Fields & Meadows

Carefree and casual, fields and meadows spill into the garden from the surrounding countryside. These unassuming open spaces are endowed with a simple and effortless beauty rooted in agrarian sensibility and comfort. Such qualities produce a calming influence and are the perfect foil to the complex design schemes encountered in other more intensely planted areas.

One of the most appealing vistas in the garden is the pecan meadow in early spring. When the morning fog lifts, thousands of white clovers float in a sea of green, punctuated only by occasional drifts of slender yellow jonquils. On the other side of the property, the rose field awakens in early summer when the sleeping green domes of scrambling roses erupt in a two-week display of pink, white and red. Further along in the season row crops such as corn, soybeans and cotton dominate the agricultural fields. In the vicinity of the garden, these commonly encountered crops take on a special quality. As the sun bends across plump ears or split bolls, the plants seem almost stately, as if elevated by their proximity to so many flowering ornamentals. Those fields left fallow are filled with a pretty mix of composites, legumes and grasses in the fall. By providing a deep sense of time and place, these pastoral scenes rival any that are found in more refined garden settings.