I take possession of a new home in early January, and wonder how to approach renovating the garden. The garden has many plants that are either overgrown or that I do not care for. I want to balance my goals for the garden with removing plants that appear to be healthy or simply overgrown.
— Grace Williams, Morton Grove
Some gardeners have a hard time removing plants in their gardens, especially when they are robust. This can impede the success of a garden in the long term. I have no reservations about removing healthy plants that no longer have a purpose in my garden, and I’d suggest that you be ruthless in editing your new garden too. A normal part of gardening is the routine editing of plants as your tastes change or the plants do not perform. You might not think twice about modifying the decor and function of spaces in a new home. The same should go for a garden. In my first house, I removed all the plants in the front foundation and replaced them, much to the dismay of a neighbor who wondered why I threw away perfectly good plants. It was an easy decision for me, as the plants were pedestrian and somewhat overgrown with little hope of rejuvenation. Even if rejuvenation pruning could have saved them, I still would have removed them because I did not like how the front looked and wanted to change it. I slept better at night after getting rid of the existing plants.
Generally, I try to save old, dramatic, specimen plants that are in a landscape, even if I do not care much for them. However, I have no qualms about removing large plants such as Norway maples, which are considered an invasive species in this region and cast a deep shade that makes it nearly impossible to grow other plants nearby. Over three years, I removed eight large Norway maples from my garden and replaced them with better shade trees, including sugar maple and ginkgo, along with new shrub and perennial layers. The short-term impact was shocking with the loss of foliage but today, about 15 years later, the border looks beautiful and screens the neighbor’s house and yard while providing a reliable habitat for birds. Being aggressive in editing out undesirable plants in your new garden will be the beginning of a great garden in the future.
Many overgrown deciduous shrubs can be aggressively cut back in the dormant season to become nice-looking plants again in a couple of years if they are healthy. Large, overgrown yews are very common in home gardens and typical along house foundations, often in odd shapes caused by years of shearing. Yews will respond to very aggressive pruning, but can take several years to recover and look good again. The more aggressive the pruning, the longer the recovery period will be, but you should plan for at least three years for the yews to look unsightly, so it’s generally best to remove old yews and start with new ones.
I do not have a lot of time to garden, so my garden needs to be bird- and insect-friendly with a natural look that requires little effort and no pesticide applications to look good. Standing in the backyard and watching fireflies in the summertime is very relaxing. I thought it was interesting when bald-faced hornets built a big nest by a garden speaker just above our gas grill — they were never an issue for us. I have only made one insecticide application over 35 years in my home garden. It was for viburnum leaf beetle, which would have killed my arrowwood viburnums, a plant I no longer use because of this insect issue.
This overall strategy guided me in renovating my home garden. Reflect on where you want to take your garden and make your decisions accordingly. You may find it beneficial to hire a consultant this winter to recommend rejuvenation pruning to get started, and again in spring once plants are up and growing to provide information and guidance to support your decision-making. My advice is to make bold decisions now and act aggressively to remove plants you don’t like. In ten years, you will be much happier with the results.
For more plant advice, contact the Plant Information Service at the Chicago Botanic Garden at plantinfo@chicagobotanic.org. Tim Johnson is senior director of horticulture at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
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