Gardening to the heartbeat of the Muses

As an artist, I keep the elements of design in the forefront of most of my work in the world, no matter what it might be at the time. That includes gardening. Here in Louisville, Kentucky, my husband and I have been working on a series of native plants rain gardens in our yards for the past 6 years. Never have I enjoyed a design project as much as this one! "Gardening to the heartbeat of the muses" is how I describe the magical experience of working "WITH" the natural world. In every garden I've created over the years, I've sought to follow the lines and movement of the space as it already exists. If there's a crack in the patio, where I'm creating a patio container garden, I'll sometimes follow the crack and use it as a border in the space. In this rain gardens/dry prairie plants project in Kentucky, we've planted over 50 varieties of Kentucky native plant species. They know what to do better than we do, if we'll just give them their most natural environment of sun, shade, moist or dry soil. Along the pathways, I've painted child-level posts that a muse might like. "Monarch Way", "Bee Crossing Bridge", "Hummingbird Station" are some of the posts. Our little neighbor who is now 2 and 1/2 can easily lead others around to the stations via those posts.  While I'm sure any adult can find their way around the gardens, this just adds a wee little bit of the wonder of the muse to the garden experience! My "serious artist" work still has some of the magic of the muse, but is definitely better work than these. You can find my work, including prints, on my website: Anne Milligan Art and at Fine Art America