Niche Gardens
Alpine or Rock Gardens:
This kind of garden can be defined as growing the smallest plants possible from the highest mountain ranges furthest from your home in a garden at sea level. In purist gardens, the taller the plant - the less desirable. In fact, I’ve read posts on listservs that speak of any plant over 12-inches tall as being too tall for the rock garden.
Mind you, this kind of niche garden is modified by non-collectors to include almost any plant that’s planted among rocks.
Xeric Gardens.
We define xeric gardens as those where we allow our plants to die if nature doesn’t rain on them. Those who love this form of politically correct garden point out that one shouldn’t have English Cottage Gardens in Reno, Nevada. I counter by pointing out that having an English garden out in that desert makes about as much sense as putting the city there in the first place.
There is a serious side to this debate, as global warming changes weather patterns and people flock to warmer areas, there is a growing water shortfall and competition for scarce resources. In general this kind of niche garden makes sense in areas where water shortages are common and absolutely no sense in areas where waterfall is adequate. Proponents will counter that it should be mandatory in all regions.
Native Plant Gardens.
This kind of garden is composed of native plants but the issue is how to define native. Is a plant a native if it was brought over the ice-bridge from what is now Russia as North America was colonized. It didn’t exist before that period so is it a native. If it’s OK for those folks to bring in plants, is it OK for other native tribes to swap plants and spread commercial seed crops. If that’s OK, why is it suddenly not-OK to introduce plants?
While that is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the real question is in defining what “native” means. Does buying a “native” Echinacea mean you’re growing native plants? Well, not if you’re growing this plant in an area where it never lived in the wild. You’re not growing a “native” to your area - you’re growing an imported plant. To have a native garden, you then must only grow plants that could have been in your area at some undetermined time brought by some undetermined group of individuals.
In Summary
While this short article has been written with tongue in cheek, the point is made that a niche garden can be anything you want it to be. This is the absolute beauty of gardening - you define what’s important to you and you garden in that manner. And you don’t allow so-called “experts” to set your agenda and what should or should not be in your garden. Your garden design is - and should be- your own. Enjoy your garden folks - that’s the only niche garden rule I’ll suggest is worth pursuing.
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