Article by Maggie Lee, Terra Flora Garden Design
Last year in early November with warm weather still with us, I sat in the forest along the Big Tesuque listening to its warbling stream, its edges softened with tussocks of autumned grasses. Above, spires of Douglas Fir punctuate the honey sheen on graygreen trunks of swaying Aspens. Long arches of these fallen and weathered trees frame the bare-branched understory of Tea Leaf Willow, Currant and Rock Spirea. Dangling seedheads of amber-mauve hued grasses, ruby berried Kinnikinnick and icee blue Pussytoes, weave together this forest enclave. In-hand with pen and paper, I notice shadows from the low branches of the evergreen Fir moving gently across the white page. Nearby mica is sparkling off granite stone strewn with fallen leaves, twigs and branches, while a spider slides over tuffets of grass and an indigo-orange butterfly floats through the air. A refreshing comfort seeps in, as I reflect on this constellation of visual cohesiveness and how it reveals the deep ecology of a biologically- rich environment, rich in relationship as well as species.
