The Hidden Costs of Using Perennials Like Annuals in Your Garden
So this is one of those posts that will make some people (and companies) really upset, because much of the gardening industry is built on the idea that people need to buy more plants every year. As with so many other parts of North American life (and I'm lumping you Canadians in with us, sorry), the gardening industry is built on consumption – and over-consumption.
Walk the aisles of any big box store and many garden centers. Once you see it – it's unavoidable. These sellers are selling the average gardener plants that will NEVER survive in that location. They won't survive the winter. They won't survive the summer. They will wilt in the arid air or be consumed by fungal problems in the humidity. They will die for a million reasons. But the corporate business models are built on this idea: if you sell people plants that will thrive, they won't consume as much. So sell them plants that will die, and they will be back in the spring again.
In some ways it is worse than fast fashion. I mean, when we buy clothes we have been conditioned to expect them to wear out. But when we buy plants, we think, "What did I do wrong?" when that plant fails to thrive. As a Master Gardener and in my social media life, I am asked hundreds, maybe thousands, of questions every year, and often the answer is: "That plant will never work there, and the person who told you it would was wrong – or worse, a liar."
For a refresher on the difference between perennials and annuals, click here.
It's not just corporations who are to blame, too. Social media influencers promote growing impossible plants in improbable places. Hydrangeas in the Mountain West. Large, voluptuous plantings in front porch pots that are changed out 4 or 5 times per year. Orange trees in impossibly small pots which will only last a few months, at best. Influencers need a churn of perpetual content – that's part of the gig. So like the big box stores, they are motivated to create demand. Changing out front porch pots, for example, is all about creating the next piece of content. It isn't realistic nor is it responsible. It is artificial.
Beyond the problems of setting impossible expectations for gardeners across the globe, there are some serious ethical and ecological problems with these practices. Since we are Resistance Gardeners invested in "gardening in defiance of the status quo," let's change how we shop for plants.
In the same way that we often don't think about where our food comes from beyond the grocery store, we also aren't connected with where our plants come from. How often do you think about the growers who raised a plant when you purchase it at a garden center? But the plants at that garden center represent the work of people who have used thousands of gallons of water, pesticides, herbicides, peat and soil, and heat and grow lights, not to mention miles and miles of transit – all to get that plant to a point where it is attractive enough that you will put it in your cart and take it home.
Is this an inherently bad thing? Aside from the use of peat, I would say, "No." Not every gardener can grow from seed or propagate from cuttings. We have to be realistic about the demands of modern life. However, it's when we ignore the consumption of resources required to commercially grow plants and make ill-advised or uninformed decisions – treating perennials as annuals, for example – that it becomes problematic.
Let me give you an example: I live in Colorado. It is hot in the summer. Cold and snowy in the winter. And arid all year round. This is not a place where citrus trees can live. However, if I go into almost any garden center or big box store in a few weeks, I will see tables of lemon and orange trees. Why? Greenhouses aren't very common here, so I have to assume these trees are grown as decorative plants over the summers and then disposed of after the first freeze. And there are probably some homeowners who don't know better and who plant them in the landscape and then wonder why those trees die over the winter
Full disclosure: I had a beautiful lemon tree, Sophia Loren, who I nurtured for three years. She was in a pot and lived in my greenhouse over the winters. But I have a greenhouse. Most people don't. And even after three years of tender care, she didn't survive.
When we look at the resources required to grow those citrus trees, would we still make those same decisions? Most of the trees I see are between 2-4 years old. These are not annuals that just grow from seed and are 4 feet tall in a few months. These trees were grafted and grew in a field for several years – watered regularly, pruned for shape, fertilized, sprayed with pesticides, and probably weeded with herbicides on a regular basis. Then they were potted up and shipped across the country from California or Arizona or Florida to Colorado – and certain death.
And this is the problem with using perennials as annuals: they require lots of resources to become commercially viable. So selling them as a consumable good undervalues the work and resources put into taking that plant to market.
As gardeners we all know that plants die. Sometimes even the right plant in the theoretically right place will die. This happened this week in my mother's garden. Some salvia I planted for her has already died despite her best nurturing efforts – in just one week. But that's not the norm. Perennials have a full life-cycle to live, and when we deliberately cut that short we are wasting precious resources.
So our act of resistance this week is to consider our resources carefully. Make your home beautiful! There's no reason not to. But consider carefully the plants that you are choosing. If they are perennials, do you have a plan to keep them alive? And if not, rethink your gardening plan a bit – choose something that will thrive in your environment, so you are being a responsible steward of that plant's full lifecycle.
It's time to be done with disposable gardening!
Happy Gardening!
Angela
