The Three Garden Energies

The garden writer Marianne Wilburn wrote something recently that made me think. She wrote:

There are moments when it all feels out of control, and moments when it gels, but in each space, each bed, I try to showcase one of three energies:

The exciting potential of what will be;

The sustained climax of what is; 

The gentle, attractive decline of what was. 

That's a new way for me to look at my garden. 

I am so focused on the first energy, the potential of what will be, because I am still designing, planting and creating this space. I always zero in on the little, undeveloped things and plan what will be.

I rarely consider the sustained climax when the more mature plants are at their prime and it all looks right, or the quiet decline of what is getting older or going dormant. 

I like that she describes these three states as "energies", not static phases of a garden's development. They all exist together at the same time, and one energy ebbs as another energy flows.

She has great big gardens (in the midAtlantic area) where she can show the three energies at different times and in different spaces spectacularly. I have a tiny courtyard where the three energies must be scaled way down and shown in small vignettes. 

But it's helpful to me to think about it this way. It's more than just order versus chaos, or a new garden versus a mature one. It's evolving energies at different stages, all existing together.