Gardening lessons fromParking Lots

摘要

For those seeking design and plant ideas for tough environments, botanical garden parking lots can be instructive places to start. AS I PULLED my rental car into the Denver Botanic Gardens' small parking lot some years ago, it was immediately clear that it was a very special place. I was suddenly eye-level with a strip of technicolor western native perennials. City noise was replaced by swishing grasses and birdsong. Despite being tired after a long day of traveling, it was wonderful to be welcomed by such beauty in a parking lot and to immediately see examples of tough, drought-resistant plants that thrive in low-maintenance areas in the dry West. Having previously traversed many a barren expanse of blistering hot, car-packed pavement at botanicalgardens across the country while pursuing my work as a garden photographer, this was definitely more like it.