Two minds in harmony with the land

The meadow project; Daniel and Michael are "plugging" in areas of planted vegetation between the wild grasses, hoping them to be strong enough to multiply and give more variation to the plant palette.

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to join some of the Seattle area bloggers on a visit to Daniel's and Michael's garden in Carnation, about half-an hours drive East from Seattle. Daniel Mount is a professional gardener and writer, who still finds time to keep a journal about his love to nature, plants and gardens on his sensitively written blog. Michael, his partner, did not seem to come second in either interest or knowledge, as we talked away while walking through their wild and beautiful farm and garden on 7 acres nestled into Carnation Marsh natural parkland. The serene and beautiful pictures I took are quite deceptive; Daniel and Michael told some colourful stories about the floods last winter, when several feet of swirling water covered the whole area, leaving paddling the only way of transportation from a place to another. Luckily, they did not till their land the autumn before the flood, which helped in keeping most of the topsoil in place, instead of being flushed away by the water masses.

K

The kitchen garden, at least 200 sqm of vegetables and flowers, against a backdrop of wetland trees. Daniel and Michael told that this is the driest summer they remember; luckily they can irrigate the plantings regularly as they have their own well to supply the water.
K
Winding paths lead to the forest beyond the garden, the trees forming a living cathedral of shady greenery.
K
Rosa 'Darwin's Enigma', an unusual, beautifully scented climber with elegant leaves, now planted against a grey, wooden fence by the property border.
KK

It was a wonderful afternoon, sitting under a beautiful, old cherry tree, talking to these interesting people and listening to their stories; Jean talking about the soil based colouring project she invented in Petra, Jordan, to help the women there to rediscover their cultural heritage; David sharing his beautifully coloured rhubarb juice; Petunia, Karen and Molly discussing plants and growing with a burning interest (and knowledge!). And of course, to get to meet Daniel and Michael, and share in their vision for their beautiful garden; the meadow project for adding variety to the existing, native vegetation and the unusual trees they have planted to replace the maturing alders in the long term (I felt a slight sting of jealousy at their trust in being able to see the results of their work)... Two minds and four able hands, working together in harmony with the land and the surrounding nature. Thank you, Daniel and Michael, it was truly lovely to visit you and your garden.

K

David and Molly walking through the winding paths in the wood, surrounded by both wild and planted varieties, like Polygonatums and Monardas on the right.

Shaggy tails and other thoughts

Poppy mallow, Callirhoe involucrata, is in full bloom at the Alpine Rock Garden in Bellevue Botanical Garden. This lovely carmine pink, trailing perennial flowers for months, from June to late autumn.

K

It seems that just like my garden, my blogging has come to some kind of a midsummer stutter, after a (relatively speaking) inspired winter and spring. Some of this had probably to do with my Finnish and Scandinavian roots: most activities there come to a halt when July arrives. After a long and cold winter, people traditionally worship the long days and white nights of the Nordic summer in a way unheard of in most other countries.

K

Despite of silence on my blog, two different articles have been brooding in my mind, both making me question my own relationship to both gardening and blogging. The first one was an article in Svenska Dagbladet, one of the biggest dailies in Sweden, about "trends within gardening", now published yearly by the Swedish Fashion Council, who's shareholders include all kinds of textile and clothing industry associations. So this council, that does not include any garden, gardening or plant related authorities or experts, thinks that it can tell us what is "in" and what is "out" in our gardens according to their trend sensitive minds, and about what kind of flowers colours and designer products we should choose to our gardens.

K

This year, they have come out with five different trends for the Swedish gardens: "romantic minimalism", which according to them combines 30's style pots and furniture with topiary and some natural touches; "the old-fashioned garden" combines full-blown romantic style plants and high-quality, antique accessories; "the exotic garden" in Mediterranean style (here they miss totally the current "Asian trend" with Buddha statues strewn between the fir trees to add to the serene feeling of the garden...); "the experimental garden", containing both veggie-growing and ecologically oriented gardens ("experimental"? Isn't growing your food one of the oldest things to do in a garden?) and last but not least, "the fairytale garden", where the owner gives free reign to his or her fantasies. Nothing new, basically; haven't we seen these "trends" happening in our gardens for a long time now? And are they really trends, or just a simplified summary of all possible directions that our gardens take?

K

Such shallow, superficial thinking, missing the whole point of gardening: a garden is the result of the "act" of gardening; which is both one's work and all the individual and personal thinking involved in the process of making, growing and maintaining gardens. Nothing that should be just bought off the shelf and changed as the latest trends move on. Of course, why bother, as no real gardener would ever seriously listen to these non-gardening trendsetters. But at the same time I feel sad that something that I love and appreciate so much is reduced to petty trends for visual effects and accessories, something to be followed in order to be "right", to adjust and fit in.

KK

Bears breeches, Acanthus spinosus, in the Entrance garden of Bellevue Botanical Garden.

K

The second article was published last Thursday in Financial Times, with title "Blogging and its shaggy tail". It was a response to a recent column in another newspaper (which I also read), about the over 133 million existing blogs of which over 95 percent had not been updated for the last 120 days (well, I'm still doing comparatively well here...). According to this writer, the majority of these bloggers have shifted to Facebook and Twitter instead, stating that many of these blogs were of no real consequence anyway. "Apart from a very small percentage [of blogs] which are informative, original or entertaining, they have little or no value. They are vanity publishing, only made feasible by the removal of costs".

K

Well, if he is right, being a blogger myself I would possibly be the last to admit it... I follow several, seriously worth-while blogs written by very personal contributors all around the world, and I think vanity publishing is not a big issue for garden blogs; most of them show clearly the writers deep love to the act of gardening, to plants and to gardens, together with a desire to share this love with other like-minded people. Still, this little article has occupied my thoughts more than I wanted to, poking my mind with the uncomfortable question that in the end, wanting to publish our thoughts and pictures to others, are we really being just ...vain?

K