I have gotten better at "impulse buying" at nurseries; how you ask? Step one: I rarely go to them. Step two: before deciding to buy, I have to have a place in mind as to where I'll put the plant once home and to have a purpose for getting said plant. Step three: If there is no spot immediately available, I think through how time-consuming it is to lift sod in order to prep a spot.
That's not to say I still don't end up with plants! More and more, I'm purchasing plants online, because they simply aren't carried around here. Last winter, (dangerous plant purchasing time for me) I decided I needed a few heartnuts among other things. I then walked to the back where I intended to plant them (see step 2 above) and I decided there was room. I kind of cheated, and I know it's not great for the environment, but I laid down some landscaping cloth that I'd had (which, after a year or two, I'll lift and
reuse as needed) My go-to method is to line beds with hosta because its root is pretty impenetrable, it remains pretty stable in that it doesn't run, it is wonderful to mow next to, and it always looks neat. With that being said, I just finished digging a foot-wide length around the landscaping cloth, which I decided to turn perpendicular to an existing bed along the property line, rounding the corners for easy mowing. So, to do the length and rounding the corners of the 30' length, that ended up being about 65+ feet which took me about three full days to prep: I shovel-cut sod in sections about the size of cinder blocks, turned each over to dry a little, then shook out all the soil, and hauled the sod to the way back behind the evergreen screen. I then shovel-cut sections from existing hostas, hacksawed those into smaller clumps and planted. Whew!
Not only that, I did the same along the long
fence line of the pool, another 60' or so because I'd ordered (again, this past winter!) some dwarf pears to plant there. (I have two pears already, but they both are infected with stony pit disease, and are more or less inedible at this point. I can't even cut them in half with a knife because they are so twisted and stony. Last year, I planted some Asian pears, but it will be a few years for them, as well) I will leave the landscaping cloth down for a year or so and will have a lot of ground ready to plant, perhaps with divided strawberries. That's exciting. The hosta is in, and I'll interplant those with daffodils, snowdrops, etc. The hosta foliage will then grow up and cover the daffodil mess of leaves and create a barrier between lawn and garden.
I wanted a hawthorn after reading about its virtues visually, as a wildlife tree and as a heart medicine. Again, this past winter, I ordered one, and thought that I had the perfect spot, but the more I thought about it, I realized that the canopy of other plants were going to make it impossible, as it will grow to be @30' tall and wide. Between that, the thorns and the possible malodorous smell, I am much happier with its final placement off the beaten path, which will still be very accessible. It will be very visible from the house and street, yet the thorns and smell will not be a danger to anyone. I did end up digging out a lone elderberry and planting the hawthorn in its place. The elderberry has now joined its brethren out back on the property line bed near where the heartnuts were planted. All of these are good changes and I'm extremely happy with my choices. I still have some Tillamook goumi, a dwarf cherry and the pears to plant, but they all have spots waiting. That's one thing about winter purchases; you have time to think about placement and prep work.
More and more, I'm dividing plants that I have here and only purchasing those that I don't yet have or that don't propagate easily. It was much easier to tuck in flowers, but once I started down the rabbit hole of
permaculture and dealing with trees and shrubs, I realized that it would take more planning. The hard part is that I keep discovering new trees that I want. I have an acre and I am always thinking, "OK, now I'm done!" but then I'll discover another "must-have" plant...like the Hawthorn. Geez! I don't think that I can get any more trees, yet I manage to keep finding spots! Last year, after reading about Cornelian cherries, I got to thinking about how much I hated the forsythia out back (most of the year, it looked like a ginormous, mangled rat's nest that would root wherever it touched down), so I offered it free to anyone willing to dig it out. I had a taker who came and spent two days digging. He did finally get it out--Hallelujah! In its place, I was able to put in two Cornelian cherries. I will now have a well-behaved plant that won't require so much if any pruning, has earlier pretty yellow blooms and beautiful, edible red fruit in the late summer. Win, win!
I find that I no longer go to nurseries unless there is a specific need: I have an artesian well that has gotten flooded, so after looking up plants that do well in wet situations, I went to the nursery, when at the end of the season, they were having a shrub sale and I was able to buy a button bush, some winterberries and low-growing aronias to plant there. I am tempted by flowers, so I find that if I just stay away, it's safer. I'm busy here just maintaining beds and the vegetable garden anyway. Soon, I'll be canning, drying, fermenting, pickling and making wine! I guess my newer temptations would be the infrastructure and tools that will make the work easier: Freeze-dryer, canner, wine-making supplies,
cattle panel, nut-gatherer, etc. etc.