Finding Inspiration in Unexpected Places

One of the worst part of being a garden editor in chief / lensman is chat gorgeous space around North America and not being able to share the experience in real meter with anyone else . We do our best to capture the magic of a sacrifice place and bring it to you in the pages ofFine Gardening , but it ’s not the same as receive it in the flesh . I ’ll often find myself on the phone with my husband the evening after a shoot trying to convey what I just experience . “ There were all these incredible colors and texture . It ’s like being in a psychedelic cable car dry wash . ” ( That ’s an real transcript of something I said to him this past year . ) To his credit , he normally take heed intently and answer with “ Wow , that sounds coolheaded ” or something likewise benign .

A scenario like that bring out to begin with this year when I visited the garden ofJay Siffordin the mountains of North Carolina . We usually care to photograph a garden at two different metre of daylight : former evening as the Lord’s Day set out to set and then at the shot of aurora the next morning to capture the sunrise . As I work my way around Jay ’s gorgeous stylized hayfield attempting to catch its marrow with my lens , I was suddenly wall by an otherworldly glow . The outflow grasses and blue - needled conifer shifted hue , and the sky became blotch with bright garden pink , change the full feel of the garden . The eddy colors were due to an unbelievable mess sunset , but it felt like so much more — like a once - in - a - lifetime experience .

I come back to my hotel room and did an embarrassingly unfit job of explain the event to my married man , who must feel like he ’s in the movieGroundhog Dayafter so many years of the same thing .

At breakfast the next cockcrow with Jay , he mention how his garden - design philosophy switch several age ago thanks to the filmMary Poppins . I turned to him puzzled . He explained that the shift happened when he see the scene in which Mary , Bert , Jane , and Michael jump into the pavement chalk house painting and are transported to a world of colors , cheap sounds , and grotesque element . He thought this is what a garden should be — an immersive , sorcerous space where things come out bigger and brighter .

“ That ’s it ! ” I exclaimed in the middle of the Hillybilly Grill . Jay looked startled , and I explained how I had struggled to put across the flavour I had in his garden the eve before . But he had just described it utterly . I felt like Jane , jump into the pavement picture .

Perhaps you ’ll get a similar feeling when reading Jay ’s story , How to Design a Stylized Meadow Garden , or seeing the photos of his impulsive blank space . But more importantly , I hope hisMary Poppinsrevelation conveys an essential lesson . Yes , garden inspiration can come from a book , or a magazine , or an educational class . But dependable , blind - you - with - excitement inspiration ordinarily come up from less traditional station .

— Danielle Sherry , executive editor,[email protect ]

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