My Journey to Landscape Design & Garden Building (pt. 1)

River Lily (Hesperantha coccinea), Shore Acres 2023: David Taylor

Hi there! Thank you for coming on this journey with me as I make a pretty substantial career pivot. If you haven't read my post "Meet the Designer," that's me and I have recently made the decision to leave my comfort zone of 20 years. Academia was my home and much of my identity has been and is still built around being a biologist, an educator, a researcher, and a learner.

However, over the last several years the fulfillment I once felt in academia began to fade, and this last winter (2024/25) I realized it wasn't there at all. I had begun to spend more and more time thinking about this idea of garden design. Eventually, it became every free moment and many moments that should have been devoted to other tasks. I was thinking about gardens, landscapes big and small, and design, nonstop. You see, I have had a lifelong obsession with design - structural, mechanical, and aesthetic, a reasonable talent as an artist, and an incurable curiosity about nature. Finally, I could see a way to combine all of this while curing my longing to be outdoors, to create, and to find fulfillment. But you may still be asking yourself, why make gardens?

I remember my first ever visit to a botanical garden, I was 13 years old, my mom took my sister and I to Shore Acres State Park near Coos Bay, Oregon. Shore Acres was originally built between 1906 and 1907, and though it survived fires, suffered neglect, and was eventually purchased by the state of Oregon, its historical legacy has been preserved thanks to dedicated restoration and maintenance efforts of volunteers and state workers. Today Shore Acres State Park is the site of this 7 acre formal garden, that sparks to the imagination the botanical and formal gardens of Italy, France, and England during the 17th century, and even includes a small Japanese style garden and pond.

Though I have been to numerous botanical gardens since, and have made return visits to Shore Acres several times over the years, that first visit is perhaps the grain of sand around which the pearl, that is this story, began to form.

Until next time, take care and remember to thank the plants.

Cheers,

David