Thoughts from The Happy Gardener

Many years ago, in the Fall of 1972, I was in Mr. Smith’s Ninth grade poetry class when he began to read and act out T. S. Eliot’s. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which was first published in June of 1915. It was intriguing and for someone who rarely paid attention in class, Mr. Smith had me. There were so many good parts, but the one that has stayed with me is,

“Do I dare

Disturb the universe?

In a minute there is time

For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”

Just perfect for a 15-year-old thinking about how he was going to ask Jodi Gerhart on a date (gulp!). Since that time, I seem to have always been listening for an expression of disturb, possibly a person wanting to disrupt the status quo, although I would never hear the phrase, “Status quo,” for many years. Don’t get me wrong, I am not an activist, rather someone who when he hears an answer like, “well, we have always done it that way,” I usually asked the younger person’s question, “Why?” Within me, there was there was this other question, “why not…?”, but that risked breaking one of “those rules,” and getting in trouble. So, when I received an invitation for a conference, my interest was piqued when I read, “Designing with Disturbance.”  

Last Friday, March 6, I attended a conference, which featured John Little and Kenton Seth. I recognized Kenton Seth because he has written an incredible book called The Crevice Garden. The subtitle of this book is: “How to make the perfect home for plants from rocky places.” Anyone know any rocky places here in Colorado or Arizona? 

Like a groupie, I went up to Mr. Seth and told him I had a copy of his book and thought it was so great because it opened so many opportunities to add xeric plants to homeowner’s landscapes. He told me, “It took me five years to create the content for that book.” Can you imagine doing anything for that long that today is out of print? 

Kenton Seth talked about the issues facing homeowners wanting to re-wild their landscapes, plant native species, replace mown grasses or plant more plants to support butterflies, bees, and birds. He may not have said those words, but the pictures he showed us looked that way to me.  

  In a way, most of these ideas are related to the idea of saving water. Saving water in Colorado is a very good idea.  One of Kenton’s topics, that afternoon, was about Joan Iverson Nassauer’s, “Cues to Care.” Naussauer is a professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan and I found her posting from September 15, 2011, entitled, Cues to Care: The Language of Neighborly Landscaping,” on the internet.

We may not think about our landscapes in any manner other than, “we like it,” but what if, the discourse of landscapes (“the formal, extended expression of thought through spoken or written language” and in this case, also visual) is as Nassauer says, “The dominant culture in North America reads a neat, orderly landscape as a sign of neighborliness, hard work, and pride. Neat and orderly could be translated into mown lawn, trimmed shrubs, and well-tended flowers in designated flower beds.” 

She goes on to say, “A large body of landscape perception research…leaves no doubt that people prefer to see landscapes that they perceive as natural.” However, “too much nature” is unappealing.” Nassauer then concludes, “what they are really saying is that they prefer landscapes that meet their “pretty as a picture ideal” of what nature should look like, and that ideal includes signs of human intention and neatness.” 

 “Cues to care” … “are unmistakable indications that the landscape is part of a larger intended pattern.” In other words, ‘yes, we meant to create this in our landscape.’ 

I had never really thought about mown grass, recognizable trees, plants and shrubs, pathways as being safe, I just liked them. In so many other areas of my life, I was always wondering why things are this way, not this other way and now when thinking about Kenton Seth’s presentation, there is a new purpose in ensuring there are cues to care in my designs. It’s like my orientation has been re-oriented and there is a bigger foundation for bringing purpose to landscapes. 

When so many authors are writing books with the titles like “the 7 habits of…, the 17 laws of…, it seems like they are creating more substance, more reasons to pay attention to something, but to me it’s like they are getting us ready for a multiple- choice test or creating more reasons for us to forget more stuff. Kenton Seth distilled all the words of Cues to Care down to the picture below. I bet if we think for just a bit, it might be possible to have just one Cue to Care. Can you think of the one, for you?

Several years ago, a person I didn’t know very well, came up to our breakfast table and asked if she could sit down. After a bit she asked if she could share something. We readily agreed. She then said, “A leader creates a clearing inside of which others can locate themselves.” Now, I forgot what she said, three times, but kept going back to her to ask, again, and now it is a powerful context for me, too. 

From a more humorous context, In City Slickers (1991): Curly (Jack Palance) tells Mitch (Billy Crystal) that the secret to life is "one thing". 

The one I have heard most recently came from Pastor Scotty Priest of Journey Church. He said, “Complexity fails, simplicity scales.” In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus identifies the greatest commandment as loving God with all one's heart, soul, and m

ind. The second, equally important command is to "love your neighbor as yourself". 

I have been practicing paying closer attention to what is happening around and near me. Simpler has my attention and it just keeps coming. Today in church, the second worship song, called “Center,” by the group Elevation, began like this,

“Maybe we've made this complicated,

More than it was ever meant to be.”

Thoughtfully designed landscapes, using the right materials, the right plants, the right placement – where everything matters. This is my one thing to say about The Happy Gardener. Underneath this is a connection to God, growing beauty in our gardens, taking care of our children, and the people in our lives. If you had the experience, listening to Nassauer, that she could have also been talking about human beings, it’s what I felt too. 

John, The Happy Gardener