~Mac Griswold

I visited Gordon and Mary Hayward’s gardens in southern Vermont today, for inspiration and to attend a puppet festival.

Since before I graduated high school, Gordon with his wife Mary have been working their one and a half acres near Putney, Vermont, making gardens for others, and writing books about garden design.

We watched 10 puppet shows and what I can only call a kite dance.

The artists, transforming everyday materials into living characters, performed intimate and interactive compositions.

Moving within the interstitial corridors between gardens to attend the shows,  I began to see the connection between gardens and theater.

A front porch as a performance space, the square of front lawn an impending spectacle, the neighbor’s gardens on the verge of an audience, I walked around my neighborhood upon return from Vermont to delight in the slowest of the performing arts.

Images are from Gordon and Mary Hayward’s website: http://www.haywardgardens.com/

and of the kite dancer Curtiss Lee Mitchell from Sandglass Theater’s site:www.sandglasstheater.org/.

I will suggest — and seek your ideas for– out-of-the-garden ways to express yourself in the landscape, offer proof that statistics (on how much sustainable design $aves) can be exciting, and reward the curious visitor with quick success tips for less weeding and watering and beautiful images of native plant gardens.

What delights you about gardens? I’d love to hear from you. Your comments are important  to me.

~jULIE