Inspiration

In our professional lives inspiration is fundamental to our well being. Getting the sense that our life’s work is important keeps us going.Being inspired by leaders, visionaries through the images they paint with their words and ideas reenergizes us. The inspiration through the actions of role models helps us to become better. In turn it is upto us to inspire those who we can influence – work colleagues, members of our community, friends, children and family.

Recently we had the opportunity to visit and appreciate the renown gardens at Gravetye Manor in Sussex,UK. These gardens have been on our bucket list for quite a while because the manor was owned by William Robinson, the Irish garden designer who helped move garden design away from the formal to the more natural style. In doing so the predominant green was supplemented with many other colors. In 1885 Robinson started to develop the gardens a process that continued until has passing in 1935. The current owners have restored the gardens in the ”Robinson style” building upon the structure of the many trees and shrubs that Robinson planted himself.

One of Robinsons best known books is entitled the Wild Garden – something the head gardener Tom Coward covered in his tour of the garden.The formal beds at Gravetye blend into the more natural areas seamlessly – he said creating a wild look requires a lot of hard work to make it appear as if ”nothing has been done”. It was refreshing to hear his views about living with weeds and knowing when to tackle them and when to leave things be.Weeds are a natural phenomenon and the purpose was not to strive for perfection.

Visiting in May gave us a snap shot – the herbaceous beds, complemented by flowering azaleas in the background, being the star attraction. In early spring the large meadow that flows down to lake at the side of the manor house embraces the wild theme. Thousands of wild flowers supplemented with spring bulbs feature – the last showing of Camassia leichtlinii apparent at the time of our trip.And of course the autumn color should be spectacular with so much deciduous growth apparent.

So how will AndAllen benefit from this visit? Well, new ideas for filling out the herbaceous borders are abundant – trying some different textures; playing around with various degrees of concentration; promoting self seeding will make next spring a bit more exciting.The theme of the wild garden, not seeking perfection and balancing plantings with nature will all help in the evolution of the woodland walk. Lots to think about!