Thoughts on gardening and my development as a gardener through various garden projects over the years. An attempt to capture (and share) some of the concepts, ideas, and influences that have kept me inspired, some of my work as a student at Longwood Gardens...
Well, I have been quite busy and as I feared, the blogging fell to the bottom of the list of priorities. I graduate from the PG Program in the middle of December and then hopefully by spring I will be in a new job in public gardening -or possibly even an internship. Of course, I have to get out all the applications first! In the meantime, I am here now to redeem myself with a video I made (with some editing help from my wife) from our study abroad trip to South Africa. Hope to get back to some more blogging soon... Enjoy!
Well, it should say South Africa Study Abroad 2011, but who knows what happened to the other '1' ?!
I like how the 'Karl Foerster' feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora) responds to the wind. It's quite relaxing to watch it and especially cool when you use it in a diagonal sweep, zig-zag, or in a space moving from the foreground to the background, and/or left-to-right. They grab your eye and can help visually 'lead' you through a space. Some plants joining the grasses in movement in my personal garden are: purpletop vervain (Verbena bonariensis),jewels of Opar (Talinum paniculatum) 'limon', and some white spider flower (Cleome hasslerana). Some other good grasses for wind that are shown in the video are: white tussock -a.k.a. Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima), fountain grasses {varieties of } (Pennisetum), 'Heavy Metal' switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), Miscanthus, Northern sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium), 'Red Rooster' leatherleaf sedge (Carex buchananii). Each of these grasses has their own way of responding to wind, giving them each a unique quality or feel.
There's just something about the way plants sway, move or flutter in the wind.
It's almost as if, as you tune into the subtle rhythm of the movement, you find a contrasting stillness growing within.
Filmed in my personal garden and Student Exhibition Garden at Longwood Gardens, and at my next door neighbors' house in Conshohocken - 2011. Video footage, production & editing: (c) Timothy Allen Snyder 2011
