Botanica Atlanta - Landscape Design, Construction & Maintenance

The vernal equinox will occur this Saturday at 1:32 pm EDT. This is the “precise” moment that the earth is closest to the sun in its spring orbital path, and also the exact point in the spring when day and night are of nearly equal lengths at all latitudes. (“Nearly” is in part due to the fact that a year is 365.25 days but we'll not digress.)  The dichotomy of this statement is in itself symbolic - there cannot be balance without distinct and opposed things, concepts or feelings.  In this case day and night. 

As it relates to the landscape, we have sun and shade, dry and moist, and deciduous and evergreen.  Mark Rothko's abstract paintings symbolize this notion of distinct and opposed elements and the minimalist style suggests horizons where earth meets sky....the most basic of dichotomies in the landscape.

“Equal”conjures up thoughts of balance, and this is a welcome idea. Balance is fleeting, of course, because we are crossing the point of equilibrium in a path towards the opposite extreme. Still, after this unseasonably cold winter there is more than momentary comfort in the prospect of the other side. The side that offers warmth and light. The side that offers abundance of bloom, fruit, vegetable and seed.

Today’s collage (all photos courtesy of ArtRepublic.com) is a colorful rendering of balance as an abstract concept, each painting selected to represent the nearly balanced – within itself and relative to the others...just how nature is, imperfectly balanced.

Maybe it’s just the time of year, but the collage began to suggest seed packets to me as I was writing this.  If you are the sort of gardener who collects seeds to perpetuate your garden or trade with friends, make unique, memorable seed packets by downloading this seed packet template and accessing images of art masterpieces on the internet.  With scissors, glue, a printer and your computer’s picture manager software (for image re-sizing and cropping), you can easily make your seed packets works of art.  Use the template as a stencil, by placing it under a piece of clear plastic cut from a gallon milk jug and tracing the seed packet outline onto the plastic with a permanent marker.  Carefully cut out the plastic seed packet stencil.  Then, use the stencil to trace the seed packet outline onto printouts of your images.  Cut out the seed packet, label and date them with the marker, and fold and glue three sides closed.  Allow to dry.  Fill, then fold and tape the top side shut.

- Author: Cloud Q. Conrad