Becoming Super-Observant

The First Step in Becoming a Garden Designer

Garden Design requires intense observation of the place you are working with.

We exposed this glacier- worn rock to show off its amazing story. Taking off all the soil was quite a task - but so satisfying!

I said ‘working with’ because it is really about ‘co-creating’. You are working with the ‘genius of the place’ as Alexander Pope called it. Be carefully aware of the site and enhance it without too heavy a hand.

 Cell phones have taken our focus away from the world around us and to the screen world, instead.  Our senses have been so overloaded with external stimuli that we may no longer notice a neighbor's rose bush or the brilliant fall color of the tree outside our window.  How sad. But this can be changed.

I think this is Flower Carpet Amber rose (Thanks to Erica Browne Grivas for the i.d.)…I can’t wait to see it bloom its head off every year on a client’s property.

 Learn to listen to the sounds, feelings and images around you.  This may seem silly if you are on a city street, but noticing your surroundings pertains to everywhere and at all times.  It is not only about the day's weather but the light quality of the sun, the length of the shadows and the strength of the breeze.

This expanded awareness may feel forced in the beginning but it is a little like physical exercise - at first, it feels awkward but after a while it becomes a habit.

I took this photo at the great MANITOGA near where I live. It is a modernist gem set amidst 75 acres of woodlands, the home of the late American designer Russel Wright. It is open to the public and is on the World Monuments Fund Watch List. Visit soon!

I had a wonderful landscape architecture professor at the University of Hawaii who aimed to instill this awareness in us students through a unique assignment.  We had to spend 24 hours in one defined spot.  And in that period of time, we had to note all the changes that occurred.  We had to notice the weather, the vegetation, the animals, the sounds, and anything else that occurred.  We could set up a tent in the backyard but we were not to leave that spot for 24 hours.  It was quite a challenge for us students who were not used to that kind of concentration or confinement.  I never forgot it.  It was this unusual training that aided my design skills immensely.

So with that, try to look at the same little place outside your door every day – watch the small changes, notice the shadows, the raindrops, the buds, all details. You will be amazed at how wonderful that little place really is.