Dan's Papers - November 23, 2007 - The Garden At Rock Cottage

I consider myself lucky to spend a lot of time visiting gardens. The experience is as compelling to me as visiting a museum. There is something in every garden I see that inspires, offers insights, and provides some link to what I value in the world. It may also interpret the gardener's view of life. What a rewarding experience gardens provide. Others, I know, feel the same way, because the United States spent more than $48 billion on lawn and landscape services this year.

It does not matter if the garden is a formal one, or informal - I always find something that lifts my spirits, sparks an interest, and provides a deep, spiritual communication.

Over time, I have learned there are four types of gardens: intimate, expansive, natural and manicured. Each has its own appeal and interest, and evokes a different set of feelings.

When I think of intimate gardens, for example, I am immediately reminded of those gardens that have hidden areas of discovery. These gardens provide the same sense of discovery as does a hidden cove on a desert island. The feeling these gardens give is one of discovery, of a commune with nature that is singular and personal. An intimate garden is more than a seat or terrace surrounded by greenery. Intimacy comes when garden elements coalesce into a harmonious composition. These elements include well-proportioned spaces, a comfortable sense of enclosure, and captivating plants. Perhaps the most important element is that intimate gardens depict the gardener's relationship with his surroundings. No garden, regardless of how well designed, will feel intimate if it does not capture the changing, day-to-day rhythms that take place in shifting light patterns and the changing of seasons.

Expansive gardens are transporting. These gardens provide a sense of vastness and often have a consistent baseline composition against which they achieve their effect. Golf courses are a perfect example, with their rolling lawns. (Despite the fact that we make the excuse of playing a game on them, golf courses are simply an opportunity to commune with people in a natural setting.) Estates and parks also provide this sense with their vast lands, but so do gardens with sweeping lawns and vistas. I am reminded of the Dorothy Olmeda museum in Mexico City, with its vast lawns punctuated with specimen trees and plants. The sense of proportion in expansive gardens is always monumental against miniscule. The great gardens of Brandenburg might be the quintessential example. However, smaller properties can also capture this sense of expanse if they have been proportioned to show contrasts, use longer, straight lines or curvilinear areas that provide a sense of infinity.

Of course, gardens that have a sense of naturalness are always compelling. I enjoy the mystery and sense of discovery when walking along a hidden path or dirt road. Nature provides a sense of balance that must be admired, because it shows the natural competitiveness of plants for one another. Witnessing how things come together in a dense undergrowth, or naturally accommodate a shady area, is intriguing. Gardens that simulate nature are a complex design that catch the visitor up in the natural course of things. Gardeners who simulate nature are often great observers of the nature of things and how they come together. The random dispersal of a handful of seeds that don't really belong can do much to create this effect.

I have always been in awe of the manicured garden. Such gardens are often trimmed and forced to within an inch of existence. They convey the mastery of man over nature. Almost nothing compares with a stroll through Versailles, or through some of the highly structured Zen gardens in Asia. The idea of organizing a garden palate as a formal design has long been debated. These gardens may gain their power and beauty by displaying single species repeating combinations of selected plants, or by simply pruning shapes and styles to create an effect. Consider the great maze gardens of England, or Hampton Court, or even the rose garden at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton that so well displays the theme of roses. It is as if the gardener involved had mastered nature to convey an interpretation of the perfection of existence.

Regardless of type - I am drawn to every garden and wooded area as a unique site in which to experience the world. Add in a bird or cat, a dog or fox, and there is a sense of unity that cannot be denied.

You can contact Lance Brilliantine with any questions or comments at GardenLance@yahoo.com.