ife is about who we aspire to become… the same with our gardens. For myself that includes both being a student and teacher of history and learning from the experience. Something I’ve been asked to do as a member of the Hillbilly Garden Club here in Springfield is to define my favorite native perennial flower for every month of the year. I was asked a few weeks ago to compile the entire twelve months for publication in our yearbook. It is the first week of February, but it is never too early to think about planting perennials. More on that later, but it’s good to think about design, structure, and new beginnings. (I’ve submitted my list)
Okay you want to plant some native perennials but where do you put them and how do they contribute to the natural flow of your living space that includes your yard and garden. The most important thing is a vision of the finished product that will change over time. I like to think of the gardens of Monet and where impressionistic painting takes us as to what might be possible. My first trip to Washington DC in 1977 for the National College Young Democrats convention many years ago, included a visit to the National Gallery of Art and seeing the paintings of Claude Monet. The colors, design, and impressionistic impact on the use of garden design left a lasting impression. I bought several prints… they still hang in my living room more than thirty years later.
It’s that dualism thing again with both structure and being open to change that gives us the harmony that plants and our efforts gives or provides us. Also, what I will be referring to a lot as fung shui and balance and how garden design, type of plants, color, and size, contribute to what we hope to accomplish. We do not just plant flowers and create a living space for creatures, animals etc., we are creating and enhancing the world in which we live acknowledging our role with our design, the structure we create, and what and how we grow… What is the impression we leave for others to define for themselves.
It is this how we grow that might be referred to as getting started that seems to elude us. The task often seems so big we fail to take the first step. If there is a secret, or maybe it was until now… is two things we’ll begin exploring tomorrow.
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