Are all you GWN gardeners yearning for a little green? Is the only green on your thumbs from the ink of seed catalogs? I've been perusing garden photos from the last year and dreaming of the colour green. In doing so, I came across these greenest of photos, the Japanese Garden at the
Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia. We were there at the end of March last year and spent a misty (sometimes rainy) day in the garden. The rain only served to intensify the colours and give the whole day a dreamy quality as we had the place mostly to ourselves. So, please join me and get lost in a little of the green...
I was profoundly taken with this garden. In fact, it has caused me to rethink the look I hope my garden to evolve to. While I need more colour than this, perhaps because my season is so fleeting, I really enjoy the prominence of form and texture in a limited palate. Maybe also, because for many months of the year my garden is mostly white.
I've always been a big fan of moss and it was used to great effect in this garden. The moss on the branches highlighted their form and echoed the garden floor. With the green on the evergreens and the moss on the branches the vertical element lent a sense of enclosure. Although it was raining, we felt enveloped in a velvety green space.
The variations of green included spots that glowed. Even in the gloom of the rain the shaded garden made its own sunshine.
My favourite memory is of my little boy, in green, stepping in wonder back and forth across the "magic" stepping stones suspended in the water.
So, if you're getting weary of thumbing the seed catalogs and dreaming of your gardens as they will be, take a look back over your photos from the last year and remember how nice it is to dream a little "green" with me. :)
Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises. ~Pedro Calderon de la Barca
