Very green, and only green

In his book The Education of a Gardener, Russell Page describes a small garden in the middle of Paris as following:

"I went down a narrow flight of steps into another world, a dark and shady wood, utterly restful, with no disturbing element and no hint that at any point one was only a few yards from the busy street. The achievement was remarkable and the means most ordinary.

There were a few old trees underplanted with yews allowed to grow quite freely; ivy was used to cover the high surrounding walls and to carpet the ground. A gravel path wandered about in this maze of green; and that was all. In this particular case, (the gardener) not only accepted the very limited possibilities, but achieved a remarkable garden.

Since it had to be shady, he made it very shady, and since green is precious in the city, he made his garden very green and only green."

"Since it had to be shady, he made it very shady, and since green is precious in the city, he made his garden very green and only green". This is one of my favorite lines in gardening literature, ever; a brilliant summary of how  the discipline (and courage) of keeping things simple while carrying out one's idea based on the character and qualities of one's site is the key to creating a 'remarkable' garden. Finding the 'very green and only green' of a garden is the most difficult but also the most rewarding problem of making a garden, and I think that no one has described it better than Russell Page is that short, eloquent paragraph.

Pictures from the Bloedel Reserve, a garden whose owners definitely understood the 'very green and only green' of their garden. As I've mentioned a couple of times, The Education of a Gardener by Russell Page (1962) is one of my favorite gardening books.