Some gardens always get the attention of the judges or the cameras. Their paths are impeccable. Their leaves are neatly snipped, and all their plants are lined up, with not a single dead or stray leaf. These gardens are boring. The fun gardens plant their seeds wherever they can find space or an opening. These gardens grow a mystery and, believe it or not; they keep a “bric-a-brac” border while waiting to sort their winter cuttings. If you have this type of garden, you find yourself apologizing. I emphasize “yourself” because the apologies and the responses are all unnecessary. Trust me and the garden; there are a million things to love about a garden and a million things to love about an untidy garden.
Wildlife proves it! The long grass that remains left at the bottom of the lawn is where the frogs sit during the hot-afternoon. The seed heads that are left uncut during autumn provide winter food for the goldfinches, and the leaf litter that are never raked from under the hedges are turned over by the blackbirds throughout January. A perfectly swept garden that is free of every dead leaf, to birds, is a clean garden with a nice edging. It is trendy to leave the borders up until late winter, instead of trimming them during October. This trend is great because it is less tiring for the birds, and it is less work to leave the borders as they are.
There is some truth to the idea that plants have opinions. Some of the best surprises in a garden come from plants that have picked their own spot, as you never know what you are going to get when left to their own devices. Forget-Me-Nots, aquilegias, foxgloves, hardy geraniums, and other cultivars that self-sow are often arranged in the garden more aesthetically than you could do yourself. Sometimes, the plants that sprout where they are not wanted are better than the plants you have imported to that space. You don’t want to use the hoe too quickly on a weed, as that is a good way to uproot all the self-sown plants. Self-sown plants are a good way to surprise yourself. Self-sown plants are also a good way to challenge yourself to be able to get better at your gardening skills, such as identifying real plants from weeds, for example in the case of a foxglove.
This does not imply there are grounds to argue for using neglect as a tactic. Yes, there is a distinction between a garden which was carefully tidy but is now loose and a garden which has bindweed. Brambles and thuggish weeds need to be dealt with before they ruin the other plants. The trick is deciding how the garden will be tidy. Creating a path through the grass will make the garden appear intended and not neglected; a lawn that is mown and has a clean edge will allow delightfully chaotic plants to thrive. A couple of tidy evergreens and a box or two will provide a resting place for the eye and will make the thriving plants appear abundant and not chaotic. This will take a tiny portion of the time spent to manage the garden fully and perfectly, and most visitors will not discern the difference, or they will and they will prefer the garden in its new state.
There is also the smaller issue of having fun, which is meant to be the goal. A perfectly manicured garden is a garden that owns the gardener, every sunny evening spent either edging or deadheading or fruitlessly searching for stray leaves. No one cares about the plan with the self-sown marjoram, champion dahlias are not any more winning for having a few weeds at their feet, and anyone can walk past a job and have a seat, even the gardener who uses the time to have a cup of tea and a good look at the garden instead. Not everything in life needs to be perfect.
So, the pile next to the compost can remain for another week, as something is probably living in it by now anyway.