A Garden will Tell a Story

A garden will tell a story. And you will get a different story depending on how much time you care to spend “hearing” it. If you only have a bit of time a story may describe the color of a flower, the height and spread of a tree, or an impression on the grass where the kids had laid to look up at the clouds. And that in itself can be a pleasing story. But….if you take a little more time to really observe, to really examine a garden you will hear a whole different story.

If you were to look closely at one plant, a rose, for instance, you might notice that the sun and shade patterns are playing a little game of tag across the whole rose garden. You might become fascinated by how the last few raindrops on the petals remind you of seed pearls adding just the right touch of embellishment. Then, an industrious honeybee stops long enough to do his crazy little dance in the center of the rose, whirling about the stamens picking up a few pollen grains before he sambas off. You might focus on the color—the pink on the petals have that same crushed velvet color as the dress you wore to prom. Which, in turn, might draw you to a memory even further back, back when you were younger still…You close your eyes, and inhale deeply smelling that berry-licious fragrance, and it settles somewhere deep inside you of a time (not really so long ago) of you as a young child sitting in your grandma’s garden.

Gardens will do that to people. We are fascinated with the wildlife that visits, the unlimited colors and textures, the peace and tranquility and heady aromas that create memories in the young and refresh memories in the not so young.

The Gardens at Cantigny are over 40 years old—and still growing, evolving and changing. We can learn a lot by stopping to really look with an observant eye. A garden encompasses all those things that we are drawn to from a craving deep within us: earth, wind, sun, rain, wildlife and plant life.

With this blog, I hope to inspire your innate creativity with plants and the landscape they’re in as well as cultivating the desire within you to become a better grower of plants. Education via tips and examples will bridge the gap to get you where you hope to be as a gardening soul.

I hope you’ll join me as we go for a walk through the gardens. I’ll tell a few stories and I hope you will too!