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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Patient gardener here.  You don't need a leaf shredder, just pile them up in a corner somewhere and wait until Spring.  The bottom of the pile will be nicely composted.  I would agree that you need to carry the same colors throughout the garden or it will look disjointed.  You want it to flow naturally.  [b]I have multiples of the same plant but I don't group them, [/b]rather I plant them in varying spots in the garden to keep the eye moving along.  If you break up the color and keep it restricted to certain parts of the garden it is less pleasing to the eye.  Once plants are established you will be abe to ease up on the watering but until then you need to have a plan like a drip system.  You can mulch in either Spring or Fall but you should mulch. Make sure you mix the soil ammendment in with the clay, don't just dig a hole and put the topsoil and composted manure in.  You will get the 'bathtub' effect and drown your plant plus it's not good for the roots.  Completely dig up the whole area and mix the composted manure, mulched leaves or superfine and existing clay soil into the entire space.  Only after that do you dig your holes. [/quote]

Less patient gardener here.

I find it interesting that you don't group same plants together--that seems to be so much against the general advice unless the plant is quite large on its own.  Groups of three and all that.  Particularly smaller plants.  Plus many plants look very lonely without others of their kind around.  I do vary colors around the garden.  But perhaps you meant you might make a group of three of smaller plants together and then repeat that grouping elsewhere, while larger plants might stand on their own in a spot and then are repeated elsewhere.

Would be very interested in your further views on this.[/quote]

Yes, I group the smaller ones and have the larger plants stand on their own and place them a few feet apart with some smaller bunches of the same plants in between.  I do this because I want a three season garden and I find it's easier to keep the color going and to hide the spring plants if the large plants are spaced out.  I still use repetition and patterns but I have a lot of space to cover so it works in my garden.   I have a few garden beds but the biggest is 50 ft by 10 ft so the big plants are a good size.   I have about 60 liriope lined along the border and then my perennials behind that but I make sure there's room to plant ornamental kale and peppers in the fall.  Beyond the perennials I have a tulip bed where I plant 1000 tulips.   I also have some begonias and ferns hanging from the trees in the shaded area in the back of the garden and I've turned some old tree stumps that were too heavy to move out, into a little fairy vilage.[/quote]

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