Garden Party En Plein Air
I decided to visit the Wells garden early myself, so I stopped by last weekend. Like most gardeners, Lynne was apologetic about the state of her garden and sure that the artists would have been much happier a month earlier, or a month later, when the garden wasn’t in the middle of its August doldrums. But that’s just how gardeners talk. In fact, her place is lovely right now: there’s a sturdy perennial border along the road; cheerful yellow rudbeckia in borders around the house; a pond and a freakishly large gunnera; plenty of interesting architecture and sculpture, and a cool, shady creek.
Lynne stood at the top of a hill and surveyed it all with a sigh. “I waited too long to cut it back,” she said. “I’m trying to look at it the way painters will look at it, to clip some overgrowth and clear some vistas for them. I’ll be curious to see where the artists gravitate to.”
I asked her if she was nervous about having a couple dozen artists scrutinizing her garden for good color and composition. “Not really,” she said, laughing. “We try to hold a fundraiser here every year, so I’m used to people looking at my garden. The only danger for us is that we’ll want to buy up all the paintings for ourselves!”
Now, that’s the kind of competitive spirit I had in mind. It’s a lovely time of year for a garden party, and this one promises wine and treats along with the likes of Judy Evenson, Jim McVicker, Kathy O’Leary, Stock Schlueter, Alicia Treadway, and others. See you there.
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