Friday, October 28, 2011

Time in a Bottle

What time is it in your garden?  No, that's not a trick question.  It's a design question.  If you could miniaturize your garden to fit into a bottle, what time would your garden represent?


Gardens aren't generally designed for a specific time frame.  Plants are timeless.  But when I am thinking of a new garden area, it helps the garden's cohesiveness if I focus on a time in my mind.  The time is a wide range, and definitely not historically correct.  It's certainly not a specific garden design era.  But it's what's right in my imagination.  And that helps me to identify what look is right for my garden, and what may not be.


I like to think that my garden would represent a time of long ago.  A time of ages past, when people had time to relax, wander the garden, and delight in its senses.  I want my garden to be evocative of a gentler age.  When ladies walked with parasols, and gentlemen took their arms.  When secret meetings took place behind a rose bush.  When children played outside, and used their imagination.


My dream is to have a garden that tells people to slow down, take their time, smell the roses, delight in the little things, and to linger.


I think the roses impart a sense of romance.  Scents silently weave a magic spell.  Statues could be at home in another era.  Embellishments on benches help achieve this look, too.  All little things, but I hope as a whole they make the garden flow.


What about your garden?  Is it futuristic?  From the wild, wild, west?  The Ming dynasty?  The Roman Empire?  Or maybe your garden is a wonderland of mystical beings, in a time not measured by man.  Do you think of a specific time/place when designing your garden?  Tell me, what time is it in your garden?

29 comments:

  1. Holley, what a thought-provoking post, and I love the statue of the lady leaning into the roses, oh, that's a beauty!

    I would love to have a garden like yours; your roses are exquisite and I swear I can smell their sweet perfume all the way to Wisconsin. I admire your garden so very much. And wait with great anticipation for your new project to be completed, too. That will be Amazing!

    I enjoyed your post about Easter and Halloween, too, around here, it can be snowing for both of those days. Wait, around here, it can be snowing from October to May....with a handful of 'turn on the air conditioner, would you?' thrown in-between.

    And my garden style leans to the Stone Age. :-)

    Have a great weekend!

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  2. Roses are so classic to me. I always enjoy a rose garden. I can't decide which is my favorite garden if I were to pick one specific style. I like the desert look, I like the native Texas look, I like the formal look with roses, azaleas, agapanthus and boxwoods. I think what I like most of all is color. When I lived in Houston I had three different gardens- one solid rose bushes all different and it was superb, one I called my "Austin bed" with Plumbago, Caesalpinia, Tecoma and Salvia in it and it was a free flowing bed of color and I loved it and then I had a little cactus side with yuccas thrown in there as well. Now that we have a nursery I admit I do very little at home. I just plant the beds here.
    I agree- roses and romance. Thought provoking post. =)

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  3. Beautiful post! I love the part about kids using their imagination! Secret meetings in the rose bush! Oh yeah! That is what I am going for in my garden. I hadn't thought of a time I am going for but I do know that I am trying to make it a wonderful place for kids and a mommy to spend time in! Great post and beautiful images as always!

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  4. What a great question. Since the loft garden is just beginning, your question has given me pause in defining my garden. I have (not intentionally) created themes due to the climate in each area but I think each area does have a gardening timeline. One seems modern with the xeric landscape and one more traditional with the cedar mulch and roses. I will keep this question in mind for future construction in the loft garden. Thank you.

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  5. Not sure what the answer to your question, that is something for me to think about. Your garden is very pretty!

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  6. I would love to have a garden like yours. It does show a sense of bygone days of times when people took their time to enjoy their surroundings and a slower pace. I adore the sculptures you have in your garden.
    Mine must be helter skelter. LOL!

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  7. Karen - October to May. Sounds like a long winter, to me. Yes, I think your garden is "stone age"! LOL Actually, I am amazed at all you have created. It is beautiful.

    kacky - I like all styles, too. That's why I have to narrow it down. Otherwise, I wouldn't know where to start! It must be fun to have a nursery to play in!

    Kelsey - I was reading a garden design book today and they had a wonderful children's garden. Places for butterflies, soft plants to plant, lots of blooms and flowers for picking, etc. Fun!

    Tufa Girl - I love spiky plants with modern sculpture. Gravel path. Clean and sparse. I agree that each garden can have its own feel. Of course, a lot of that has to do with the style of furnishings, etc.

    garden at nina place - I have to narrow my options down, or I would never make up my mind. This was just the type of garden I was most attracted to, on a daily basis.

    Lona - Helter skelter - no way! Your garden is beautiful. I appreciate that you think my garden has the feel that I want it to.

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  8. Yours looks lovely. As for me, I just plant for what I like and don't think of any style while doing so, although probably as close to a cottage garden and formal garden combined. I know very different from one another yet works for me.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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  9. Your garden does indeed look gorgeous. Ours, if I am to be perfectly honest would be seen as being a bit retro. You are such a romantic, other things happen behind the bushes in this part of the world. I must go and add a picture of your garden and a link to your blog on my (Your Gardens) page, please let me know if you would want me to remove it. alistair.

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  10. Hi Holley, if you do want me to add your blog you would have to send me one of your garden pictures as an email attachment. alistair

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  11. What a great question. I guess I never looked at the time I am working on but as I look at what I have done and am working on I guess I may have had a time in mind all along. I live in a log home more or less set in the middle of the woods with just a small yard surrounding the house. Every direction you look you see woods. I am on the side of the mountain so one garden serves a purpose of stopping erosion and is all low growing and sprawling shrubs. Everything is outlined with natural stone which I have in abundance. Old tree roots, stumps etc. are the heart of my garden art. If you have ever read any of the folklore about the fairies in the woods that children used to take their crumbs to I have that kind of a fantasy for an area I am developing in a partially cleared wooded area. It will be a long time before I complete it as I try to live off the land as much as possible so my vegetable garden takes priority and a lot of my time from frost to frost.

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  12. HolleyG - never really thought about the time period for my garden plans. But now that you ask I have to say present time. Or is that a cop out? But then again as I think some more, the perennial bed is inspired by colonial times. The rest by nature itself which is timeless. Oh, why ask such hard questions? I give up! LOL

    Glad to see my friend Wilderness posting here. I got her into blogging. We are friends from a gardening conversation site at ABY/Birds and Blooms.http://community.birdsandblooms.com/groups/advice/forum/default.aspx

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  13. Great post. I love to look at your garden--amazing pics. It is so classic and timeless, and very much like the garden that Barbara planted here, the one I now tend. And I admire anyone who can take care of roses--not my strength. But if I could spend time in any garden, it would one like yours, a formal, yet welcoming space.

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  14. Jennifer@threedogsinagarden
    Hi Holley, I agree with Karen. This is a very though provoking post. I would definitely have to do some thinking to flush out what time or mood I am hoping to convey in my garden. I do think your garden has the romantic feeling of an era when woman strolled through a garden with a parasol.

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  15. Holly, what a lovely post. Your garden has such style - I love your statues, the pots, the bench, the water feature... You really are a very gifted garden designer, I am always in awe of your garden.

    I never considered "time" in my garden. I like "old fashioned" in the garden but never thought about time or era when planning anything in my garden. I need to givce that some serious thought.

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  16. Cher - Mine garden is kind of like that, too. I love formal elements, but try to throw in as much 'cottage gardening' as I can to loosen it up a bit. I think the combination works well.

    Alistair - What I love about your garden is plant placement. Everything seems so picture perfect. I would be honored for you to include my blog on your page. I'll email you. Good to know the "No Right Click" feature really works!

    wilderness - What a wonderful vision. Like a gingerbread cottage in the woods. What a nice image. Your goal of living off the land is a lofty one. We have just started vegetable gardening, and it is harder than I realized to actually get produce! (We have deer and weed problems!)

    Marcia - Colonial times! How wonderful! Wilderness came here through your blog. I didn't even realize birds and blooms had a website!

    Jim - I'm so happy you find my garden welcoming. That is such a sweet compliment! The roses have to take care of themselves around here. Pruning is about the only thing I do to them that I don't other plants. And a bit more fertilizer. And adequate water. haha Well, really, they are no trouble!

    Jennifer - Oh, I hope my garden really does have that type of feel to it. I've always wanted that feel in my garden, but was never sure if I was achieving it or not.

    GardeningBlog - I've always been a bit interested in older time periods. Even when I was a child. I must have been born in the wrong century! ;)

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  17. Holley I can see your garden harkening back to that time of parasols....what a wonderfully thought provoking post...mine is so eclectic I wouldn't be able to pinpoint it except I like to think of mine as free form, cottage and wild...

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  18. What a beautiful and thought-provoking post. Very clever, indeed! And your garden is truly gorgeous. I can imagine sipping lemonade in your garden on a warm spring afternoon...

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  19. Donna - A wild, free-form cottage garden. I love that description!

    Unknown - Sipping pink lemonade is something I try to do every summer in the garden. It takes me back to my childhood when we would drink pink lemonade every summer. A simple but delightful treat!

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  20. Many roses in the garden do seem to suggest a time. My garden does not fit a time reference. I really don't think about time in that respect while designing. I think more as a garden over and through time. This was a good post raising the question.

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  21. I don't know that I think about a time period so much as the type of garden I want. I suppose my gardening style is somewhere between English cottage garden and Japanese botanical. I love small flowering trees, neatly trimmed shrubs, and loads of bulbs and flowers. I even throw some vegetables into the mix now and again. I'll never achieve what you have done but I hope to get close. Take care, Freda

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  22. You pose an interesting question! What I have tried to evoke in my garden has changed over the years and in the different gardens I have "made." I don't have the strong back I had 30 years ago, so I let Nature rule. So here in my New England garden, it is a time of woods with dappled shade, pond plantings to encourage wild life and beds of favorite flowers, roses growing over fences and attempts at growing vegetables in raised beds..a Victory garden of sorts.

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  23. This is indeed thought-provoking. My garden definitely has separate zones--from wild forest, to landscaped front yard. So I guess it's more of a continuum. Your style of garden is my favorite, though. It must be spectacular in person!

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  24. Hmmm. I say, hmmmm. I have never thought about it this way. I'm going to say 1922. :)

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  25. GWGT - It may be a bit unusual to think of time while designing, but it really helps me.

    Jayne - A Victory garden! I love that. Very descriptive.

    PlantPostings - A continuum - how fun! As far as my garden goes, I do love it. But I think all gardens are special - they are created and maintained with love.

    Jess - 1922 - yes, I think your garden fits that time perfectly.

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  26. You have definitely succeed. I get that feeling every time I visit your garden blog.

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  27. Oh, thanks, Carol. What a sweet thing to say.

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  28. Your writing makes me so excited to dig in again. Part of our Reno will include an herb garden with a fountain, stones, an angel I hope and lots of wonderful days creating a spiritual place

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  29. I can hardly wait for you to start enjoying a garden again, too. It's such a pleasure, it's hard to be denied it for even a short while! I hope your garden becomes all that you dream.

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