Mr. Frost Nailed It

In honor of springtime in Blacksburg...sleet, temperatures in low 40s, winds at 15 mph with gusts to 30 mph... but we'll all forget how miserable it was today as we frolic in the sun on Saturday...

“The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.”

- Robert Frost
Excerpt from “Two Tramps in Mudtime"

UT PROSIM

That I May Serve...

A motto I am proud to be associated with and words I strive to live up to. Part of a public garden's mission is to serve its visitors as a place providing respite, education, and many other wonderful things. I am proud to say that our asphalt pathway is just about finished! It is already creating much wonderful traffic through the garden, and allowing for new traffic that we previously have not been able to host, like wheelchairs, walkers, and strollers.

I 've heard a number of people express their dismay over the choice of asphalt as the material for the path. To be honest, I used to feel similarly. But, as I have had time to reflect on the purpose of the pathway and its ability to open the garden for so many new visitors, I have become its largest fan. So, to the asphalt haters, take a moment to think of this new pathway system with Virginia Tech's motto in mind and you too will see the beauty of it all.

P.S. Ut Prosim aside, on a purely aesthetic level, I think the pathway is looking quite nice! Come check it out!

Fascism in the Garden?

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...