This butterfly on our daylilies was the first thing I saw upon coming home one evening
Something I have recently came upon as a concept for us gardeners to consider is naming your garden or home. Historically the large estates and manors of the wealthy have always had names such as Midford Castle (actor Nicolas Cage’s house), Buckingham Palace or Gipsy House the name of writer Roald Dahl’s home. I thought it would be fun to name our garden. We initially named our cottage Fox Cottage when we moved in.We pulled up into the driveway one evening and a fox was waiting in our yard. He looked at us for a long pause before he ran off. The image of that stuck as the name of our new home. In some Native American beliefs, the foliage provides Fox with the camouflage for protection. I like to think of our garden as protector. Some of the reasons that you might want to name your garden or home or both is that it brings more awareness to your space. It infuses the space with personality and character. Naming the garden space is also a good idea to help when designing the garden, to help invoke an image and create meaning, and helps to establish your theme to build upon as you design. There are even websites dedicated to assisting with the house naming process. Do you think it is to hoity toity to name your garden? As you may have guessed, I think it is fun and for all the reasons stated above, a good idea.
The Morning Glory seeds we planted in the spring are now climbing to the rafters of the house with beautiful deep pink blooms.
I was planning to have a naming ceremony with a homemade, bohemian style name plaque with our garden name on it. I may even make another for the cottage. I would love your input! Any ideas that you have please share them with us.
The Gladiolas I planted last year that never did anything finally came up this year!
Do you have a name for your garden or home? Some of the names I found around the web included: Birdsong Cottage Aalid Feie (It means Wild Beauty. Originated from the Isle of Man) Alpine Cottage Seldom Inn Shalimar Garden Blue Sky Dragons Den A garden name can consist of anything that would help bring out the personality of your garden. Are you creating a fantasy space with fairies and gnomes? What about Urth or Pixie Grove? Is your space more zen like and meant to invoke contemplation and meditation? You could go with a name like Ke Yuan which means Kind Garden. If you travel and bring back treasures from those travels to your garden, you could go with a name that helps bring back memories of where you have traveled, like Casablanca Cottage. When I asked Coda what we should name our garden she asked me first if the garden was a boy or a girl. I told her I wasn’t sure, she determined since flowers seemed feminine that the garden is a girl and the name should be Florissa. I thought that was a beautiful name! Get the family involved in the naming process.
These double Petunias remind me of a peony flower. I am a big fan of them!
This post is part of a series about garden design that started off with naming the garden and a naming ceremony, will continue with exploring the garden entrance, garden design personality types and a quiz to help with determining your garden personality, creating custom garden decor for each personality and how to incorporate them into your garden. We can notify you of new posts, just sign up for our newsletter and we will let you know when a new post is published.
Stay inspired and be creative!
