Be a Rule Breaker in Your Garden

Are you someone who likes to do the "right" thing and play things by the book, or are you something of a rule breaker when it comes to your garden?

Personally, I am somewhat of a rule breaker. And that dictates some of the decisions that I make as a gardener—the things I do, and the things that I might not do in my garden.

Of course, we do need to know the basic rules of gardening. But often we simply need to know them in order to break them—especially where the "rules" are not universally applicable.

Here are some of the reasons why I think it can be important to be a rule breaker in the garden.

Garden Rules are Sometimes Based on Flawed Knowledge

Unfortunately, it is common for established gardeners to state things with absolute conviction that are unproven or even untrue.

In the horticultural world, adherence to common practices, and doing things the way they have always been done can lead to ingrained problems. Often, the rules our parents or grandparents followed in their gardens will lead us down the wrong road.

Sometimes, those practices or beliefs are founded on falsities. Sometimes, new information may have come to light that allows us to see things differently. We learn more every day, for example, about the interconnected natural systems around us. But we still know surprisingly little about the operation of life around us on this planet.

So rather than saying to ourselves that we cannot do that, or that is not the way to do that, we should sometimes embrace not knowing and be less sure as we garden. That humility can allow us to be more open to the lessons that the natural world can teach.

The "Rules" for One Location Won't Necessarily Apply to Another

Another reason that rules in a garden should not be followed blindly is that those that work for one specific location and one specific garden won't necessarily work for another. Many can'ts and don'ts or shoulds and musts are extremely location specific.

Unfortunately, many gardeners will take certain things as gospel when the rules were written for gardens very different from their own.

Many of the rules involve things like sowing and planting timings, plant spacing, which plants can be combined, and garden practices and methods. There is more complexity, however, than can often be captured in simple rules and so things get dumbed down to the degree that they rarely work for anyone at all.

Whenever we contemplate any rules in a garden, we need to think about who came up with those ideas and, crucially, where. For example, many adages or assumptions for gardeners in the arid United States will not be true for me here in Scotland—and sometimes vice versa.

It's important to learn what works in your garden and even the gardens of your neighbors.

Rigidity Reduces Growth and Innovation

Sometimes, we may simply feel as gardeners, whether we are aware of our bias or not, that a garden should look a certain way. Or perhaps that doing certain things is just what gardeners do.

For example, many gardeners seem stuck on the perception that a garden is a manicured grass lawn with a border around the outside or believe that a food-producing garden has to consist of vegetables growing in neat little rows.

Throwing away our preconceived notions about what a garden should be and how to create one can open our eyes to new possibilities.

Having conscious or subconscious thoughts about how a garden should look can limit us as we seek to create gardens of our own. So I think it is often important to be a rule breaker and look beyond what has historically been done to see what really should be done where you live.

When we are aware of general rules, but are also willing to break them, we are more open to the many opportunities around us. We are more likely to be able to alter and adapt our plans to respond to feedback and learn from the natural world where we live.

Especially with a changing climate, when we are able to throw out rules when they do not work and learn from the rules that do to improve matters for the better, we can grow and innovate to create sustainable gardens of the future.