Every morning I walk into the garden to let the chickens into their run; to do this I have to walk through a part of the garden. Today, I stopped in my tracks, in the middle of a particular section, which is my favourite part. I wasn’t thinking about the garden, or the plants, but in a rain-washed sky, they still managed to grab my attention somehow. This small area of gravelled path, herbs and perennials, just demanded my awareness.
There used to be nothing here but a bit of hard-standing and grass, but two years ago I excavated some of this and created the borders; the only difference is the plants! This is what I would call the creation of an intangible element, where the essence of something is somehow holistic, giving rise to an overall, well, awareness, within a space of something greater. What I can’t quite get over, is that somehow, the plants DEMANDED my attention…
So I can’t quite define the overall feeling I’m getting from this space; if it is holistic, then the whole is, of course, greater than the sum of it’s parts. There are some great “parts” in there though, and I guess this is what makes the art of gardening. So I have some English lavenders, broad leaved sage (makes a low mound 6ft wide with no flowers), Perovskia, Verbina, Carex, Sea Lavender and Kale, Echinacia, Fennel, Rosmary Fota Blue etc, etc. All beautiful plants as individuals; collectively, they obviously add up to something else. The power of plants to make our lives feel better…