(Continued)

What struck me about Harland's garden were the beautiful color combinations, his rare plant collection, and the emotionally evocative sense of space. I was overwhelmed at my first visit and went home feeling depressed, wondering how I could ever approximate the beauty of color and space. Harland had a special genius for space, which was particularly evident to me when he remade my steep slope in 1988 and recycled the old brick and cobblestones from the paths and terrace to suggest the remains of a village near an ancient, unseen castle. In Pamela Harper's recent article in Pacific Horticulture ("Harland Hand: the Artist as Gardener," Spring 1999), she described various Hand gardens. Mine is the "nearly vertical garden in the small space behind an urban rowhouse, the garden's upper level higher than the roof."

I remember watching Harland from the upstairs window, as he worked directly on the land rather than from detailed drawings. Early in the morning he would walk around the mounds of dirt, absorbed in inner thought. When the workers arrived, he knew exactly where he wanted to place the rocks or the wet concrete. One time I arrived home after a long day in tedious depositions to find a little wall of San Francisco cobblestone outside the back door, a surprise wall not on the schematic drawing Harland had shown me before beginning construction. I telephoned him and mentioned the wall. "Isn't it wonderful!" he exclaimed, a statement more than a question.

Return to Page 1

Several years ago, as Harland was writing his book (which was bought by Chronicle Books and has not yet been published), he told me that the chapter he was having the hardest time with was the one on space. Articulating his theories and concepts of space was naturally difficult, as it is much easier to describe things, such as plants, or colors, for which there is a large vocabulary. He rewrote the chapter on space many times, and recently, when I read the last version, I felt that he had indeed succeeded in describing how to think about space in the garden, and why some spaces are so inspiring to us, and others so dull.

Harland preferred the arabesque to the axis. He liked to repeat curves, layer horizontals, and mass verticals to create a sense of calm. He would contrast verticals and horizontals, angles and curves of various sizes, to invoke a sense of drama and power. Essentially, if one imagines curving lines flowing up from the earth into the sky and back, like giant figure 8's, contrasting with linear elements (benches, yew-like plants), one has a good head start to creating that special sense of space that is characteristic of the Harland Hand gardens.

Continued