Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

 The wisdom of the heart is here, just now, at any moment. It has always been here, and it is never too late to find it. The wholeness and freedom we seek is our own true nature, who we really are. Whenever we start a spiritual practice, read a spiritual book, or contemplate what it means to live well, we have begun the inevitable process of opening to this truth, the truth of life itself.

Jack Kornfield

I am a lifelong garden designer and a promoter of the Arts and Crafts movement. My first home was a bungalow. Everywhere I live I make a garden. The garden I built around my first bungalow gave me solace as I faced a terminal illness. While a patient, I spent a great deal of time in that garden. The garden helped me recover. That’s what a good garden can do. It can become a place for regeneration and renewal, not only when sick, but every day. 

Since that time, I have designed a great number of gardens, many of them gardens around bungalows. My garden designs have many influences, but all of them are influenced by principles of design that evolved out of the Arts and Crafts movement. The Arts and Crafts movement began in early nineteenth century England as a movement for social reform and lasted well into the early 1900’s in North America.

The movement grew out of a rebellion to industrial revolution, the factory, and the factory’s division of labor. The movement’s founders believed that the factory system robbed workers of the satisfaction of seeing their work through from conception to completion. Over time, the movement evolved into an international design philosophy that has strongly influenced modern design philosophy. When we adhere to these principles, they add strength to a design. They transform a space into much more than simply a garden. They help create places to entertain, to spend time with family, and to live life in relationship with the natural world. It is here, in the rhythms of the natural world, where we find the connection to our true nature. 

My purpose in writing this book is twofold. First, I will explore the ideology behind the Arts and Crafts garden. Second, I intend to demystify the garden design process and how it specifically relates to the bungalow, the quintessential Arts and Crafts home. The ideology of the movement directly addresses the discontent with life that we can feel as a result of our busy lives. The movement arose during a time of tremendous change and tumult. It questioned what things brought meaning to life and what things kept us from fully participating in life. It had a vision of a society in which the worker could take pride in his craftsmanship and skill and was not brutalized by the working conditions found in factories. One hundred and fifty years later, we are still facing drastic change and discontent. The long hours of the factories may be over, but now the cubicle has taken its place, and our time. Together you and I will explore how to slow ourselves down, how to take time to create and to enjoy life. I’ll demonstrate how you can employ the principles of Arts and Crafts garden design to craft your back yard into a garden that’s a perfect fit for your life. Your garden will provide you with a sanctuary to become whole again. 

In this book we’ll explore all of the steps in developing a garden design. Together, we will investigate hands-on tools that you can use to turn your backyard into an outdoor living space. I will demonstrate that you already know more about elements of design (line, form, color and texture) than you think. Then I will show you how to apply what you already know to your garden design. You’ll learn practical insights that will help you to organize space. You will create planting masses that can provide year-round visual interest while enclosing the garden or framing a view by selecting plants that are the right fit for your locality.

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~ by beaudrydesign on August 30, 2011.