Spirit of the Garden

By Ross Lamond

When I penned the first draft for my forthcoming publication ‘Spirit of a Place’ I did so sitting at a table on the veranda of a villa overlooking the Pai River in Thailand and the mist covered mountains beyond. The scene was provoking, and I realised the character I was writing about had to take another journey.
I decided he needed to go into the garden in a special way for my character is a landscape architect and had become lost in his ways. He was a traditional architect seeing the landscape as something of opportunities and constraints and responding to his client’s needs; something rather traditional and sterile and separate from the innate character of the landscape. He was missing something so essential, and that is ‘connectedness’.
I wanted to make my character different. I wanted him to become connected to the spirits of the land. His journey had been convoluted and perplexed because he couldn’t work out in his mind just what is a spirit. He knew they existed but how do we connect with them?
Realisations from his journey and travels to places like Turkey, Sri Lanka, Japan, Bali, and in particular, Myanmar; suggested the spirits of a place lay within the land itself. The land is the spirit became his discovery, a finding very ancient in its origins and made special by ancient cultures so long ago. My character realising here he was in the present time and discovering something ancient people held great respect for. They were able to connect with their surroundings in a very holistic manner.
A discovery for him perhaps, but how does a landscape architect who’s separated, alone and lost in direction, change his life to move forward with this new revelation enveloping his mind? He decided on the veranda of the villa at Pai, it lay in designing gardens for people who believed in the spirits of a place; especially their garden, and Wil (the character in the book) finding a direction in life, and doing them.
He felt the spirits of a garden come across in many ways, through that of Yin and Yang, Chi or Qi presence and its accumulation. He thought about entering the garden to create the scene and home for those spirits. For example, locating somewhere within a garden a garden seat so its occupant could connect with them. Realising spirits dance with the shadows of light and shade, they flow with a breeze or rain, come to us through the sound of a bird or the fragrance and colour of a flower. They were all of the land itself. The land harbours its spirits, they welcome or suppressive, enchanting or disruptive, whatever, but the more pleasant a place became, its spirits were content.
My character realised there was an inner glow that came from a spirit as it transcended into the mind as something to connect with. How to find it is so difficult and obscure. Maybe they lie within the mind waiting to be discovered or released so they can move out onto the landscape or surroundings and we attaching with them. The spirits of the land themselves waiting for someone like us to come and join with them. I’m sure birds, animals and plants or anything of life join with them. For they are guiding the relationship and behaviour of all things, all’s well or not.
The garden itself, whatever style, shape and configuration, location and climate all impact on our sensory perception of sight, sounds, scent, touch and taste; coming to us as we meet with them. Are these reactions and intimacy just a chance thing or do they guide us potentially towards a garden’s spirits, a gardens deeper glow? There isn’t ever likely to be a true answer and the garden’s spirits remain as they are.
I hope you enjoy the experience of reading ‘Spirit of a Garden’ as much as Wil (my character) had creating it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ross Lamond
• Release date: Jul 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9780987477019

Ross Lamond

Ross Lamond is the youngest member of a well-known and respected dairy farming family of the New South Wales South Coast, Australia. He schooled away from home, completing secondary studies at Sydney Grammar School, Sydney. Upon leaving school, Ross returned to the family farm and over a forty year period, gained extensive experience in dairying, beef cattle production, sugarcane, small crop cultivation and horticulture. An ever present interest in the garden naturalised into that of a nurseryman, landscape gardener and grower of in ground trees for landscape. Concern about environmental issues such as tree decline, dry land salinity and habitat degradation led Ross into external studies in Environment at Mitchell College of Advanced Education at Bathurst, followed by post graduate studies in Urban and Regional planning at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. A chance reading of a Feng Shui publication in 1998, introduced Ross to Feng Shui and its influence on our lives and surroundings. He applied some of its principles into the garden and developed his own interpretation of Feng Shui garnished through personal experience and observation. The interest has led Ross into a journey of self-discovery including that of nature, environmentalism and spirituality. It’s an ever growing interest. Ross lives by himself, has four grown up children, and likes to travel and garden and write about his experiences and observations.

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‘Spirit of the Garden’

Published by RossLamond.com at Smashwords

Copyright © 2013 by Ross Lamond

All rights reserved.

This work is owned by Ross Lamond and may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any manner without the exclusive permission of the owner. All materials including photos, illustrations, diagrams and character names are subject to copyright.

Cover design by Jannette Tibbs

Sculpture by Pauline Cutler of Moonee Beach, NSW, Australia

Diagrams by Jannette Tibbs and Ross Lamond

For information regarding other books by Ross Lamond, please contact

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Spirit of the Garden

ISBN 978-0-9874770-1-9

About the Author - Ross Lamond

Ross until about fifteen years ago practiced life as a farmer, horticulturist and landscape gardener. He was happy working with the land and life of the outdoors. He has four children.

In 1998, a chance introduction to Feng Shui drew Ross into the world of Yin and Yang, Chi, five element balance, and the landscape as a composition of energies relating to each other in a beneficial or inauspicious manner. He used the ideas in gardening and found people responded favourably to the garden treatments he applied. One such treatment was to break down the garden into a relationship between eight elements of light, shadow, shapes, colours, sounds, smells, movement and personal ambience to temperature and climatic influences. Ross found by balancing their individual Yin and Yang and balancing the eight; the garden energy was uplifted and harmonious.

Recently, Ross travelled to Pai, a village in Thailand to sketch an outline for a publication he labelled, ‘Spirit of a Place’. While developing his ideas he thought the garden is a place of spirits and as such, the gardener or visitor, could attach to them.

The mini book ‘Spirit of a Garden’ came from those ideas.

Ross at the time of writing is 66 years of age and lives at Arrawarra on the New South Wales Mid North Coast. This mini book with another four outlines different ideas for experiencing the garden and its surroundings.

Contents

Introduction

The Spirit of Yang - Yin and Yang, Getting the Yang Right

Spirits of the Mind - Our Mind, Connectedness in the Garden

Gateways to the Spirits - Entries, Parts in Between, Destinations

Spirit of the Curve - the meandering garden, no straight lines

Home for the Spirits - Special Space, Sacred Space

Awaiting the Spirits - the Humble Garden Seat

Image of a Spirit - Symbolism, Adornments

Spirit of a Flower - the Humble Flower, Zen

Dance of the Shadows - Light, Shadow - Mystery

Spirits of the Night - Night time, Lighting, Shadows, Unknowns

Pathway to the Spirits - the Garden visit, Walk in the Garden

Spirit of Life - Birds, Insects, Animals, Nature Itself

Talking to the Spirits - Sounds, Smells, Movement of Natural Things

Spirits of the Land - the Land Itself

Appendix: - Yin and Yang

Spirit of the Garden

Introduction

Irrespective of where a garden becomes located, be it in Australia, Tibet, Bali or the United States of America, it represents something of its owner and builder. It is a symbol of place and history. Gardens manifest themselves from people’s imagination and express themselves as physical representations of imaginary thoughts.

Gardens become collections of what they behold, representing images of time, place, memory or aspiration. They also represent the physical and are collections of energies and spirits. Gardens differ as they respond to their creator and the land underneath.

Spirits of the garden lay out there, waiting for the gardener or visitor to join with them. Garden spirits represent a place for life and home to other creatures that accept their energies and become part of all to represent the essence of something natural, and that of nature. Garden spirits represent all that makes up the garden including the gardens builder, its owner and carer.

The spirit of a garden may also represent the abuse and neglect of a place, control or dominance over nature, ignorance or selfish needs, and wantonness to take from the land. The spirits of that place, and of its owners, are so different to those from gardens of harmony and connectedness.

If there’s a lesson, there’s a better life to be part of spirits and energies of a beneficial place, a place that mimics something of nature and