Our favorite garden accessory is our hypertufa birdbath. I always wanted a vessel with a wide shallow basin instead of the two-piece pottery ones you see for sale everywhere. Regular birdbaths served us well enough, but after a succession of broken and cracked tops, we wanted a better solution.
My friend showed me her hypertufa birdbath and I was sold. She was even kind enough to lend me her mold, a snow saucer! I’m indebted to her for sharing her creativity with me, and now I’m passing her secret along to you.
Making art from the garden, whether it’s crafts like wreaths and dried arrangements, painting “en plein air” or drawing botanical sketches, it’s always fun and a great way to preserve garden memories.
I want to stress, you don’t need lots of talent to do this. Art can be enjoyable no matter what your level of artistic acumen. The idea is to try a new fun activity with the breeze in your hair. Even doodles or sketches in a writing journal count. Capture some flowering trees in spring, paint an Adirondack chair among the daylilies, draw a vase of daisies; they all make fine subjects.
I’m sure you visit gardens where as soon as you set foot in them, you make a connection of some kind. The setting might evoke solitude, or playfulness, an easy familiarity, an invitation to bask in nature. Your mood lifts. In that moment, it’s the place you want to be.
It may have an atmosphere that is hard to describe; yet you identify with it in some way. Whether your reaction is deeply personal or widely shared with others, you feel affirmed and– pardon the pun– grounded. It can make you feel energetic, contemplative, nostalgic, sombre, or uplifted. It may trigger memories. Sometimes it is sheer beauty that captures our imagination.
Longwood Gardens Meadow on a September morning
In the context of the greater landscape, this elusive quality is best described assense of place. Battlefields and places of tragedy have it, of course. So do ancient ruins, natural wonders and world heritage sites. Urban landscapes can have such places too, with small parks and mere courtyards acting like little oases of refuge. The best private gardens are no different, and you can create one.
