Making Gardens

Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade.

Rudyard Kipling

Enclosure

The word garden comes from the same root as the word geard, which meant an enclosure or garden.

Obey the Givens

Ninety percent of all "Designs" are "Givens" - Aspects that are determined by the nature of the site, the materials, and the climate - to name just a few.
"Given" aspects of design must simply be obeyed - water does not flow uphill, rocks fall over when not positioned properly, plants die when they are not planted in the right place.

Garden Art of War

A garden can be a retreat.
Or it can be a strategic withdrawal.
It might equally be an attack.

Study to Dig

Dirty fingernails are not the only requirement for growing plants. One must be as willing to study as so dig, for a knowledge of plants is acquired as much from books as from experience

Elizabeth Lawrence

Flower or Weed

The difference between a flower and a weed is a judgement

Wary but not Relinquished

It is right to be wary of the power of colour, but that is no reason to relinquish it.

Simplify

Our life is frittered away by details ... Simplify, simplify!

Henry David Thoreau

The Value of Contrast and Harmony

The value of the plant in the composition, like the value of colour in paintings, is always relative.
The plant is made valuable by the contrast or harmony created by its relation to the other plants.

Roberto Burle Marx

Politics of Gardening

Every garden is a political act.
Every plant is a political prisoner.