There’s a new gardening trend making the rounds of social media. It’s called chaos gardening. In it’s purest form you take a bunch of seeds of what ever you wish to grow: herbs, grasses, flowers, vegetables and/or fruit. You mix them up and then toss them around willy-nilly. Water and wait. Really! It’s that simple!
This is the antithesis of formal gardening. If you’re not sure what a formal garden is think palaces. The gardens of Versailles are one of the best known examples. The gardens are severely structured with straight lines, precise hedging, clipped and shaped topiaries and perhaps a maze. They ultimately were created to showcase the power and prestige of the owner, demonstrating their control over Mother Nature.
Chaos gardening is allowing Mother Nature to rule. Whatever sprouts and grows goes! A chaotic garden will be a jumble of plants, colour and foliage. Peas will try to climb up milkweed or other tall flowers, beans may just grow along the ground. I believe the trend took off in the last few years as people became more interested in reducing (demanding) lawns and supporting pollinating insects, with a move first to natural or meadow gardens. Chaos gardening is the meadow freed from all restrictions or designs.
Nothing can ever be too simple, right? There are a few issues that must be dealt with for success. A basic rule of planting seeds is that they are buried to a depth three times their width. So, if you wish to grow winter squash (a large seed) and lettuce (a small seed) something is not going to be happy enough to sprout. If may be necessary to divide your seed stash into sizes. Fling around the large seeds, then cover with a light layer of soil. Broadcast medium seeds then cover with a light layer of soil. Finally, your small seeds can be cast about.
What you choose to grow is entirely up to you. I lot of what I’m seeing is people using up their seed stashes, vegetable or flower seeds that may be many years old. That’s fantastic, but you may get spotty germination. Some people are looking to create wildflower or native gardens. I’d advise that you not buy the wildflower mixes in box stores and some garden centres because they may not be formulated for your area. If you want a lot of this garden to come back next year choose hardy perennials seeds, native seeds from a local grower or self-seeding annuals. Do a little research because what just barely survives for me on the Canadian Prairies may be considered invasive in the warmer climate of southern Ontario or BC. Think of kudzu, the plant over-taking the southern US. Originally introduced as a pretty, fast growing vine from the Orient it is now clogging waterways and strangling trees.
I’m not sure chaos gardening is for the new gardener. Would a new gardener recognize a cucumber plant? Would they know to go looking for zucchini under the big mound of leaves? I’m still not sure what the parameters are for weeding. Does one accept all plants? Dandelions? Stinging Nettle? If you’re in a short season climate like mine we will not be able to broadcast seed for long season crops like tomato, pepper and some herbs and expect to get a crop. Us cold-climate gardeners will still have to start those seeds inside late winter and plant them out. Do we toss the pot into the chaos garden and then plant where it lands?
I’ll be watching some of the social media accounts engaged in this; it will be interesting to see their successes and failures. If you’d like to learn more here’s a article after chaos gardening appeared at the vaunted Chelsea Flower Show in England and here’s one from one of my favourite blogs The Spruce. Is this a trend you’ll try? Or do you like a bit more control in your borders?
Peace Signs and Pruners 