tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post3175850875038002082..comments2024-03-07T10:06:13.620-05:00Comments on View from Federal Twist: Rain, rainJames Goldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12718058779971621920noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-48239335911796053512012-06-09T11:50:32.830-04:002012-06-09T11:50:32.830-04:00Ross,
I wish I could discuss your comment; I can ...Ross,<br /><br />I wish I could discuss your comment; I can read it in different ways, so I'm not sure of your meaning. You raise intriguing questions. I'll take your word "flowers" and read its meaning as perennials--the plant with reference to all attributes: form, structure, texture, meaning visual texture of the plant as well as the surface texture, color, and reflective qualities of its foliage--and so on. But then I don't understand whether you mean plants (flowers) individually, or the use of non-native species, in many cases from far distant lands. So your first paragraph raises so many questions, I feel I could devote an essay to questions of its meaning alone. Please help me here, if you're in internet range.<br /><br />As to demarcation between nature and culture, has any garden ever not been artificial? Aren't all gardens cultural constructs? I remember once hearing Rick Darke say all landscapes are cultural landscapes. Is there a nature that isn't seen through and formed by culture? To answer your question--as gardeners do we separate ourselves from nature? My answer is yes, emphatically. You point to a paradox, as I read your words--we come from "nature" and in some sense want to return to "nature." But I don't want my garden to BE nature. I may as well go into the woods, sit in a yoga position, and meditate.<br /><br />"To philosophize is to learn how to die." I certainly resonate to that, agree wholeheartedly in some undefined, ineffable way. As I sit looking at the play of changing sunlight over the now tall Filipendula, with pinking flower umbels and sharp, angular foliage like stained glass catching the light, contrasting against the dark woods, my feeling is one of sensuous pleasure, and as I continue to look, perhaps contemplation. With discipline perhaps I could stop the circling thoughts and just be. I have to take it for what it is, when it comes, out of my control, just as the changing light is not in my control. <br /><br />"A release from the self ... a letting go"? I'd like to think about that.<br /><br />We really should have that gardening dinner some day when you return.James Goldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12718058779971621920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-55860798407124697802012-05-30T22:54:34.502-04:002012-05-30T22:54:34.502-04:00A few weeks ago I thought we were headed for droug...A few weeks ago I thought we were headed for drought, then the rain started. I fear, where you are, the rains will not come.James Goldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12718058779971621920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-17934628635393754272012-05-30T22:50:46.832-04:002012-05-30T22:50:46.832-04:00I'm posting this for Ross Hamilton, who couldn...I'm posting this for Ross Hamilton, who couldn't post this comment and forwarded it by email:<br /><br />Hello James, <br /><br />It's a lovely garden, a glade, green and lush, a secret. Your garden reminds me of my past and present allegiance to the world of flowers, and how flowers are now less natural than artificial. It is curious, in the history of landscape, the role that flowers play in making nature into art. <br /><br />I would say that you (with others) garden in a new way -- a way that leads not back to nature, but to a space in which the demarcation between nature and culture is as "foggy" as the blur of your early summer grasses. I would suggest, since your post invites analysis, that you continue to embrace the mess your garden reveals so.. beautifully (a loaded term). Your garden poses the curious question: as gardeners, do we separate ourselves from nature, even as our "love" of nature pushes us to garden? <br /><br />Think of how Socrates and the stoics advocated indifference. (Your hemlock brought him to mind). They advanced as you may know a practice of "spiritual exercises" that helped people let go of their lived concerns and accept death (to philosophize is to learn how to die, Montaigne wrote, following Sextus). As an object of contemplation, your garden suggests to me a release from the self. It's a letting go. <br /><br />From this perspective, then, the Rosenquist sculpture might in fact be a block, rather than a solution.James Goldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12718058779971621920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-48917130934482747942012-05-28T22:38:40.144-04:002012-05-28T22:38:40.144-04:00All those lush shades of green are balm to my eyes...All those lush shades of green are balm to my eyes -- I'm trying to stay positive about no rain for six months!Denisehttp://agrowingobsession.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-57617885423252109012012-05-28T13:07:06.326-04:002012-05-28T13:07:06.326-04:00I'll have to think about that one myself, Kerr...I'll have to think about that one myself, Kerry. I have friends who, it appears, are sailing around the world. They just spent a week hiking the Milford Track in Fjordland. Anywhere near you? Reports are that they are now in Fiji.James Goldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12718058779971621920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-75922811975122381462012-05-28T13:01:47.938-04:002012-05-28T13:01:47.938-04:00Yes, Rob, I worked my way through something in the...Yes, Rob, I worked my way through something in the narrative and feel better now. You must be a very empathic person to be able to read my moods so easily. Abundance, yes ... abundance is certainly what my garden is about. One more virtue of bracken. It has great color in the autumn.James Goldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12718058779971621920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-58841150728342090952012-05-27T16:36:37.347-04:002012-05-27T16:36:37.347-04:00The sculpture and the oyster and pearl idea is qui...The sculpture and the oyster and pearl idea is quite striking. I will be thinking about that one and probably end up strolling about thinking of how I can initiate an landscape 'pearl'. Something incongruent becoming something that adds - KerryThe Field of Goldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00198031456340592151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-87689156190054886712012-05-27T14:26:12.438-04:002012-05-27T14:26:12.438-04:00Thank you. I suppose all the rain has got me feeli...Thank you. I suppose all the rain has got me feeling blue. The "inherent qualities" of the plants will be much more visible in about three weeks. By then, they'll be showing their almost mature forms.James Goldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12718058779971621920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-25342972745741099982012-05-27T14:17:47.072-04:002012-05-27T14:17:47.072-04:00Not constructed. That's not what I'm looki...Not constructed. That's not what I'm looking for. The Brooklyn garden has that look because it has to fit into a little rectangle. I think that's what you're referring to. I think I want the garden to talk to me, to stimulate thought. It's designed on sustainable principles, but I definitely don't want it to lecture me on sustainability (a devalued word I don't like at all). Marc's sculpture is in a sense "nongarden." sort of like the impurity that causes an oyster to form a pearl (not sure that metaphor works).<br /><br />As I think more on it, the Brooklyn garden could be naturalistic, even within the bounds of that rectangle. I made a choice to have a very different kind of garden there. So I guess you got me, though I'm not sure the word constructed is what I think about it. Thanks. You've got me thinking and questioning myself.James Goldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12718058779971621920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-66655357945200134782012-05-27T10:18:14.127-04:002012-05-27T10:18:14.127-04:00James yer in full flow.
So you're bored with ...James yer in full flow.<br /><br />So you're bored with all this, but I wonder, after adding the narrative do you see things differently, re-freshed? <br /><br />I like all the tall stuff. I like abondance. Watch the bracken by the way, It reaches out, like tendrils slowly ensnaring you, go home after dark. I think it gets a bad rap as it omits a natural herbicide, makes it difficult to grow anything amongst it, but it's been here for many millenia, unchanged, survival of the fittest, definitely smacks of pre-history.<br /><br />It gets my vote.Rob (ourfrenchgarden)https://www.blogger.com/profile/05087218232138304239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-43755150578636670622012-05-27T10:04:28.514-04:002012-05-27T10:04:28.514-04:00Emily,
Yes, more irises is one thing I could use ...Emily,<br /><br />Yes, more irises is one thing I could use at this dull time of year. I do have a few camassias around the pond and have thought I should buy them by the hundreds. They do like the wet. But like the irises, they're rather ephemeral. Interesting you suggest Rodgersias. I just got four Rodgersia podophylla Braunlab, which I had intended for Brooklyn. I love podophylla's leaf shape. Maybe I should consider them for Federal Twist instead.<br /><br />I think part of the problem of my mood is that my garden has gotten so large I have to spend more time maintaining it than enjoying it. Or perhaps it's because we've just been through a construction project in Brooklyn, I'm also trying to make a new garden there (and every day I take to cut out tree roots and plant, it rains!), and even at FT when I get help, it rains! Like today.<br /><br />Thanks for the advice. I agree with it all.James Goldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12718058779971621920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-90280937012008338682012-05-27T06:59:16.967-04:002012-05-27T06:59:16.967-04:00A truly beautiful garden and good to see an altern...A truly beautiful garden and good to see an alternative to the highly stylized designs currently prevalent. Combining seasonal interest and opportunities for wildlife with an appreciation for the inherent qualities of each plant.<br /><br />I particularly like the sense of atmosphere (albeit perceived via a photograph)suggesting tranquility, security, contemplation, comfort and a reconnection with nature.<br /><br />Typing this on a hot, late spring morning your garden looks so appealing ...Isabelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05174939595077176727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-56420054429308664102012-05-27T04:19:56.069-04:002012-05-27T04:19:56.069-04:00Bored ! - You are quite dissatisfied with somethin...Bored ! - You are quite dissatisfied with something. To me it seems a very natural garden. Very. Although carefully constructed, it does not look like that to me. (admittedly I am not a plantsman - more a landscape view person). Where you do make a positive comment it's about the Rosenquist sculpture - you express relief even. The sculpture is 'natural' but more 'constructed'.<br />Is it that you would prefer a garden that looks more constructed. And is that an essence of gardens.<br />Notable to me is how different your Brooklyn garden is. Very constructed and it's almost designed to look 'constructed'.The Field of Goldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00198031456340592151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20141337.post-19317764804712776302012-05-26T03:00:33.465-04:002012-05-26T03:00:33.465-04:00I think this garden is amazing--the scope, the con...I think this garden is amazing--the scope, the constraints you have chosen to embrace, the results. Maybe you feel "at ends" with the process because you are in-between garden-defining projects? You do seem much more satisfied with the richness and texture that your garden offers in Summer and Fall--maybe now is time to focus on adding a punch of Spring color/interest/structure--I know you've written about wanting to do that. Around here, we might plant a meadow with an ephemeral like Camassia--not sure if it would work for you, but it is cold and wet tolerant, naturalizes well, and harmonizes with a meadow setting.<br /><br />On another topic--you might consider Rodgersia to replace the dry petasites--same big look and it seems they require much less water (at least, that was the case in my old garden).<br /><br />--EmilySammie070502https://www.blogger.com/profile/07840565341523291549noreply@blogger.com