So...there is all this buzz in the industry about creating naturalistic gardens. To some it may be a novel idea. To others, a resounding DUH! would be spoken upon the suggestion of such an idea. Nevertheless, many professional designers are declaring that mimicking nature is THE way to create a successful garden. In my humble opinion, I say, maybe it is just A way to create a successful garden. Think about how boring it would be to go to the National Gallery of Art and only see landscape paintings by Claude Lorrain. ZZZZZZZ...What about the works of Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Paul Cezanne, and all the other wonderful artists I failed to mention? We may not get it, or personally choose to create in that fashion, but the fact of the matter is, that piece of work was lovingly, probably painstakingly, created by someone who interpreted their inspiration in that manner. And it is beautiful. The freedom to exercise one's creative spirit in whatever way it manifests is a beautiful thing.
CAUTION! Very obscure reference to follow...
Kevyn Aucoin, a very famous makeup artist who painted some of the most famous faces to grace the catwalk, offered this response to someone touting the "correct" way to pluck an eyebrow (or something...) he said, " Makeup should be fun, not fascist." I think the same is true for gardens. It should be fun. It should be what speaks to our own sensibilities, and we should have the freedom to interpret what we see without having to follow some prescribed, stringent path to success. Whether we want to plant 500 Sporobolus heterolepis, Prairie Dropseed, or just one, we should do so without fear of breaking some gardening law.
All that being said, if I decided to throw out a bunch of that orange mulch and plant only Japanese hollies in the name of artistic freedom, I might be looking for a new job very soon. But hopefully, you readers catch my drift...
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2 comments:
Dabney's commentary is bolstered by our recent attendance at the Swarthmore Perennial Plant Symposium. It seemed some of the speakers felt the need to convince us that using "nature as your inspiration" was some sort of novel idea that occurred only to them...yeesh. As gardeners, of COURSE we're inspired by nature. Don't waste our time restating the obvious ;)
Dabney - good point. The garden is a work of art and the gardener is the artist. I have seem some vegetable gardens, especially in China, that were incredibly beautiful.
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