Jellicoe's Wise Words

A garden maker of any sort must look to landscape designers of the past and their design philosophies. Each garden that I have created has been built upon the ideas and influences that I have absorbed over a lifetime.



Creative ideas don't just come out of thin air - they are an amalgam of what we have learned and used in the past. By looking at other cultures' tradtions and their approach to the natural elements you can enhance your garden immeasurably. The English garden designers such as Russell Page, Arabella Lennox Boyd, and Gertrude Jekyll stand side by side with their design counterparts in the United States, Japan, France and India in my world. I borrow from all unabashedly and thank them all for their inspiration, guidance and insight.

By focussing attention on gardens and their positive affect on our wellbeing, I hope to use this blog to promote an added appreciation for the greatest of domestic arts, landscape design. As Geoffrey Jellicoe, the author of, 'The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day,' once noted, "The world is moving into a phase when landscape design may well be recognized as the most comprehensive of the arts."

photo - pool and landscape by Johnsen Landscapes & Pools- all rights reserved

Comments

  1. Dr. Louisa WalkerJanuary 20, 2010 at 2:27 PM

    Thanks again for this exciting blog -- love your weaving of ideas and making us mindful of what is around us and affects us -- and honouring our past influences and inspirations as they create who we are and what we do today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jan JohnsenJanuary 21, 2010 at 6:46 AM

    I can't wait to hear some musings about the incredible New Zealand landscape! Please feel free to share photos of your plants and gardens here!

    ReplyDelete

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