Six on Saturday: Rain Gardens

Both Caladiums and most ferns appreciate moist soil and can survive for quite a while in saturated soil. Ferns planted in wide strips as ground cover can slow down and absorb run-off from summer storms.

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It’s still raining here.  It has been raining off and on for days, but mostly on.  We’re under a multi-day flood watch and a flash flood advisory.   A tropical storm inundated us not long ago and another formed off of our coast yesterday, and even heading out to sea it pulls historic rains behind as it moves away.

The ground is already saturated and every little plastic saucer under a ceramic container overflows.  I smile at the thought of how long it will be before I’ll need to water the garden again.  August usually is a wet month, and welcome after hot, dry stretches in July.  But the tropical storm season forecast for 2020 is unlike anything we’ve ever known before.  (That is our new catch phrase for 2020, isn’t it?  Unlike anything we’ve ever known before?)

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Scarlet cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis, is a classic rain garden plant. It thrives in moist soil but will survive short droughts, too.  This clump grows in the wetlands area of the Williamsburg Botanical Garden.

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We have a program in our county that helps homeowners install rain gardens.  A friend is known for her beautiful rain garden designs. When working with local government and the Master Gardeners, county residents can have significant portions of their costs reimbursed.

The idea is very simple and elegant:  Rain gardens are dug a few inches below grade to catch and hold run-off from heavy rains.  Water loving plants growing in the rain garden help soak up the run-off, even as it settles into the ground to replenish the water table, instead of running off into local waterways, and eventually the Chesapeake Bay.  Unlike ponds, they don’t hold standing water indefinitely.  Most absorb and process the run-off soon after a rain.

Rain gardens help catch pollutants that wash off of lawns and streets so those nutrients and chemicals can be recycled and trapped by vegetation.  This helps reduce the amount of pollution flowing into creeks, the rivers, and eventually the Chesapeake Bay.  They also provide habitat for small animals like turtles, toads, frogs, dragonflies and many types of birds.

Even when we don’t excavate and engineer a formal rain garden, there are things we can do to help slow the flow of water across our yards and capture a portion of that rain water before it flows into the local waterways.  We’ve built a number of terraces in the steepest part of our yard and planted them with plants to help slow the flow of rain water.  We also have several ‘borders’ of shrubs and other vegetation to break the flow of run-off and absorb it.

In fact, the slogan of our county Stormwater and Resource Protection Division is, “Plant More Plants.”   Plants buffer the falling rain, help protect the soil from erosion, slow run-off and absorb large quantities of water, returning it to the atmosphere.  Just planting trees, shrubs, ground covers and perennial borders helps to manage the abundant rain we are getting in recent years.

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Zantedeschia, or calla lily, thrives in moist soil.  Some species will grow in the edge of a pond, and these work very well in rain gardens or wet spots where run-off collects.

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But when the ground is as saturated as it is today, we worry that even some of our plants might drown!  You see, most plants’ roots want air pockets in the soil.  Saturated soil is a quick way to kill a houseplant, and it can cause damage to the roots of some trees, shrubs and perennials, too.

As our climate shifts and these rain soaked days grow more common, it helps to know which plants can take a few days of saturated soil, and maybe even benefit from the extra water in the soil.  Many of these plants process a great deal of water up through their roots and vascular systems to release it back into the air.

You have heard of the Blue Ridge Mountains in western Virginia?  Well, that blue haze comes from moisture released by the many trees and shrubs growing on the sides of the mountains.  Some trees thrive in constantly moist soil.  Try birches, willows, swamp dogwoods, white ash trees, and beautyberry bushes.

Plants release both water vapor and oxygen back into the air as a by-product of their life processes.  Some plants, like succulents, release very little water, and that mostly at night.  They will quickly die in saturated soil.  In our region they need to be planted higher than grade on ridges and mounds, or be grow in freely draining containers.

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Colocasia and some types of  Iris grow well in saturated soil or even standing water.   Abundant water allows for lush growth.

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Plants with very large leaves, like our Caladiums, Colocasias, Hibiscus, Alocasias, Calla lilies, Canna lilies, ginger lilies, and banana trees use large amounts of water and release water vapor from their leaves throughout the day.  Some types of Iris also perform very well in saturated soil.  They can live in drier soil, but do just fine planted in the edge of a pond or in a rain garden.  Ferns are always a classic choice for moist and shady areas of the garden.  Their fibrous roots help to hold the soil against erosion and perform well as ground cover on slopes.

Those of us living in coastal areas where flooding has become more frequent can use plants to help deal with the inches and inches of extra rain.  We can build ponds and rain gardens, or even French drains and rock lined dry gullies to channel the run-off away from our homes.

We are called on in these times to wake up, pay attention, and find creative and beautiful solutions to the challenges we face.  We are a resilient people, by taking every advantage, even in the choices of plants we make, we can adapt to our changing world.

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Iris ensata, Japanese Iris,  grow with Zantedeschia in the ‘wet’ end of the Iris border at the Williamsburg Botanical Garden. Clumps keep their foliage most of the year, blooming over a long season in late spring and early summer.  These are excellent rain garden and pond plants.

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Woodland Gnome 2020

 

Visit Illuminations, for a daily quotation and a photo of something beautiful.

Many thanks to the wonderful ‘Six on Saturday’ meme sponsored by The Propagator

Sunday Dinner: Looking Up!

Hibiscus moscheutos

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“In these times

you have to be an optimist

to open your eyes when you awake in the morning”

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  Carl Sandburg

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Salvia coccinea

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“There is no such thing as a problem

without a gift for you in its hands.

You seek problems

because you need their gifts.”

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Richard Bach

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“Every problem has a gift for you in its hands” (Richard Bach).

And if not every problem, then just about every one.

Even spectacular sunsets are not possible without cloudy skies.

Troubles bring a gift for those who choose to look.

And since I can’t avoid my problems,

why waste them? I should look for the gift.

My life will be far, far richer for finding it.”

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Steve Goodier

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Canna ‘Bengal Tiger’

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“Being an idealist is not being a simpleton;

without idealists there would be no optimism

and without optimism

there would be no courage to achieve advances

that so-called realists would have you believe

could never come to fruition.”

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  Alisa Dana Steinberg

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“Few things in the world are more powerful

than a positive push – a smile.

A word of optimism and hope,

a ‘you can do it!’

when things are tough”

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Richard M DeVos

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“Pessimism never won any battle.”

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  Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Solidago

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“A tiny change today

brings a dramatically different tomorrow.”

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  Richard Bach

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Senna marilandica

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“An easy life doesn’t teach us anything.

In the end it’s the learning that matters:

what we’ve learned

and how we’ve grown”

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  Richard Bach

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crape myrtle

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2020

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“Nobody knows how things will turn out,

that’s why they go ahead and play the game…

You give it your all

and sometimes amazing things happen,

but it’s hardly ever what you expect.”
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  Gennifer Choldenko

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Cleome

Sunday Dinner: Bloom Where You Are Planted

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“To accomplish great things we must not only act,

but also dream;

not only plan, but also believe.

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Anatole France

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“Only those who attempt the absurd

can achieve the impossible.”

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Albert Einstein

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“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion,

which is life,

by artificial means and hold it fixed

so that a hundred years later,

when a stranger looks at it,

it moves again since it is life.”

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William Faulkner

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“People pretend not to like grapes

when the vines are too high

for them to reach.”

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Marguerite de Navarre

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“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing

unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…

I have never in my life envied a human being

who led an easy life.

I have envied a great many people

who led difficult lives and led them well.”

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Theodore Roosevelt

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“Not much happens without a dream.

And for something great to happen,

there must be a great dream.

Behind every great achievement

is a dreamer of great dreams.

Much more than a dreamer is required

to bring it to reality;

but the dream must be there first.”

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Robert K. Greenleaf

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2020

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“One bulb at a time.

There was no other way to do it.

No shortcuts–simply loving the slow process of planting.

Loving the work as it unfolded.

Loving an achievement that grew slowly

and bloomed for only three weeks each year.”
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Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards

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Visit Illuminations, for a daily photo of something beautiful.

Sunday Dinner: Living With Purpose

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“The mystery of human existence

lies not in just staying alive,

but in finding something to live for.”

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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“Your purpose in life

is to find your purpose

and give your whole heart and soul to it”

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Guatama Buddha

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“A small change can make a big difference.

You are the only one who can make

our world a better place to inhabit.

So, don’t be afraid to take a stand .”

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Ankita Singhal

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“The purpose of life is to live it,

to taste experience to the utmost,

to reach out eagerly and without fear

for newer and richer experience.”

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Eleanor Roosevelt

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“True glory consists

in doing what deserves to be written,

in writing what deserves to be read,

and in so living

as to make the world happier and better

for our living in it.”

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Pliny the Elder

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“Awareness is the power

that is concealed within the present moment. …

The ultimate purpose of human existence,

which is to say, your purpose,

is to bring that power into this world.”

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Eckhart Tolle

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“Following your inner guidance

has a unique power all its own.

Even when others can’t understand it,

you can feel your soul being pulled

to the place it truly belongs.”

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Kianu Starr

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2020

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“Things don’t have purposes,

as if the universe were a machine,

where every part has a useful function.

What’s the function of a galaxy?

I don’t know if our life has a purpose and I don’t see that it matters.

What does matter is that we’re a part.

Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field.

It is and we are.

What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.”
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Ursula K. Le Guin

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Visit Illuminations, for a daily photo of something beautiful.

 

Six on Saturday: Textured Tapestry

Siberian Iris just began to bloom here this week.

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We’ve had a wet week here in coastal Virginia.  It always rains on the Irises here.  I keep waiting to be proven wrong on that maxim, but I can’t remember a year when my beautiful tall German Iris haven’t been beaten down under heavy rain and wind.  Brave and hardy as Iris prove in our garden, those 4′ tall stalks covered in buds and bloom can only take so much before they crumple in the rain.  I’ve been cutting away those soggy, crumpled blooms between showers, and propping up fallen stems.

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Mountain Laurel, Kalmia latifolia is native to our region

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I believe most all of us gardeners still feel excitement when our favorite flowers bloom.  Some years that excitement lasts a nice long while.  Other times the weather grows erratic and the blooms are cut short by too much heat or cold, rain or drought.  Flowers come in so many novel shapes and sizes that we might never grow them all.  But for me, it is the intense pop of color that I crave most.

It is hard to pick a favorite as most every color becomes my favorite in its own place and season.  When the flowers fade and drop (and they always do,) we’re left with the rest of the plant: stems and leaves.  And so that had better be somehow attractive, too.

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Purple Violas bloom with a lady fern. Wild strawberries and Vinca hide their pot and  fill the bed around fading daffodil leaves.

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At some point in our garden planning each of us turns our attention from the bright excitement of flowers to the textured tapestry of beautiful foliage.  And I don’t mean the ‘restful’ monotony of solid green meatball shrubs growing out of a grassy green carpet.  I’m thinking more of the extravagant textures and intricate color patterns found on many leaves.  Leaves are long-lived.  Most will grow on for many months before fading away.

Some plants we grow for their leaves alone, never expecting or wanting their flowers.  There are thousands of ferns that never bloom.  Shade gardeners also love Hosta, and generally have strong opinions on whether to allow them to bloom or not.  Other easy choices include Heuchera, coleus, Begonias, Caladiums, the many beautiful ornamental grasses, and Liriope.

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Autumn fern ‘Brilliance’ grows larger and better each year. Strawberry Begonia fills the pots surrounding this bed of ferns and Hellebores.

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For pure texture, without much variegation or shading, I love herbs.  But oh, the wonderful colors in the herbal palette!  There are so many silvery, shimmery greys, deep green rosemary, purple basil leaves and every color of green mint.  Most herbs are easy to grow with very little thought or care.  They can take heat and drought and are ignored by pests and pesky grazers.  Too much rain and humidity are the only things that stop their performance.

And honestly, I’m developing a new appreciation of those wild volunteer plants commonly called ‘weeds.’  Some indigenous to this garden I’ve since realized are native wildflowers.  Others were once cultivated but now run wild.  When you just look at them for their texture, shape and color, many have their own beauty.  They may be thugs and crowd out something you planted, and may need pulling and thinning at times.  But that remains true of many perennials we plant, too.

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The humble strawberry begonia, that I cultivated as a hanging houseplant in the 70’s, is actually a hardy perennial here in Williamsburg.  I started a few years ago with just a few small pots.  And as they multiplied (one of the plants known as ‘mother of thousands,’ by the way) I have used them in more pots and beds.  What was innocently planted last year as an accent plant will soon enough take over the entire pot or bed.  But what a beautiful groundcover!  And now, in May, when they bloom with stalks of tiny white fairy shaped flowers, I am glad that I’ve let it run.

These are aren’t members of the ‘Begonia’ genus.  They are a Saxifraga and perform especially well in rock gardens and pots.  But the leaf is silvery and bright like some Begonias, and it runs like a strawberry with new plants growing at the ends of long stolons.  Saxifraga stolonifera is hardy in Zones 6-9 and remains evergreen if left outside here over winter.

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Native muscadine grape produce good edible grapes, when allowed to bloom. Many gardeners clear these away as they quickly grow huge if left unpruned.

 

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Once we find ourselves in May, and perennials grow again and woody’s leaves unfold, the many interesting textures of our garden weave themselves together in beautiful and novel ways.  It is a little different every year.  Once I can get past the novelty of bright flowers blooming again, I settle in to enjoy the every changing tapestry of stems and leaves that reliably furnish the garden from now until first frost.

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Woodland Gnome 2020

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Please visit my new website, Illuminations, for a garden photo and a thought provoking quotation each day.

Many thanks to the wonderful ‘Six on Saturday’ meme sponsored by The Propagator

Six On Saturday: When Wood Breaks Into Bloom

Redbud is the earliest tree in our garden to bloom, followed within another week or two by the dogwoods.

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When stark woody limbs suddenly burst open to liberate soft, fragrant flowers, we live, once again, the mystery play of spring.

We witness sudden and transformative change initiated by some small fluctuation in the status quo.  Days grow a few minutes longer; temperatures rise.  The Earth tilts a bit more in this direction or that, and the winds bring a new season as every branch, bulb, seed and root respond.

It is natural magic, and needs no assistance.  Every tree responds to its own cue of light and warmth while the gardener sits back with a cup of tea to appreciate the spectacle.

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Redbud flowers emerge directly from woody stems.  A member of the pea family, redbud, Cercis, trees store nitrogen on their roots, directly fertilizing the soil where they grow.  The nitrogen is filtered out of the air by their leaves, along with carbon.  Other plants can draw on this nitrogen in the soil for their own growth.

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I’m becoming more aware, with each passing season, of the silent cues leading me on my own journey as a gardener.  I’m looking for value when I invest in planting some new thing in the garden.  How many seasons will it grow?  How much return will it yield for my investment in planting?

A potted geranium will give six or eight months of interest, perhaps another season or two if you are both lucky and skilled.  A potted Camellia will outlive the gardener, assuming it survives its first seasons of hungry deer and unexpected drought.  The Camellia can produce hundreds of flowers in a single season, and more with each passing year.  A dogwood or Magnolia tree fills the garden with even more flowers, then feeds the birds months later as their seeds mature.

Gardening, like all transcendent pursuits, may be neatly reduced to mathematics when choices must be made.

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From left: new leaves emerge red on this hybrid crape myrtle; small Acer palmatum leaves emerge red and hold their color into summer; red buckeye, Aesculus pavia is naturalized in our area and volunteers in unlikely places, blooming scarlet each spring. In the distance, dogwood blooms in clouds of white.

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Yesterday afternoon I planted the Hydrangea paniculata I bought one Saturday afternoon almost two years ago, while taking my mother shopping.  A dozen potted shrubs were piled in front of her Wal-Mart store that late summer afternoon, reduced by half to move them.  They were clearing out the nursery area in preparation for holiday stock and impulsively, I grabbed a nice one and piled it in my cart.

“What are you going to do with that?”  she asked, cautiously, maybe wondering whether I intended to plant it in her yard somewhere.  She is housebound now, and can’t get out to garden as she once did.

“I don’t know yet,”  I responded, “but I’m sure I’ll find a spot for it at home.”  And the place I found was in a sheltered spot behind the house while I figured out where to plant it.  And it seemed quite content there, though it didn’t bloom last summer.  And it lived through two winters in its nursery pot while I dithered about where to plant it.

And finally, with a twinge of guilt for not letting its roots spread into good earth and its limbs reach into the sunlight, I chose a spot this week on our back slope, near other Hydrangeas, where we lost some lilac shrubs and their absence left an empty space to fill.  The Hydrangea will appreciate our acidic soil and the partial shade that has grown in there, where the lilac shrubs did not.

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Oakleaf Hydrangea also produces panicles of flowers in May, and the flowers persist into early winter. Many Hydrangeas bloom on new wood, while others set their buds in autumn. It pays to know your shrub.

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And as I plant, I can see its spindly little branches growing stout and long, reaching up and out for light and air.  Since it blooms on new wood, not old, every summer it will have the opportunity to stretch, and grow, and fill its corner of the garden with large pale panicles of flowers for months at a time.  Its roots will hold the bank against erosion and its woody body will welcome birds and support heavy flowers.  Each branch has the power to root and grow into a new shrub, even as each flower will support a cloud of humming insects on summer days.

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On March 1, 2017 our Magnolia liliflora trees were already in full bloom.

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There is tremendous potential in every woody plant.  They weave the fabric of the garden as days become weeks and weeks knit themselves into years.  Knowing them closely allows one to choose wisely, creating a flowering patchwork of trees and shrubs that shine each in their own season, and ornament the garden, each in its own way, every day of each passing year.

When leaves turn bright, then brown, and begin to swirl on autumn’s chilling winds, leaving stark woody skeletons where our soft green trees swayed so shortly ago; we watch with confidence that spring is but another breath away.

The only constant is change, as they say.  And knowing that, we know how to plan and plant to enjoy every moment.

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Mountain Laurel grows wild across much of Virginia on large shrubs, sometimes growing into small trees.  Its buds are already swelling to bloom by early May.

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Woodland Gnome 2020

Fabulous Friday:  Flowers From Wood, Forest Garden, March 2017

Visit my new website, Illuminations, for a photo from our garden and a thought provoking quotation each day.

Many thanks to the wonderful ‘Six on Saturday’ meme sponsored by The Propagator

Sunday Dinner: Allies

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“Trees in fog stand without leaves,

dark stems in a maze of inexhaustible intricacy.

Patterns laid upon patterns in a seeming randomness

that gives way to a single beautiful scene.” 

Akiva Silver

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“We all have a lot to learn about living on this Earth. 

It is a strange and wild place

with endless nuance and variation. 

As soon as we learn something, we find more questions.”

Akiva Silver

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“When I look at the sky, what I see there is not simply blue. 

There’s a radiance, an energy, a power. 

It is from this power that trees feed. 

Literally building their bodies out of the radiant sky,

trees of power are strong beings to ally ourselves with.”

Akiva Silver

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“Trees speak to our souls because they offer life to our bodies,

a timeless proposition that predates and outlasts us. 

Trees connect us to forever.”

Samuel Thayer from the foreword to

Trees of Power- Ten Essential Arboreal Allies by Akiva Silver

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“Trees beckon us to sit at their feet, humbly, and listen. 

They speak of the supposedly distant past,

reminding us that it was scarcely more than yesterday. 

They link us to a future that becomes, through them,

imaginable, almost palpable. 

Perhaps we cannot guess what the future holds,

but we can plant it.”

Samuel Thayer

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Trees are the answer to many of our ills,

and the ladder to many of our dreams. 

They are the arms and hands of the Earth,

reaching up to the heavens on our behalf,

grasping the slippery currency of sunlight and rendering it,

through their wondrous alchemy,

in to the stuff of life –

our life and theirs.”

Samuel Thayer

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“We breathe these trees through our lungs,

shelter ourselves with their wood,

and fill our bodies with the energy of their fruit.

Akiva Silver

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“We live at a time where there is widespread disturbance all around us. 

The ground is open and waiting for seeds. 

We can bemoan the tragedies that nature has endured

or we can cast seeds and plant a future.” 

Akiva Silver

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Every seed, cutting or small tree that you ever hold in your hands

wants to live.  It wants the same thing you do. 

You are its ally, as much as it, yours. 

You are able to see and do things that are not possible for the plant. 

Humans can be amazing helpers to the plants we choose to work with. 

Alliances work both ways.”

Akiva Silver

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2020

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“Partnering with trees is as natural as breathing. 

We inhale their exhalations and they inhale ours. 

We are designed to work with each other.”

Akiva Silver

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Sunday Dinner: Pass It On

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“What are you planting today

to harvest tomorrow?”

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Lailah Gifty Akita

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“Life always bursts the boundaries of formulas.

Defeat may prove to have been the only path to resurrection,

despite its ugliness.

I take it for granted that to create a tree

I condemn a seed to rot.

If the first act of resistance comes too late

it is doomed to defeat. But it is, nevertheless,

the awakening of resistance.

Life may grow from it as from a seed.”

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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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“Seeds have the power to preserve species,

to enhance cultural as well as genetic diversity,

to counter economic monopoly

and to check the advance of conformity

on all its many fronts.”

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Michael Pollan

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“Plants do not speak,

but their silence is alive with change.”

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May Sarton

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“It always amazes me to look at the little, wrinkled brown seeds

and think of the rainbows in ’em,” said Captain Jim.

“When I ponder on them seeds I don’t find it nowise hard to believe

that we’ve got souls that’ll live in other worlds.

You couldn’t hardly believe there was life in them tiny things,

some no bigger than grains of dust,

let alone colour and scent, if you hadn’t seen the miracle, could you?”

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L.M. Montgomery

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“Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution.

If you don’t have any problems, you don’t get any seeds.”

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Norman Vincent Peale

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“Remember to be conscious of what seeds you plant,

as the garden of your mind is like the world.

The longer seeds grow, the more likely they are to become trees.

Trees often block the sun’s rays from reaching other seeds,

allowing only plants that are acclimated

to the shadow of the tree to grow—

keeping you stuck with that one reality.”

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Natasha Potter

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“Take the time to plant seeds

even if you’re unsure if they’ll grow; who knows,

maybe all it takes is for someone else

to come along and water it.”

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Kai Mann

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“Every gift from a friend

is a wish for your happiness.”

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Richard Bach

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“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap

but by the seeds that you plant.”
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Robert Louis Stevenson

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Sunday Dinner: Here and Now

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“Here we are,

trapped in the amber of the moment.

There is no why.”

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Kurt Vonnegut

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“When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees,

you see all these different trees.

And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight,

and some of them are evergreens,

and some of them are whatever.

And you look at the tree and you allow it.

You see why it is the way it is.

You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light,

and so it turned that way.

And you don’t get all emotional about it.

You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.

The minute you get near humans, you lose all that.

And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’

That judgment mind comes in.

And so I practice turning people into trees.

Which means appreciating them

just the way they are.”

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Ram Dass

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“Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion.

What you perceive as precious is not time

but the one point that is out of time: the Now.

That is precious indeed.

The more you are focused on time—past and future—

the more you miss the Now,

the most precious thing there is.”

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Eckhart Tolle

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“You and I are the force for transformation in the world.

We are the consciousness

that will define the nature of the reality we are moving into.”

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Ram Dass

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“It’s being here now that’s important.

There’s no past and there’s no future.

Time is a very misleading thing.

All there is ever, is the now.

We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it;

and we can hope for the future,

but we don’t know if there is one.”

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George Harrison

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“Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment,

whether we mean to or not.

Our actions and states of mind matter,

because we’re so deeply interconnected with one another.

Working on our own consciousness

is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment,

and being love is the supreme creative act.”

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Ram Dass

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“Time is the longest distance between two places.”

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Tennessee Williams

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2019 

In appreciation for the life of Richard Alpert:

Teacher, writer, explorer, visionary

April 6, 1931- December 22, 2019

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“Prolong not the past
Invite not the future
Do not alter your innate wakefulness
Fear not appearances
There is nothing more than this”
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Ram Dass

Sunday Dinner: The Work

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“True freedom is impossible

without a mind made free by discipline.”

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Mortimer J. Adler

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“We must do our work for its own sake,

not for fortune or attention or applause.”

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Steven Pressfield

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“Always listen to experts.

They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why.

Then do it.”

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Robert A. Heinlein

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“Everything has boundaries.

The same holds true with thought.

You shouldn’t fear boundaries,

but you should not be afraid of destroying them.

That’s what is most important

if you want to be free:

respect for and exasperation with boundaries.”

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Haruki Murakami

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“Life always bursts the boundaries of formulas.

Defeat may prove to have been the only path to resurrection,

despite its ugliness.

I take it for granted that to create a tree I condemn a seed to rot.

If the first act of resistance comes too late

it is doomed to defeat.

But it is, nevertheless, the awakening of resistance.

Life may grow from it as from a seed.”

.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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“Believe me, for I know,

you will find something far greater in the woods

than in books. Stones and trees will teach you

that which you cannot learn from the masters.”

.

Bernard of Clairvaux

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2019

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Trees styled by members of the Richmond Bonsai Society

and displayed at The Great Big Greenhouse, Richmond Virginia 9.14-15.2019

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“And the forest perfume —

trees and earth —

it’s like incense in a shrine.

You fall into a state of… prayer.”
.

Keiichi Sigsawa

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