The way you explain it, "Distill and Amplify" sounds like a good design principle.
I wish I could see the 'Ellsworth Kelly at 100' exhibition. I'm not familiar with his photographs, but I love the ones on the exhibition website you've linked to.
I once spent a day at the Getty Center and the gardens there. A much smaller site and a more formal garden. Really, another work of art (or several). That seems to have been the intention, anyway. I would have preferred an open meadow. It would have been nice to have had a break and a breather from the surrounding Los Angeles traffic without, as is the case there, the heavy hand of controlled and controlling landscape design.
For all the years I spent living in MD, I'm ashamed to say I didn't even know about this amazing place. Since moving north, I've found that the concepts of landscape and garden are long-term notions wrapped around keen observation and a pocketful of skills. I've found that the plants of the north- muchlike the south have ways of insisting on their place. Only the wisest or most idiotic can truly tame how a wild landscape thrives and/or expands (with either a light touch or a very big, heavy boot). And I, the least wise and often idiotic 'gardener' feel content to sit back and watch which plants are enjoying their place while others seems to spit it out like a bad taste. My ideal garden would be where my thoughtful additions become wonderfully chaotic and beyond (my) control. And of course, I am living in a clearing in the woods w/ verge rather than a meadow. Mosses are the things that thrive. I often think of the wonderful book The Signature Of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Funny. 2 things just came to mind: Maude 'stealing' the city tree to save it from urban demise, and then the fact that I tend to regard any plant which seems to truly need me as ridiculous and obviously misplaced. To me, sustainable landscape implies that I (or any human) have nothing to do with it other than to marvel and to keep my hands and intentions off ; ) I do understand the need to help rebuilt 'scapes' (water, woodland, marsh, land, etc), but I also believe Mother Nature will always have a grip on all that- as well as the upper hand.
Well put, Eliza. Sometimes, the best thing we humans can do is get out of the way and let Mother Nature heal. If we were brutally honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that it's been a rather abusive relationship. She needs protection. We need to be in therapy.
Interesting to see your pictures of the meadows at a different time of year. I went there in the fall with a group of WildOnes to collect seed in the fall (our effort was sanctioned), and I brought home a mix and just threw it out into a space in my garden that had been stripped bare when a tree company cleared some trees that had come down in a storm, using heavy equipment. What fun it was to see what appeared the next spring, and I'm now looking forward to seeing my "meadow" mature.
The way you explain it, "Distill and Amplify" sounds like a good design principle.
I wish I could see the 'Ellsworth Kelly at 100' exhibition. I'm not familiar with his photographs, but I love the ones on the exhibition website you've linked to.
I once spent a day at the Getty Center and the gardens there. A much smaller site and a more formal garden. Really, another work of art (or several). That seems to have been the intention, anyway. I would have preferred an open meadow. It would have been nice to have had a break and a breather from the surrounding Los Angeles traffic without, as is the case there, the heavy hand of controlled and controlling landscape design.
For all the years I spent living in MD, I'm ashamed to say I didn't even know about this amazing place. Since moving north, I've found that the concepts of landscape and garden are long-term notions wrapped around keen observation and a pocketful of skills. I've found that the plants of the north- muchlike the south have ways of insisting on their place. Only the wisest or most idiotic can truly tame how a wild landscape thrives and/or expands (with either a light touch or a very big, heavy boot). And I, the least wise and often idiotic 'gardener' feel content to sit back and watch which plants are enjoying their place while others seems to spit it out like a bad taste. My ideal garden would be where my thoughtful additions become wonderfully chaotic and beyond (my) control. And of course, I am living in a clearing in the woods w/ verge rather than a meadow. Mosses are the things that thrive. I often think of the wonderful book The Signature Of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert.
I think you've just poetically described a sustainable landscape.
Funny. 2 things just came to mind: Maude 'stealing' the city tree to save it from urban demise, and then the fact that I tend to regard any plant which seems to truly need me as ridiculous and obviously misplaced. To me, sustainable landscape implies that I (or any human) have nothing to do with it other than to marvel and to keep my hands and intentions off ; ) I do understand the need to help rebuilt 'scapes' (water, woodland, marsh, land, etc), but I also believe Mother Nature will always have a grip on all that- as well as the upper hand.
Well put, Eliza. Sometimes, the best thing we humans can do is get out of the way and let Mother Nature heal. If we were brutally honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that it's been a rather abusive relationship. She needs protection. We need to be in therapy.
Beautifully written, Lolly! Plus - I love Glenstone! I’m due for a return visit.
What an interesting overview! I've not been, but will try to go before the heat gets oppressive.
I’m going on June 15! Perfectly timed to stay for lunch and join the 1 pm daily garden tour :)
Enjoy! You'll recognize a lot of the flora. ;)
Interesting to see your pictures of the meadows at a different time of year. I went there in the fall with a group of WildOnes to collect seed in the fall (our effort was sanctioned), and I brought home a mix and just threw it out into a space in my garden that had been stripped bare when a tree company cleared some trees that had come down in a storm, using heavy equipment. What fun it was to see what appeared the next spring, and I'm now looking forward to seeing my "meadow" mature.
Very cool that you got to collect and sow those seeds. I had only ever been there in the fall, myself. The feel is quite different in late spring!