A Garden Life

We moved to Burlington, North Carolina ten years ago. The yard of the midcentury ranch house we purchased was a blank slate with only two trees in an expansive front yard to begin a methodical garden layout design. I have a propensity to procrastinate with creative challenges, in part because I know what quality looks like. Gardening and horticulture served as an escape where I could play without regard to doing things the “right” or “wrong” way. I would simply create landscape feature, or a plant bed, and then interact with it over the following seasons, watch how the plants fizzled or flourished, observed what worked and what didn’t, and then revise the design according to what might improve it functionally or aesthetically; usually both.

I found this process so enjoyable that I realized that I could create an evironment that entirely reflects my aesthetic preferences; that changes or remains the same through each season, that has cycles of color or consistent color, and that is alive and has an innate growth potential that eventually alters the microclimate and the flora and fauna that will inhabit it.