Every year without fail I dread the coming of the year-end holidays. Yet, almost every year the Mr. Scrooge in me is surprised with the outcome of those days.
It is old and new friends who make the holiday spirits brighter. Just before Christmas I had the good fortune to be seated next to an old friend, the very lovely Frances Schultz while flying from New York City to Atlanta. Frances and I first met on a plant collecting trip to Ecuador for the soon to be built Fuqua Conservatory at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. She subsequently wrote about Charlie and me in her first book Atlanta at Home. Her eleventh collaboration and fourth book is soon to be published. She is a witty, smart lifestyle writer who writes articles and interviews for magazines as varied as Elle Décor, House Beautiful and Veranda. She also writes a lifestyle blog at www.FrancesSchultz.com. I liked her recent post pledging, for all to see, to improve herself in the New Year. It is inspiring.
Many people I know in my home of Atlanta use garden planner resources to plan their gardens. Of course here at Gardens to Love we use a lot of experience, observation and study when planning our clients’ Atlanta gardens. Aesthetics also go into garden and landscape design. But inspiration such as the above also helps for a garden planner. Inspiration can come from the holidays, friends and of course the landscape.
Other happy moments came from revisiting places and friends that I don’t see often enough. That goes for gardens, too. I visited The Frick Collection and was once again inspired by the pruning of those 3 magnificent Japanese Maples. At the Cummer Museum and Garden I was awed by the site of the St. John’s River. When I returned home, I found my own garden more inspiring than when I left.
Onward and upward in 2014.
Marcia Weber
Interested in more inspirations for gardens? See my blog post on extreme pruning and Bonsai.
Reference Links:
www.francesschultz.com/
www.frick.org/collection/gardens
www.cummer.org/gardens-history