How to Plant a Chaos Garden

 

 

 

Gardening experts, books, and instructions on seed packets typically encourage growers to plant the seeds for each crop together, with a certain amount of space between plantings. Those rules exist for a reason; planting seeds in uniform rows with the proper spacing creates the conditions for optimal growth. Chaos gardening is all about throwing the rules out the window. Below you will find how to plant a chaos garden.

Think of chaos gardening as a low-stakes experiment that also helps you purge your collection of old, leftover seeds from past seasons. Some seeds may not germinate at all, while others you bought years ago may thrive. Either way, the result is surprising, educational, and even beautiful. The process is also freeing, especially if you’re the type of grower who strives to make your garden look perfect.

Gather Your Seeds

Pull out your collection of seed packets from previous seasons, including any freebies you’ve never got to use. Vegetables, herbs, flowers, and annual fruits like melons and ground cherries are all fair game. Even if your seeds are years beyond their suggested viability date on the packet, there’s a chance they’ll surprise you, and that’s part of the fun.

At this point, you may wish to sort your seeds by size. Empty larger seeds like cucumbers, beans, and peas together in one bowl and smaller seeds like carrots, beets, and lettuce into another. Planting the larger seeds first helps you get better results.

Because you’re probably dealing with seeds from at least a few years ago, you may want to help germination along with a pre-soak. Simply add warm water to cover the seeds in each bowl and allow them to soak overnight. The next morning, strain your seeds and dry them well on paper towels or a clean dish towel, still keeping large and small seeds separate. Mix a few handfuls of fresh, dry potting soil into each bowl to make the seeds easier to scatter at random.

Prepare the Soil

Remember, this is chaos gardening, so you can be as lazy or as fastidious as you want with how you do it. Turn over the soil as you normally would before planting or just scratch up the top few inches with a rake to loosen it up. Another method is to pour a few inches of compost over existing soil without tilling and plant your chaos garden in it.

You don’t have to plant your chaos garden in the ground. A raised bed, large plant pot or planter box, or even a stock tank or kiddie pool with drainage holes in the bottom can serve as a container for your chaos garden.

Plant Your Seeds

Start with your large seeds such as watermelon seeds first. Sprinkle handfuls of the large seed mixture evenly over the soil. When the large seeds are gone, add anywhere from a half inch to one inch of potting soil or compost over that layer.

Next, sprinkle the small seed mixture over the soil. Cover that with one more thin layer of potting soil or compost.

Tend Your Chaos Garden—or Not

At this point, be as hands-off or as hands-on as you like. Some chaos gardeners prefer to let nature take its course, waiting for rain instead of watering regularly and allowing any weeds that sprout to do their thing.

The other option is to tend your chaos garden as you would the rest of your garden, making sure plantings get sufficient water, pulling weeds, and trellising or supporting larger plants that may shade out others. It’s up to you!

See What Grows

Now here’s the fun part: seeing what pops up in your chaos garden. Maybe the sunflowers you planted years ago will make a strong showing, or the melons you saved from an heirloom two seasons before will all germinate. Maybe nothing will, and that’s okay! The whole point of a chaos garden is to help you embrace chance and let go of perfection. No matter what comes up, you had a little fun and made some room in your seed stash for next year.

If you plant a chaos garden, you must be ready for surprises and total unpredictability, as you don’t know what will grow in your garden. If you usually count on certain vegetables for your everyday cooking, or you cannot wait for homegrown tomatoes in August, chaos gardening might not be the best option for you. 

Source: thespruce.com©

Photo credit: treevitalize.com©