occasionally add plants without messing up the overall design.  The west perennial border is as good a place as any to do that.

(I did not define “occasionally”, by the way.)

Tonight, while out admiring how nicely planted and mulched August Dreams Gardens is right now, I looked across at the other perennial border and noted that it seems more like a bit of mish-mash. It could use a good cover of mulch, a little weeding and raking out, and a few more plants.

On the one edge of this perennial border is a lovely clump of Tulipa humilis ‘Magenta Queen’.  It grows amidst a mess of plants plopped into this garden earlier in the spring when I had to move them out of the holding beds in the vegetable garden so that area could be cleaned up.

I  plopped those tulip bulbs in that spot last fall because it was bare ground and I could dig there.

As I stood there admiring those tulips and gazed across at the rest of that garden border, its suddenly it occurred to me what this garden border should be named, this garden border with plants plopped here and there, where it looks like they won’t be taller than the plants behind them or crowd out those around them, too much.

This border will henceforth be named…

Plopper’s Field.