Portrait of a Garden

There are two ways to take a garden's "portrait." The first way is to stand back and get a view of the gardens in their entirety:


































The second is to focus on individual plants:













When documenting your gardens, be sure to pay attention to both methods. Documenting your garden from afar will help you see how your landscape develops and assist your garden planning efforts. Viewing my garden through a lens has helped me decide what to plant where and to recognize spots in the landscape that need more attention. Closeup views help you keep track of your plants. I have also found that studying my plants up-close through a lens helps me get to know them better. I notice diseases, pests, an growth habits by spending some time with each plant individually.

I have always wanted to keep a book with each plant, listing their names and habits. It seems like creating a directory like this would make my gardening much easier in the long run, but I have yet to get to it. Once one starts such an index, I imagine that upkeep wouldn't be too difficult either. It's the initial effort that has deterred me. I started with a landscape of mature plantings and need to go back and identify them. If I were to go back four years to when I first moved to this house, I would at least photograph everything I bought and list it properly.