Gardening, for me, is one of the greatest art forms. Fine gardening may mean many things to many people, but to me fine gardening means more than just making or maintaining a nice garden. For me, it encompasses all that's good and graceful in gardening and combines everything to make one garden that is the absolute epitome of all your dreams, no matter the siz e or shape of your garden, it's what you allow your imagination to create of it and how much of yourself that you put into it...
This means that my enjoyment of fine gardening comes not only from the finished garden but from the endless hours that I spend designing and planning the creation of my garden. From the very moment that I first have the seed of an idea, to the moment I place the last sapling, and plant the last flower. All I want, all that I can be, I believe, should show through when my first visitor steps into this space, a place of peace and calm where anyone can meditate on the finer things in life.
To help create the ambience that I wish for, my first thought is always, a water feature, ideally one that will make a continuously soothing background gurgle, with a small stepping-stone type of waterfall-cum-pond, placed on lovely slabs of flat rock with a hint of moss growing on it. A nice, strategically placed water lily or lotus to give off a contrasting colour, and perhaps a fish or two. A few ferns and leafy rain-forest type plants placed around the pond, and I'm finished with this stage of my fine gardening.
Ideally as part of my dream garden, I would love a big tree to stand in a corner, one with a luscious velvety dark brown trunk that I can just about span with my arms, overflowing with vibrant green leaves, spilling onto the ground in heedless abandon. (Since I might not always get what I want, I’ll settle instead for a few saplings that will one day fulfil my wish - hopefully in my lifetime!).
Since green is my target for the moment, (foliage and organically growing), I'd also see about laying a lovely shady lawn that you can sink your bare feet into whenever you are taking a turn about your garden.
I love the idea of a Zen garden, but prefer colours and lots of plants, so I would incorporate this feature into my fine gardening efforts by placing a path, naturally made out of rough hewn stone, zigzagging in a leisurely course through the garden, maybe surrounded with a little gravel and a few strategically placed pots to break up the lawn and lead up to the water feature.
To finish it all off I'd have a little alcove, unseen from afar, that afforded the curious visitor a wide-angled view of the whole garden, with a sun shade, and a low-lying bench with a few plump cushions strewn carelessly about, and all of it surrounded by a profusion of welcoming flowers.
In the distance I would set about placing a few boulders, pleasing in stature and colour to the eye, and again surrounded by a few of my favourite flowers.
p>Amidst all this fine splendour I would walk amongst my most heartfelt of efforts of fine gardening and I would not be able to help but sigh in satisfaction and peace. For me, I feel, how better able to live your dreams, than indulging in the art of fine gardening and then taking a moment to enjoy the fruits of your labours?