PRAISE for Heaven is a Garden
“Jan Johnsen touches my soul with her insights on gardens, as well as on living life. You’ll be touched too as she teaches you how to create a divine, unhurried landscape with simplicity, sanctuary and delight.”
~ Jim Peterson, Publisher, Garden Design Magazine
“In Heaven is a Garden we take a voyage into the sublime heart of nature’s delights. Jan Johnsen guides us all into a flock of colors, heavenly textures, and the eternal wheel of the cosmos streaming into us from head to toe. To walk in Jan’s gardens is to capture nature by seeing more than you can remember and remembering more than you can see.”
~ Travis L. Price III, FAIA, architect, author of The Mythic Modern
“Mixing little known, fascinating facts with a sense of wonder about the environment, Jan Johnsen guides us through proven techniques to infuse serenity in our gardens. She begins with an explanation of three simple words: simplicity, sanctuary, and delight – the basis for creating gardens that inspire us and provide a place for reflection. With so many other good suggestions in this book as well, anyone who designs gardens should have this book on their resource shelf.”
~ Vanessa Gardner Nagel, designer, author, Director of Communications, Association of Professional Landscape Designers
“Heaven is a Garden transports the reader with an exquisite combination of ancient garden design principles and twenty-first century creativity and innovation. A definite must for every nature and garden enthusiast.”
~ Bente Hansen, author, energy healer
“Heaven is a garden, and similarly, a garden is heaven. Jan Johnsen brought heaven, beauty and tranquility to my own garden. She’s the best!”
~ John T. Mickel, Curator of Ferns Emeritus, New York Botanical Garden; Author of Ferns for American Gardens
Heaven is a Garden
Heaven is a Garden
Designing Serene Outdoor Spaces
for Inspiration and Reflection
Jan Johnsen
Heaven is a Garden
Designing Serene Spaces for Inspiration and Reflection
Copyright © 2014 by Jan Johnsen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.
ISBN-13: 978-0-9855622-9-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013941491
CIP information available upon request
First Edition, 2014
St. Lynn’s Press . POB 18680 . Pittsburgh, PA 15236
412.466.0790 . www.stlynnspress.com
Book design – Holly Rosborough
Editor – Catherine Dees
All photos © Jan Johnsen, with the exception of the following: Berkshire Botanical Garden, pages 51, 52; Diane Burdick, page 17, upper left; Caitlin Jean, page 83; Laura McKillop, pages 56 (upper l.), 84, 90, 92, 101; Courtesy of PWP Landscape Architecture, p. 68; Sam Rebben, page 87.
Illustrations on pages 39, 40 and 67 by Laura McKillop.
Printed in Canada
On certified FSC recycled paper using soy-based inks
This title and all of St. Lynn’s Press books may be purchased for educational, business or sales promotional use. For information please write: Special Markets Department . St. Lynn’s Press . POB 18680 . Pittsburgh, PA 15236
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To all the gardeners
past and present
who share their love
of Nature with others
in the best way they can…
Table of Contents
Chapter 2: Creating Music for the Eye
Chapter 3: Calling on the Trees
Chapter 6: Color – Nature’s Catalyst
* * *
Books You Might Find Interesting
Introduction
The glory of the garden lies in more than meets the eye.
– Rudyard Kipling
Have you ever experienced a moment when the wafting fragrance of flower blossoms captured your attention and lifted you away? Or when the birdsong around you was louder than the chatter in your head? This exquisite moment of stillness is what I call “stop time,” and it can occur anywhere and any time: while basking in the warm morning sun, gardening, or even as you hurry to your car! At these times, you may have paused, breathed in the fragrant air, enjoyed the trilling of the birds and felt a connection, for that instant, to the green world around you.
The boxwood bordering this patio adds a feeling of enclosure. The artful bench in the background acts as a visual focal point.
What if you knew that you could experience moments like this for the asking – that you could create your own outdoor environment to encourage such deep connections, such restorative reveries? In my forty years of transforming ordinary, even nondescript, sites into compelling landscapes, I have seen how light, color and trickling waters can work together to offer respite from a busy world and make our hearts sing. Thomas Moore wrote of this power in The