Down to Earth: Herb Garden is in the Eye of the Beholder

(Page 2 of 2)

December/January 2004
By Jim Long  
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It seems sad to create a garden, to invest a lifetime into making the dreams manifest, only to have it abandoned — or worse — when the gardener passes on.

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Must a garden be forever tied only to the personality of the gardener?

Not long ago I visited the astounding gardens of Robert and John Allerton in Monticello, Illinois. The dream of Robert and his adopted son, John Gregg Allerton took them around the world to collect plants and sculptures to fill their 10,000 acres of gardens. Gardens were their passion and they expressed that passion effusively in Illinois and also in Hawaii. In 1946, Robert and John left the Illinois gardens in the care of the University of Illinois and the Hawaii garden is now in the care of the National Tropical Botanical Garden of Hawaii. The gardens remain, but the sense that they are sacred or personal is missing.

It may well be that a garden truly can’t survive without the gardener. Like a plant needing its roots, a garden must have the spark of love to be truly sacred. Even shared with others, the garden remains ephemeral, purely a personal expression of an individual for a moment.

That we are allowed to experience someone else’s sacred spaces may be sufficient. Like a firefly in the summer’s night, the garden is there and then it’s gone, a blink in the eye of the beholder.

Jim Long writes books and stories from his home in the Ozark Mountains. View his gardens or make comments at www.LongCreekHerbs.com. Join other Herb Companion readers in our online forums, www.HerbCompanion.com, to discuss Jim’s ideas on the sacredness and individuality of the garden.

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