Gardening / Painting advice
mjolly July 23rd, 2008
I found this in the latest email from Old House Gardens-a company that sells heirloom plants and bulbs. I like the advice a lot and some of it it seems to apply to painting as much as gardening- two of my favorite activities that I approach in much the same way.
Robert Dash is not only a highly regarded artist but the creator of a remarkably personal and inventive garden on Long Island called Madoo. In an April 2006 article in Horticulture, Dash offered the following “best advice for fellow gardeners” and we liked it so much that we’ve been trying to squeeze it into our newsletter ever since.
“To garden is so natural an act that you need only follow your instincts; have no fear and plunge right in.”
“Follow your first, not your second, idea.”
“Expect mistakes; mistakes are not errors if you learn from them.”
“Walk your plot in all kinds of light, all times of day, all kinds of weather, as often as possible — paying particular attention to slight changes of level and, above all, shadows.”
“Gardening, remember, at its best, is a form of autobiography, an art of the wrist, like painting, enacted on the earth.”
