Naming Your Garden

Imagine if there were no street names, no names of places, no identification of any kind...our world would be very difficult to navigate. A name is essential - it gives form, meaning, and creates a concept or image for us to attach our thoughts to.

A good place name instills good feelings, excitement or anticipation...it has the ability to change our perception immediately.  A flower patch can become 'Mom's Garden' and, in a wink of an eye, the rag tag assortment of flowers is a special place indeed.

"I believe in the power and mystery of naming things.... I believe in naming what's right in front of us because that is often what is most invisible. "  Eve Ensler

A name is the first step toward making the invisible, visible, toward manifesting....

If you name your idea for a screenplay, well then, there it is...you just have to write it now....or if you name your budding business it makes it much easier to create those business cards ( that was my experience).

So, therefore, if you name a place in your yard, Sunset Corner, you are on the road to creating an intimate space bathed in golds of late day and filled with appropriate afternoon delights.

Or if you name that low spot that is always wet your 'rain garden' then the world opens up to the possibilities!  In fact, I am creating a rain garden now in a place that was a no-mans-land before - now it is filled with Blue Bunny Sedge, Cattails, Marsh Marigolds and more. The name came before the garden ever appeared.

(thanks to Monrovia for this)

Placemaking depends on a name, as any real estate developer will tell you.  And so it is in a garden.  So go ahead, brainstorm about names. Its fun and gets the brain juices flowing.

 In one of my projects I name specific plant borders - I have the Blue Border, the Hot border, and I have the Look Out Garden and the Buddha Garden. These are not grand areas but rather small spots, rich with meaning and sentiment. I have no signs but I use the names often in conversation....

You can also name areas for the time of year they look best - for example, you may have a summer garden and name it as such.

Of course, I am assuming that the name has to be descriptive but this may not be your style.  I guess you could always name your garden, 'Bob'...