Love Letters to the Garden

Horticulture

By Meara Scanlan, Horticulture Technician II

To garden is to love the land in such a way that collaboration becomes the only option. Even the smallest tasks—removing spent blooms or adjusting a vine on its trellis—carry a sense of deliberate care. However, gardeners can create deeper meaning in their gardens by leaving a small piece of themselves within them. We call this a love letter to the garden—a physical expression of the companionship and fondness cultivated over time. These careful details are the garden’s heartbeat, acts of devotion in which the gardener anticipates the subtle joys of those who may pause to admire them. The gardener gives the garden a deeper meaning, a living testament to their love for both the natural world and the art of guiding and cultivating beauty. What does a love letter to a most definitely illiterate garden look like? Perhaps you painstakingly mount individual epiphytes onto your favorite oak tree, or perhaps you research native pollinator plants and weave them carefully throughout your space. Conversely, you might find yourself with the opportunity for a less subtle love letter—you may notice your Agapanthus naturally growing into an almost heart-shaped design and spend an afternoon relocating individual plants until your heart is fully realized. The gardener leaves behind a mark not of force, but of subtlety—a guiding hand that nurtures the landscape into a place of harmony, where the natural world and the gardener’s vision coexist in an intimate, unspoken dance. The result is a space that feels both alive and curated, an ornamental garden that carries the soul of its gardener in every bloom. When we craft love letters to our gardens, are they always meant solely for the garden itself? Perhaps they extend to each person who feels inspired at the sight of a perfectly arranged spring planting— and to each beetle that finds respite on a lovingly tended Salvia. When we create memorials in our gardens, we write love letters to many. A memorial in a garden is not just a plaque or a dedicated tree. It is a testament to a life once lived and the undeniable impact that life had on countless individuals. The act of tending to these spaces becomes a ritual of love and connection, allowing us to honor not only the garden but also a beloved’s legacy. It compels us to confront grief in the gentle presence of nature. As seasons change, so does the garden. In spring, new buds emerge; in summer, vibrant blooms remind us of joy and vitality. Autumn’s golden leaves evoke nostalgia, while winter’s starkness offers a time of reflection. Each transformation serves as a reminder of the impermanence of life, yet within this transience lies a signification- the beauty of growth, of change and of the enduring spirits surrounding us.