The title grabbed me
right away. I’ve always believed much of gardening is spontaneous,
even impulsive. So does Marilyn Raff, the author of The Intuitive
Gardener (Fulcrum Press, 2002, $24.95 paperback). Raff’s credits
her freestyle gardening approach to Jungian philosophy. For her,
the Jungian concept of transformation became a lens to view the
world, and led her to gardening, something she sees as a continual
process of creating, re-creating, and transforming natural elements.
The author believes
some gardeners get stuck on rules and what the experts say, hesitating
before taking action or simply freezing in inaction. Raff’s approach
encourages gardeners to rebel against such restraints. She advocates
a laissez-faire approach to gardening. Some might call her a 'garden
libber.'
Raff says to follow
your own innermost hunches about what looks and feels right. Throw
away the rulebook and the experts’ opinions. The adventures and
blunders that follow, she promises, will help each person makes
her own guidelines and discover her own personal style.
What does a garden
look like when the gardener’s style is, well, so carefree? A jungle?
Possibly, but not Raff’s, because she factors in restraint as
a “design element.” She trusts her intuition only up to a certain
point. The Raff garden, a one-half acre plot high in the Rocky
Mountain region (USDA Zone 5), is the result of her controlled
abandon. It has been featured on HGTV and consists of dozens of
“rooms” filled with hundreds of plants.
Aside from the discussion
of the importance of intuition, the book is part personal diary,
part tour of Raff’s garden. She took the first step into the world
of gardening 15 years ago when she volunteered at a botanical
garden. Her personal journey mirrors her garden’s transformation.
A yard with grass, a lone cottonwood tree, and a few petunias
are transformed into a Garden of Eden. A neophyte in the garden
goes from volunteer at a botanical garden to student to horticulture
professional.
I especially liked
her reflections on how her passion for gardening evolved. She
takes us on the personal journey that taught her to take “the
pulse of the garden while being in tune with her inner sense.”
It’s a journey that’s revealed in the transformation of her garden,
from petunia-and-lawn yard to a Garden of Eden featured on HGTV.
The book introduces
us to her garden today in the Denver metro area. She details plant
compositions at every turn, explaining why she thinks a group
of plants works and sometimes what she has to do to make it work
(such as intense pruning to keep it under control). Such a written
tour is hard to pull off, especially when dealing with visuals.
The tour gets bogged down in the details of plant combinations.
The occasional photograph helps but many more are needed to hold
the reader’s interest.
Midst reflections and
touring the garden, the author interweaves her gardening style,
being careful not to make rules: mulch (it has its advantages
but she doesn’t; instead she plants closely), composting (she
doesn’t, but believes strongly in the importance of good soil),
tool care (she admits to being remiss but loves sharp pruners),
making potting soil (creates her own soil mix by selecting ingredients
by the truckload), weeding (therapeutic for her), botanical names
(stimulating and revealing about the plant but not for everyone),
fertilizing (rarely, but she does add compost every year).
The author’s special
passions — rock gardens, roses, and grasses — occupy a big part
of the book. Rock gardening is a natural, since her introduction
to gardening was as a volunteer at the Denver Botanical Garden
in the rock garden. Rock gardens and rock-garden plants consumed
her for more than a decade until she moved on to hardy roses.
When Raff discovered
the chemicals involved in conventional rose care, she fled the
class. The instructor, she explains, was completely covered in
protective gear. Eventually the author gravitated toward roses
that didn’t need coddling. She discusses the early one-time bloomers
in her garden and multiple bloomers, like rugosas, Griffith Buck
roses, Canadian, Kordeses, and David Austins — varieties that
won her respect when they proved to be tough and resilient in
her Colorado garden. She also covers ways to combine them with
annuals, perennials, and shrubs in the garden.
Grasses, her third
passion, won her over with “their repetitive thin and wide lines,
panicles, and varying heights and colors....” Grasses, she says,
are showstoppers, without even trying. The projectile appearance,
she finds, is helpful for contrasting with flowers, which tend
to be circular, delicate, wide, or short. One technique she uses
with grasses is to place colorful plants behind them so that glimpses
of color peek out from behind the blades.
The organization of
the book is as loose and free flowing as the author’s gardening
style. Open-ended chapter titles like Intuitive Imagination
and Everything Under the Sun give her free reign to follow
her imagination wherever it takes her.
Overall, the author’s
voice is engaging, like that of a friend who wants to share her
knowledge. Despite being very knowledgeable, the author never
adopts a patronizing tone.
Web Resource:
www.fulcrum-books.com
