MyGarden - a Photo Portrait

Gardens are mirrors of men's hearts and souls, so is MyGarden. MyGarden is only a small piece of land which surrounds my house. I had planned, designed, and finally realized it all by myself - in a long and, hopefully, never-ending process of learning and trying, and trying and learning. The result is nothing very formal and still far from being perfect, but it attempts to unite the principles of both formal harmony and natural laisser-faire, using the classical elements of soil, stone, water, and the inexhaustible variety of plants, with a few that I tried to make dominate: roses, lilies, paeonias, funkias, bell-flowers, rhododendrons, azaleas, hydrangeas, selected alpines on the dry wall and water lilies in the garden pond.

I wanted this garden to become a romantic refugium from far too hectic and perfunctory life, a sheltered place, a niche of natural silence and contemplation: for the family, for our cats, our tortoises, the many wild birds who come and build their nests or find their home in one of the breeding-boxes, the bats, the hedgehogs, the beech martens (whose secret hiding place I know...), frogs and fishes, the innumerable insects - and, last-not-least, for Jean-Jacques, the funny fantasy-bird with his waggly head, who is watching over the garden pond.

Take a few minutes to roam through my little world, through an oasis of fantasy and imagination. I shall meet you on the garden bench for a chat and a glass of cool Riesling if you like.

The comfortable and comforting people are those who look upon
the bright side of life; gathering its roses and sunshine and making
the most that happens seem the best.
- Dorothy Dix

If you have a mind at peace, and a heart that cannot harden,
Go find a door that opens wide upon a lovely garden.

Innumerable as the stars of night,
Or stars of morning, dewdrops which the sun
Impearls on every leaf and every flower.
- John Milton

	All gardeners need to know when to accept something wonderful and unexpected, taking no credit except for letting it be. - Allen Lacy
Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud.
	Because a garden means constantly making choices, it offers almost limitless possibilities for surprise and satisfaction. - Jane Garmey

Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination.
You are always living three, or indeed six, months hence. I believe that
people entirely devoid of imagination never can be really good gardeners.
To be content with the present, and not striving about the future, is fatal.
- Alice Morse Earle

You are the miracle bird,
Risen
From the memory
Of the Sun's Womb
In the heart of the Earth.
Flutter,
flutter on,
my heart.
- Mahmud Kianush

If your heart is straight with God,
then every creature will be to you
a mirror of life
and a book of holy doctrine.
- Thomas à Kempis

A garden is like the self. It has so many layers and
winding paths, real or imagined, that it can never
be known completely, even by the most
intimate of friends.
- Anne Raver


	Simple pleasures are the last refuge of the complex. - Oscar Wilde

To understand the whole it is necessary to understand the parts.
To understand the parts, it is necessary to understand the whole.
Such is the circle of understanding.
- Ken Wilber



					Where flowers bloom so does hope. - Lady Bird Johnson

In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers
is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely
as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful.
- Abram L. Urban

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.
- Ernest Dowson