Cultivating chaos How to enrich landscapes with self-seeding plants

Many are dismayed by chaos in their gardens, but Reif and Kress show that wildness can become an acquired taste. The advantages of self-seeding plants include quick results, vividly colored flowers, and low expense, though the more robust species of volunteers need some taming, or their encroachment makes garden maintenance too exhausting. From images of an enchanting English country garden in Sussex to hollyhocks on the walls of Denmark's roadside houses, the book's richly detailed color photographs show the exuberant varieties at their best and indicate that planning and intervention, with particular awareness of certain dangerous plants (e.g., such non-native invasives as Himalayan balsalm), are key. Sections on planting preparation, including soil improvement; site transformation, including soil pH; and design and maintenance strategies for a desired balance, including repositionings of container-grown plants for wider seed dispersal, complement the detailed discussion of specific plants' attributes, An appendix lists nurseries and further reading. An unusual, thought-provoking approach to horticulture.--Scott, Whitney Copyright 2015 Booklist

Rational gardeners spy self-seeding flowers (spiderwort, loosestrife, Korean rock fern) and run for the hoe, but landscape designer Reif and Kress, owner of Sarastro Perennials nursery in Austria, persuade the panicky to rethink these so-called invaders. They reason that under careful policing, a garden with self-seeding plants can be made artful with rivers of repeated plantings. Becker's photos of bountiful, lush gardens with waves of colors easily substantiate this claim. The authors further convert readers to their experimental approach by discussing the advantages of gardening with self-seeders (quick results, inexpensive, suitable for beginners, etc.). They also address the life spans of a variety of annuals, biennials, and short- and long-lived perennials, and discuss preparation of lots and plots, including raising and lowering the pH of the soil as needed. Among instructions and strategies are profiles of gardeners and gardens, and an annotated list of self-seeders. This book is a great resource for gardeners willing to think outside the "plot". Photos. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Foreword Once upon a time I bought a plant of Geranium sylvaticum 'Birch Lilac.' Nine years later, when I moved on from that particular garden, there must have been a hundred of them. It had seeded pretty well all over, so every year May became a haze of violet-blue. It was the perfect seeder, never over-doing it, and crucially, it being a relatively narrow plant, it never swamped anything else. Like many of the best self-seeding effects in gardens its behaviour was not predicted. And like many, when I tried to reproduce it in my next garden, the plant would only self-sow reluctantly.   Allowing and encouraging plants to set seed in the garden and spread themselves around is very much a part of the new garden zeitgeist. Once we planted things and expected them to stay where they were put. Gardening now is much more accepting of spontaneity, of natural processes of birth, death and decay. Embracing plants that self-seed is part of becoming a manager of nature rather than a controller. Seeding is a vital way in which plant communities thrive and survive. Allowing it in the garden can be seen as a way of the garden becoming an ecological system.   Self-seeding can be a mixed blessing of course. First there is the unpredictability. Although some, like Aquilegia vulgaris, seem to seed in most gardens, most species are not so obliging; they may seed well, or poorly, or not at all, or too much. The latter can be a problem, and there are certainly plants which I now regard as near weeds which started out as desired plants. The winter annual Euphorbia rigida  is one. I was thrilled when I first saw seedlings, as I always am when a new plant does this - a sign that the species is at home, and that I have a real dynamic ecological system on my hands. But when the numbers increased, to start to clutter every piece of empty ground within seed-throwing distance of the parent, then I began to regret it, especially as the plants fell over as soon as they flower. Now, almost on the point of eliminating it, I step back from the brink, and let a few survive. In the denser vegetation of what is now a more established garden, they do not seed so much, they have to compete for resources and are more likely to be supported by neighbours. But I will continue to watch them.   Managing the mysteries of self-seeders engages the gardener in the ongoing process of the garden's own independent life, and is a reminder of the wider world of natural systems, of which the garden can be a tiny and homely example. It is good to have a book that recognises the importance of this vital ecological process. Self-seeding can be a little alarming to the nervous or the novice, and advice from experienced managers of the process is most valuable. --Noel Kingsbury   Excerpted from Cultivating Chaos: Gardening with Self-Seeding Plants by Jonas Reif, Christian Kress, Jürgen Becker All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.