Add Glamour to a Garden in 24 Hours

If, like me, you garden a lot--and talk a lot about gardening a lot--people expect you to have a year-round floral display. But what happens when you want the garden to look its best? For instance, when friends from out of town announce they’re coming your way?

It doesn’t take long for word to get around. By 8 o’clock that night an army of snails is massing on the begonia border. Plants that have been indulging in an orgy of bloom come down with blossom wilt and crown rot. Horn worms of astonishing dimensions appear on the tomatoes. Bricks start loosening and upending themselves in the patio, and the gardener reveals that he’s leaving on his vacation two weeks early--tomorrow, in fact.

For the grand finale, the pomegranate tree heaves a leafy sigh, splits down the middle and falls back against the fence.

You have two choices: Leave town or initiate the Great Cover-up.

If you decide on the latter course, think of yourself as an exterior decorator with a client (you) who wants the place ready to render visitors livid with envy in a matter of weeks, even days.

Fast-Growing, Inexpensive

First, the pomegranate tree. Replace it with an oleander--long-blooming, fast-growing evergreen and inexpensive. Get the 5-gallon size. The single white is especially free-flowering and virtually lights up the garden at night. Anyway, you won’t want to spend a lot, after the tree man tells you what he charges for removing the remains of the pomegranate tree. (“You want me to take the roots out? That’s $150 more.”) Of course, you could just spray-paint the whole thing red and pass it off as a Niki de Saint Phalle sculpture.

Around the oleander, make a circular bed. Check with your local nursery to see which bedding plants are available and use some vivid color combinations. Bright colors shout “Look at me!” and draw the eye away from less beautiful areas. For example, red petunias in the center, white ones on the outer edge. Or combine the starched-lace foliage of dusty miller with ageratum.

Take Bold Steps

Now for the snaggle-toothed patio: Forget the cement mix or jumping up and down on the bricks to force them back in place. Instead, be bold. Rip up some more bricks around the loose ones and create a square planting space. Dig out the soil to a depth of 12 inches or so and replace it with planting mix. Install marigolds and ageratum. (Use bedding plants. This is no time to fool around with seeds.)

To balance things, pry up more bricks a few feet away and in this space set out alyssum--Rosie O’Day and Carpet of Snow are a good combination. You may have difficulty controlling the impulse to tear up more and more bricks when you see how terrific these planting pockets look.

For a sensational cover-up along the fence once beautified by the pomegranate tree, line up large ornamental pots. Fill them with potting soil and plant alternating displays of pelargoniums, maidenhair fern and impatiens. Buy the 1-gallon size of pelargoniums and 6-inch pots of impatiens and maidenhair ferns. You can get this act together in one morning, including the time it takes to go to the nursery.

When you’re stage manager for the greatest show in earth, it’s important to have an ample back-up of supernumeraries. I save the little plastic six-part holders or “pony packs” in which bedding plants come. I refill them with potting mix and plant seeds of annuals, so there are always stand-ins waiting in the wings: alyssum, marigolds, snapdragons, stock; you can petal your way through an endless list.

Back-Up Plants

On this subject of back-up plants, one of the most overlooked talents in the garden’s cast of thousands is Campanula. I keep a bed of it growing beside a brick path by the garage just for fill-in use.

Mine is, I think, Campanula poscharskyana. It is evergreen, and has no pests and no diseases that I have ever noted in 20 years. The star-like lavender/blue flowers bloom from mid-May through most of July, rising above luxuriant foliage that resembles that of violets. It can be transplanted any time--I’ve moved it in full bloom--and prefers partial shade and average moisture.

Of course, in Southern California, every month is planting time for something, and these back-up plants--and seedling nurseries--provide a security blanket for flower beds all year round. There’s nothing more rewarding than the snug, smug feeling of knowing they’re out there rooting for you.