An earlier post about the garden of green magician Les Brake revealed a sumptuous visual feast miraculously situated in zone two. Since our visit, Les and I have stayed in contact via email and he has sent me periodic garden update images. I love seeing them but all of the drooling on my keyboard is probably not a healthy thing for the computer.
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Les was a friend and devotee of Graham Stuart Thomas who advised that red should be used sparingly. How beautiful it is here with an echo in the purple foliage and a foil in the grey foliage behind.
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Orange! I was once told that if one simply eliminated orange flowers from the garden everything else would work just fine but I like orange flowers and am delighted to see them in the garden of this amazing garden colorist.
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Poetry Break, this time by Robert Lax:
So I'm happily planting my jungle of big leafed plants and perhaps someday it will magically become something as tasteful as this but don't hold your breath, bowling ball edging takes a while to remove!
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So beautiful! I love the touch of yellow (guessing Ligularia) on the right!
Les was a friend and devotee of Graham Stuart Thomas who advised that red should be used sparingly. How beautiful it is here with an echo in the purple foliage and a foil in the grey foliage behind.
A soloist singing with a chorus of stars. I've always followed that adage "If a little's good, then more's better." Les's restraint here illustrates that sometimes less truly is more.
Orange! I was once told that if one simply eliminated orange flowers from the garden everything else would work just fine but I like orange flowers and am delighted to see them in the garden of this amazing garden colorist.
Poetry Break, this time by Robert Lax:
A Problem in Design
what if
you like
to draw
big flowers,
but what
if some
sage has
told you
thet
thr is
nothing
more
beautiful
nothing
more
beautiful
than a
straight
line
?
what should
you draw:
big flowers?
straight lines?
i think
you should
draw
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
what if
you like
to draw
big flowers,
but what
if some
sage has
told you
thet
thr is
nothing
more
beautiful
nothing
more
beautiful
than a
straight
line
?
what should
you draw:
big flowers?
straight lines?
i think
you should
draw
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
big flowers
until
they become
a
straight
line
So I'm happily planting my jungle of big leafed plants and perhaps someday it will magically become something as tasteful as this but don't hold your breath, bowling ball edging takes a while to remove!
"What's an Alaskan gardener to do when his delphiniums are still in full bloom, and yet the lions of Kruger* are breathing down his neck? Off with their heads (the delphs, not lions), and put out a blue petal path to the pond... By the way, we refer to the pond as the Alaskan birdbath."
*Les was anticipating his trip to South Africa.
What a flair for incredible beauty! Thanks for sharing this, Les, it's breathtaking! I wonder if they walked on the path? Could you? I don't think I could bring myself to decapitate delphiniums in full bloom but as Robert Service reminds us, "There are strange things done in the midnight sun!" How lucky we are of that!