That’s from Cultivating Words – the Guide to Writing about the Plants and Gardens You Love by Paula Panich. She encourages her readers to, when visiting a garden, achieve "that mysterious sense of rapport, of identity with the ground. You can extract the essence of a place once you know how. If you just get still as a needle you’ll be there."
Here’s how she recommends visiting a garden:
- Visit a garden by yourself
- Visit early in the day or late in the afteroon, for softer light
- Know only the bare basics about the place you’re visiting (you can research everything later)
- Take a minimum of notes.
- Take a minimum of photos, perhaps just as you’re ready to leave.
- Listen
- Smell
Now do I do this myself? Sometimes I’m with a friend, and that’s a whole other experience – a fun one. But when I’m alone, except for taking more than a few photos, yeah, that’s how I do it. How about you?
The photo shows a charming garden I discovered on a local garden tour last spring. Too bad there were hoards of other tour-goers.
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I try to remember to do this for my own garden, too. Sometimes it’s easy to get wrapped up in chores and forget to be still…
Not an easy trick, but especially valuable. Remembering the Portland GWA symposium and bus tours, it seemed that everyone was busy trying to take great shots, but no one appeared to just be soaking in the gardens. When I had a bonsai collection years ago, I’d make a certain tree the object of my meditations for a week. It’s a cultivated art. Thanks for shining a light.
Such a nice post. Filled with good suggestions. My camera addiction has led to a place a person should never get: I spend far too much time composing and taking pictures in gardens and far too little time smelling, observing, and listening. I vow to change!
That’s a tough habit to ingrain – I too often succumb to the temptation to to take photos rather than enjoy the journey…
Include me in the list with Pam and Ross. Once you’re bit by the shutter bug, it’s hard to go to a beautiful garden and not take lots of pictures. I guess the answer may be to just stay longer and allow time for both.
If I have time, I like to do a walk-through first, just trying to understand the garden and go back after, taking pictures that illustrate that sense. Of course, this doesn’t always work out. When I visited Lotusland it was as part of a tour. There were some fascinating conversations, but I felt rushed and it would have been worth it to become a member and take the self-guided tour.
Hope you don’t mind me extending the reach of your last post. Stay warm.
Billy Geeeeee!!!!!!!
http://gardenwiseguy.blogspot.com/2008/12/winter-sunset-sharing-blogs.html
Stilness and quiet is essential, even when working (how can one be still while working? Whatever). And it’s always nice when the yard loudspeakers of the maximum seccurity prison less than a mile away aren’t beckoning prisoners and guards.
I prefer going to some gardens by myself…and frequently forget to take a photo!
The one garden one can can have all to oneself is ones own. When visiting other gardens and doing garden tours it is rare that you get to see it without hoards of people in the background. I like to get there as soon as the gates open. Getting the photos without people is just about impossible and demands a lot of patience.