WELL, AS EVERYONE now can see (or not), darkness is setting in every day now.
It is dark by 5 p.m., which sets a perfect canvas for outdoor holiday displays.
Soon, the magnificent light sculptures at all the Jamestown properties will be turned on. Residents of the Peninsula go crazy for those displays.
The reason we are going so crazy for lights is because of their absolute importance in the garden. Light sculptures are an ever-increasing, integral part of the year-round garden.
For starters, Butchart Gardens’ 1 billion lights attract more than 9,500 paying admirers a day to its magnificent creations.
Use existing landscape
The best holiday displays in the country are almost entirely at botanical gardens or other fine horticultural establishments. But that only makes sense. A vast majority of light art uses existing landscapes as its basic framework or inner structure.
It is on the trees, bushes, shrubs, rocks, trellises, driftwood, porches and balconies that we hang our luminescent delights.
A good garden, however, is far more than just the sum of all plants and hardscape. A beautiful garden is all about the contrast of colors, textures, sizes, heights and depths. It is about mood and feel, an intrinsic quality of harmony and balance.
The same can be said for lights and holiday arrangements.
The mood and emotions are all so vital as the lights illuminate feelings of joy and beauty. What we definitely have here on the Peninsula are long nights.
That is one of the major reasons why I implore you to join the light sculpture movement.
Turn gardens into surreal
We have the perfect backdrop of dark, dreary days, and many of us are negatively impacted by the dark drizzle. Light also gives gardeners a new look on the same old structure.
Even though you may have a drop-dead gorgeous red maple tree, in the dark days of fall and winter, it can be a surreal Dr. Seuss-looking tree with a turquoise trunk and stems of beautiful purple weeping branches. You can create whatever foliage color you desire, or make that bush as high or short or wide or narrow as you perfectly see.
So uplift your garden, your home, your mood and community as artful light displays begin to sprout everywhere around the Peninsula. Get those creative juices flowing as you design a visual display of light, color and depth.
Next week, I will oblige further by writing a column on pruning your evergreens and how right now is not only an ideal time, but a perfect chance to make marvelous arrangements in your existing flower beds or containers that can also act as a perfect temperature buffer for your bulbs or perennials.
But for now … stay well all!
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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).
