I'm a bit of both. I try as much as I can to be a planner. With the new garden design coming up, I'm trying to see what I can plant where. But as it's still undecided as to how big the coming hardscapes are going to be, I've no idea of the available planting space, so I sort of 'sketch' what goes where. The amount/number of specimens will be trial and error since it'll take some years for them to mature and fill the space nicely. So in that view I'm a plunker; I'll propably cram too many specimens into one place.

Most of us do, Arico, then we get to figure out later which to move away and let the remainder breathe.

I'm a plunker. Find a plant I like and walk around looking for a good place for it. I do move things around from time to time to get better combinations, but know that as much of a collector as I am, my garden does have the plant zoo look, especially at certain times of the year. I do always take into consideration the needs and height of the plants.

Stilldew, I planned my beds and the layout of the paths and patio.
After that It's all plunk.

Whatever the plant needs, I try to provide.
Including those "part shade" ones that start to lean toward the sun..... Those get moved.

I knew SOME things I wanted when I started, but I find so many surprise plants in the stores/catalogs/coops that it's impossible to stick to a strict plan!

Hi everybody ~
I can't figure out if I'm a free-wheelin planner or a plodding plunker. Some people think I move at the speed of a glacier. I read and research a lot, but don't remember what I read. I make lists and write notes, but then can't find them. If this garden ends up with cohesion it'll be by magic!

Hi Turtle,

Oh, how I'd love to be a slow-moving glacier at planting time! I usually feel like a rather frenetic plunker ...hurrying to get things in before it gets too hot, too dry or too late!

A bit of both myself. I will go to the nursery with a vague list of characteristics I'm looking for (e.g., something that blooms mid-summer, red or orange) or specific plants that have caught my interest with an idea (or two) where it might fit in if I find it. Then there are always the impulse buys that get the plunk treatment. And, yes, I plant too closely - so always relocating crowded plants.

Plunk and edit, plunk and edit.

Link and edit, I like that.

Chelle, I have much that needs doing at a greater speed than glacial, but that's just what I've got!

No time available to even plunk a plant this evening, and it's such a perfect planting day! Funny how it seems to happen that way...more often than not.

I had a *planner* day today. Methodical and thoughtful planting, and it feels like it was time well spent.

I'm still not sure that I have the browallia in the best possible spot, but at least it's in. If the leaves start to scorch I'll move it then. I've never had any luck with these in the past, but they're under a big shade sail this time so maybe I'll have better luck this year.

Turtle said:Hi everybody ~
I can't figure out if I'm a free-wheelin planner or a plodding plunker. Some people think I move at the speed of a glacier. I read and research a lot, but don't remember what I read. I make lists and write notes, but then can't find them. If this garden ends up with cohesion it'll be by magic!

Amen. And definitely plunk and edit. I also plant too closely, especially on my hills. But wow, is it fun when you have what I call "happy accidents" and wind up with those little vignettes of great plant combinations!

I did an edit just Friday.
I had various irises in various places, one of them new.
The new one bloomed at the same time as one it would look really nice with, so I dug them both to replant somewhere else together, after they spend most of summer in a big pot, being paid lots of attention to so they recover from the digging.

I plan, but not on paper. I survey the area with my eye and form a mental picture of what I want it to look like. I do my homework, bookmark stuff on the computer and keep a lot of info in my head (if it's relevant to what I'm doing). But I don't do "rocket science" gardening and am easily bored when things get too technical, e.g. terms like "bright shade", huh?

Brinybay said: I don't do "rocket science" gardening and am easily bored when things get too technical, e.g. terms like "bright shade", huh?

Except when I am digging for particular information.
I get overwhelmed when there are wordy writings.
I just need the summary.

I wasn't always like this, but I got overwhelmed in general for awhile and I still shy away from too many details.

Greg, I'm with you in that I do form a mental picture when starting a new area or revising an old one, but after that I just plunk. But...Critter, I also don't like to get too technical, plus I have found that a certain plant might sound perfect on paper but then does not thrive in my garden. So I look at the info and take it with a grain of salt.

I did plan the layout of my garden, but not where the plants go.
I am gardening on a wing and a prayer (and lots of scavenging) and can't predict what I'll be able to buy!
I have a list of wants and a general "direction to go" with my perennials, but I wait until the plant is in hand and plunk it where I think it will be happy. And if necessary, or sometimes just for looks, I move it somewhere else later.

It's about the process for me, not so much about making it look perfect.

I've been saving this thread to read at the right moment, when I am not too rushed with this and that. I've reached the moment and really enjoyed the thread so far!

The moment: I've done all I can to prepare for this weekend's Garden Walk, and it's raining all day today and tomorrow so even were there things to do I couldn't really..... so I am relaxed and sort of in an enforced rest, hahaha!

Ah, generally I am a plunker. I usually have a very general idea in mind, and maybe one or two specific things I intend, but most everything is more like a conversation I am having with the garden and with time....

The one arrangement I tried to plan this year didn't work how I wanted it to, or hasn't yet, perhaps. I wanted Amaranth 'Love Lies Bleeding' next to a Dusty Miller (which I visualized blooming) next to a stand of Pink Muhly Grass, next to sedums, also in bloom in my mind's eye.

Well, the Amaranth, I didn't pay enough attention to the seeds I was buying, is another variety entirely, lovely plant that gets TALL and doesn't drip its long flowers on the ground but sends them up in spikes.

Eventually, that is.

Meanwhile, the Dusty Miller (around which this is all built, by the way, because it was living sort of under the back steps for 17 or 18 years, I am told, and I was tasked with saving it rather than just evicting it) is a rescue, and is just putting out some healthy foliage.

As for the Pink Muhly Grass, well, it blooms in September and until then is a patch of grass I am having a challenge distinguishing completely from the weed grass that likes to crop up here and there. Weed it? Don't weed it? GAH!

And the sedums are just slow.

So my little arrangement is having a mind of its own and meanwhile I planted a banana pepper next to those lanky amaranths because it needed a place to go, and a calendula volunteered beside that and of course it has to stay, because, calendula!

So that's how it goes.

Also I have ordered some (just five) daylilies and finding the right spot for them is going to be interesting.

kylaluaz said: most everything is more like a conversation I am having with the garden and with time....

yes.