Monday, August 29, 2005

my garden


I have rarely taken pictures of any of my gardens. A picture on any given day misses out what happened the day before or what is about to happen. Gardens are fluid, not static. But I took this picture in late June, and it gives you an opportunity to see its layout -- this is the front yard, as we Americans call it.

And then there is the question of what you do with the finished photograph. Why store pictures of something that you are intimately acquainted with? Of course, later, I am surprised when I see a photograph and then I wish I had been motivated to take pictures.

And then there is the truth that when I am in the garden for very long, I will start gardening, something that is not conducive for picture taking.

I am very frustrated with my own garden photography, because I hate to frame anything in a garden with the camera. I frame when I layout plants in a design. To photograph is to loose that natural framing. It's very tricky to get the right amount of distance with a camera to show details on a plant while giving some context to where the plant is located. So this picture doesn't do justice to specific plants, their texture and interplay with their neighbors. On the other hand, you can see the overall layout or design.

The two perennial borders run parallel to the driveway. The giant sweetgum tree (and other trees you can't see) make much of the front yard a place of deep shade for most of the daylight hours. So I created a shade garden in the upper right hand corner. To the right is my one big square of grass yard -- you can't see it in this photo.

The garden is much fuller and higher now -- and as I said earlier, somewhat spent. I shot this through an upstairs window, and I see now that the screen has made for a wavy look. Sorry about that.

3 comments:

Jane Ellen+ said...

Despite your hesitations, I'm glad you took the picture to share. It's lovely-- thank you!

Anonymous said...

Lovely! I too am glad to see the pics.

I was thinking about what you wrote about not taking pics because gardens are not static. On one level, that makes a lot of sense to me.

But then for some weird reason I started thinking about Kierkegaard's writing on faith, and wondered if whenever we stop to look at our gardens--whether through writing, pictures, or simply memory, we don't freeze it?

How are you fairing with Katrina? Are you getting a lot of rain?

Don said...

Jane Ellen -- thank you.

River Stone -- we all have different gifts, passions, abilities. I am a klutz with so many things, but gardening comes easy for me. Thanks for your encouragement.

Rob -- I think one of the weirder aspects of being human is this phenomenon of living through time.

The rain started this morning and it hss continued all day, mostly gentle and dirgelike.