A UNIFYING IDEA gives the garden a sense of cohesiveness and directs nearly all decisions, such as garden style and plant selection.
But how do you find that unifying idea, the overarching plan, the one BIG VISION? Anything can provide inspiration. For us, it arose from 4 places: a landscape, a beautiful pic, a master and a poem.
A Landscape
Mountains and Canyons
Rivers and Banks
We wanted a design that reflects the beauty of Colorado with its ever-present mountains, where we dip our toes in its cool mountain streams and lose ourselves its ever-varied undulations.
Walking through the garden, you see the undulations in height, as Joe Pye Weed and veronicastrum reach for the skies.
And the rivers of lavender or Mexican feather grass flow through the tall banks of amsonia, baptisia and hyssop.
The front gardens with their profusion of purple and yellow blooms, transport us once again to the high meadows of Crested Butte.
And nestled between the house and studio, we remember peaceful July afternoons in Allenspark surrounded by aspen and columbine.
Everything saying over & over
this is home
A Beautiful Pic
Photo from Planting: A New Perspective by Piet Oudolf & Noel Kingsbury.
Sometimes all it takes is one picture to fall in love.
Look at the wild profusion of it all: the plants intermingling, the different shapes – simply delicious!
♥
It didn’t matter that our land looked like this:
“Yes, yes, we know its a big project,” we said to the doubters
but with the excitement of new love, we had NO IDEA the number of hours
and tears (and cuss words) and sleepless nights involved.
And it didn’t matter.
The heart is in love and knows no other way but forward
A Master
The Inspiration of Piet Oudolf
Dutch designer of the Lurie Garden in Chicago
Sometimes a casual, “There’s a movie showing tonight that you might like,” drops the perfect seed.
The movie was “5 Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf”
It was interesting…and opened a window to see how brown plants in the middle of winter can be beautiful
…but little more
…until the seed grew
18 months later, we flew to Chicago to see his Lurie Garden project and spent 3 full days piecing together,
“What IS IT that makes this so beautiful?”
The longer we spent, the more it revealed
in a seemingly endless deepening.
That’s the kind of garden we wanted to create.
A Poem
The Plum Trees
by Mary Oliver
This is one of 113 (and counting) poems we’ve memorized. We’ve spent many Sunday afternoons hiking and learning poems together.
When we can’t sleep and the worries of the world intrude, the words of Mary Oliver, David Whyte, John O’Donahue, Rumi and other favs remind us of beauty and heartache and all things worth remembering.
With the Colorado landscape of mountains and rivers, we naturally returned to Mary’s line about the 5 rivers:
“Such richness flowing through the branches of summer and into the body, carried inward on the 5 rivers.”
This is the invitation at the center of Mary’s work. When worried or critical thoughts take over…or we are swallowed up by grief…or run ragged by all there is to do:
Go into the garden and open your 5 senses, like a plum tree rooted deep in the earth. Spread your branches and take in nourishment. Hear the distant cry of the red-tailed hawk. Feel the breeze on your cheeks. Run your hands through the soft grass. Smell the intoxicating blooms of Mockorange. Feel the spicy tang of nasturium flower on your tongue.
Take 10 minutes…or 30 seconds and feel what happens. As Mary says, “the only way to tempt happiness into your mind is by taking it into the body first, like small wild plums.”
This is the reminder we need at the core of our garden. Plus, it recalls Piet Oudolf’s Salvia River at the Lurie and the impact of such long drifts.
Our design had the perfect name: The 5 Rivers
As you wander, look for the 5 rivers of Lavender, Allium, Betony, Salvia and Grass. Notice how the plants surrounding them provide the banks of the river. And how the tallest plants rise above it all, echoing the Colorado Rocky Mountains in the background. Then, drop all thought…and FEEL.