Five Tools for Overcoming Compulsive Plant Acquisition
A few days ago, I wrote about Compulsive Plant Acquisition Disorder (CPAD) and the things I learned about myself when I reflected on this behavior. As a result, I’m beginning to change how I garden this year — and I’m planning for the years to come.
I’m also realizing there’s an entire step I missed. I was busy thinking about ways my gardening could change but I didn’t really think about the tools that could help me change my ways. In other words, I went from step A to C and skipped B.
As gardeners, we understand the power and importance of having the right tool for the job. It’s great when we know which tool to use because the task is familiar, but what if neither is true? The good news is that none of the “new” tools that may help us overcome CPAD are difficult to learn and you likely may be familiar with them from other experiences in your life. Here’s what I’m planning to try.
Tool One: Recognize and Call Out Impulses
The first step in changing a behavior or attitude is learning recognize the behavior we want to change. Often a behavior may be entrenched in a habit and therefor automatic — we don’t even notice when we do it. The “act” of CPAD — purchasing a bunch of plants we didn’t plan to — is motivated by an impulse or a distraction. We walk into the garden center with a plan (or not — more on that later) and our impulse is triggered by a sales rack or the discovery of a surprising plant. Learning to recognize and call out this impulse is just as important as recognizing the behavior it triggers.
Tool Two: Practice
Think about the first time you used a pair of pruners. You learned how to hold them, whether they’re cutting properly, the many ways you can and can’t use them, and how to care for them. Much of this you likely learned over time and through hands-on experience. To become proficient with a new tool — physical, mental, emotional, or otherwise — requires practice and repetition. These tools are essentially forming a new habit, and thankfully there’s an abundance of science already available on how we make and break habits. (My personal favorite is Atomic Habits)
Tool Three: Make a Collections Plan
One of my motivations for impulsively acquiring a new plant is a strong drive to collect as many different plants as possible. Ask me to choose a favorite plant and we may be here for a while… I mentioned last week that my CPAD may also be a reason my career has drawn me to public gardens. As living museums they’re fundamentally collections of plants.
A common guiding document for most museums — and a significant measure of their success — is a strong collections plan. A collections plan is a guiding set of criteria and behavior based on an institution’s mission as to what, how, and why a museum collects what it does. It can also be helpful to know when something should be removed from a collection. Essentially, it’s a tool to help curators make decisions.
You are the curator of your garden: you choose what to plant, where, and why, just as a horticulturist in a public garden curates an institutional plant collection. A strong and clear collection can also provide unity and cohesion in your garden design if that’s something you desire.
Winter is a great time to think about developing your collections plan because it’s a calm and fallow time when we’re all dreaming of the season to come and likely already ordering seeds and plants in advance. If you’re reading this outside of winter, not to worry. While the best time to plan was yesterday, the next best time is today. You can make your plan anytime.
A collections plan for your home garden need not be as involved or complex as one you might find in a public botanical garden, though there are three key parts that may worth including:
1. A Purpose Statement. Why does your garden exist? What are you trying to achieve through your garden? Are you growing food, creating habitat for wildlife, or creating a space to relax? Don’t feel you need to choose just one purpose, it’s very possible you have several. What matters is clarifying them.
2. Define your collections. Maybe you love grasses and you want to collect as many as you can. Perhaps you inherited a collection of antique lilacs from a family member or previous homeowner that you want to preserve. Or maybe heirloom tomatoes are your thing and each year you save seed and try new varieties. Add as much depth to your definitions as you need. They will become your roadmap and filter on your next shopping trip.
3. Plant sourcing and removal. Ask yourself: where and how will you acquire new plants? Will you swap seeds or cuttings with neighbors or will you prefer to purchase directly from reputable nurseries and garden centers? It’s important to consider safety and ecological integrity as part of this process. Transplants from a neighbor could harbor destructive critters like jumping worms or introduce a noxious weed through a hidden root or dormant seed. This doesn’t mean you can’t share plants but exercise a bit of caution. Know what to look for and follow science-driven sources like your local university extension office for news on emerging trends.
Another part of your collections plan involves thinking about your criteria for removing plants. What if something suddenly becomes prone to disease which could threaten other plants in your garden or adjacent natural communities? Just a few days ago, I learned a plant I’ve come to love and use frequently, Carex flacca, has begun to escape our gardens and displace native species in wild habitats. I love this plant and it breaks my heart that I need to remove it, but I value ecological integrity and I don’t want my garden to have a negative impact on the world around me. So, this year, I’ll begin removing Carex flacca and working to find a suitable replacement.
Tool Four: Bring Cash to the Garden Center
When we leave our plastic at home and only bring cash, we’re setting a limit on how many “impulsive plants” we’re able to acquire. If we find something that surprises us — a big sale or that really cool variety we didn’t expect to find — we’ll be forced to make a choice between what we’d planned to buy and what we want to buy. It’s far less likely we won’t come home with more plants than we’re able to handle. It also forces us to move past our initial gut/emotional impulse and really consider if that surprise plant is something that meets our gardening goals.
Once we make it home and allow the impulse to pass, we may realize we didn’t want that plant as much as we think we did. Or maybe we’re still dreaming about it a day or two later. The impulse has become an authentic desire. We’ve recognized it meets our collection goals and we’ve also taken the time to think about where the new plant will live. Space: check. Goals: check. Budget: check.
Tool Five: Make Room to Experiment and Focus Curiosity
As gardeners, we’re naturally curious. These tools aren’t meant to suppress that curiosity — they’re intended to help focus it. Give yourself space and permission and a budget to experiment with new things. Set aside a space for a trial or nursery bed where you can grow unfamiliar plants. Plants will come and go and the ones that are proven and endearing will find their way into your permanent collection. Plants that don’t perform will still be phased out, but this way it isn’t because you didn’t have space to plant them and they died in their pots. If your trial bed is full, you need to make space before you allow yourself to experiment with something new. Think of a trial bed as a filter and also a valve: something that moderates the flow and volume of new plants which enter your garden.
I hope you find these tools helpful for overcoming CPAD. If this is something you’ve already thought about, are there other tools you find helpful? I’d be curious to hear what’s working for you. Making or breaking a habit takes practice, focus, and awareness, and it won’t happen overnight. You may relapse at moments and if you do, I encourage you to frame those moments as opportunities to learn rather than failures. Gardening, and life, is a process. Let’s stay curious, focused, and committed to cultivating great gardens, together.
