Things that shape you - a case of a Book Spread Idea

What is your favourite picture book spread?

I love analysing ideas. Seeing them form out of thin air like water vapour breathing out a dew drop, pulling into puddles, bulking up and finally breaking into a stream aimed to trigger an action. So when Illoguild chose a question for October “What is your favourite picture book spread?” I dug for spreads with a great idea.

“Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes

In 2016 I looked into children books on ecology to read to my 2-year-old. I stumbled on this gold nugget published in 2009. “The curious garden” by Peter Brown. It is a story of a garden being born on a derelict railroad and greenery overtaking a city.

It became our favourite book for a while. What’s more, I will realise later, it was an inception moment for me. This spread.

A seed of an idea, a possibility of a garden that can take care of itself. That can change and grow, look wild but welcoming, that would defy borders and invite people into the world of plants. That would be as self-sustainable as possible relying on hardy grasses and local flora.

Then life happened.

Fast forward 7 years to now - I am buying a piece of land in a village to plant a garden and embarking on a year long educational program in Gardening. And for the past month I am working on a landscape architecture design for my garden.

I start researching low-maintenance gardens and find the magnificent naturalistic gardens by Piet Oudolf. The concept resonates with my vision and seems ideal for my piece of land in a village without borders where fields meet the sky uninterrupted. I read Oudolf’s books, I study his planting schemes, I suck in the concepts of this wave of gardening.

And only when doing my Landscape Architecture model presentation, summarising my work and research I notice that among an impressive list of gardens Oudolf created these past several decades there is The Highline Garden in New York. A garden built on a railroad. Same lush wild garden that, now I discover, inspired Peter Brown to write the book “The curious garden”. Bam.

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"The mind that opens to new ideas never returns to its original size"

Albert Einstein

I know how my garden is going to look now. Where everything will go. It might take a while, it might take a lot. But I’ve planted my first 12 out of 500 plants and I marvel at the idea that my garden will actually be in a way a live memory of a children book spread.

A reminder to myself - ideas are important, spread positive ones, don’t be afraid of repetition, there are a million ways to look at a subject. Trust in whatever dew drop of creativity you find in the world - someone else is bound to see it your way and build on it. And maybe bring it to life.

Btw, did you notice the unintentional quote of a niwaki tree from the cover?.