Saturday, October 10, 2020

Hurricane Waters #3

On naming gardens: Is it pretentious?

Both my grandmother’s large gardens were named - Bonnie Brae and Heaven Scent. Both my grandmothers were avid gardeners. The names were a testament to the importance of their gardens to them and to who they were in life. The suburban tract home I grew up in, while every bit a plant lover’s garden compared to prevailing suburban standards was not named.

To have a name, a garden should be large, the family land, a historic estate or a public garden. One is lucky to have a house and land that calls for a name. No matter, the numbers 1225 will always hold a deep resonance of place for my family.

It is rare to encounter an American garden with a name. To hear one signals this place is important and has meaning for the person living here. That gets respect first. Depending on the name, pretentious could come into play.















I got lucky in life to be raised by gardeners who bought more land and now own two and a half acres of the next iteration of family land. I am here for the duration. My tiny house is named Hale Mana. The garden is named Ku’ulei ‘Aina, Hawaiian for My Beloved Land. It is a delusional name big enough to encompass generations of gardening, my own life and so much more. I hope it shows some intended respect to the people who grew apples and raised cattle on this land before the world wars. A hearth and chimney remain standing from that time.

It is not delusional in an expectation that the garden will last after the gardener is gone. I live next door to Bonnie Brae. That name was relocated to a new garden.  I have taken to calling the still family owned Heaven Scent, Grey Gardens. Bits of it have fallen away to development and the true gardener has long since stopped weeding.














Barring some kind of endowment, the gardens of Ku’ulei ‘Aina will also fade away when the gardener is no more. The forest will make it so. I have a chimney to testify to that. So I did the smart thing for my delusion. I laid in some substance for the archeologists to find.



2 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Below is what I wrote in a comment to the Garden Rant essay about naming gardens. To you I would say all this yet I don't think a garden has to be an estate to be named. While my garden is a postage stamp compared to other larger gardens I love it dearly and it means enough to me to garner a name.

"I loved your essay about naming our gardens. Pretentious? I think not. I believe people that think it pretentious are the ones that are being pretentious. Do they name their dogs and cats? Their children? I for one love my garden at least as much as my dog. I put a lot of effort and love into the garden. Why wouldn't I name it? Did you ever name a doll or teddy bear when you were younger? A garden gives more emotional support than an inanimate object so it deserves a name. Even God's garden had a name. Geez... Of course you are asking someone that moved from The Green Isle to Greenbow. Green seems to be a theme in me naming my gardens. My husband suggested Weedy Wallow for our current garden which might have been more appropriate."

Christopher C. NC said...

A suburban sized garden with a name is definitely going to make my ears perk up because it tells me a real gardener probably lives here.