A passion, already from my early boyhood, is designing gardens. 
The moment I could climb, I lived in and under a cherry-tree. This
tree formed the center of my tiny cosmos. It was the hat-rack of 
many outdoor experiences I had for the first time. The tree was  
the spine of a world and yet, it was also self a world on its own.  
The millions of pink-white flowers in spring and their fuddling  
fragrances that made you walk on clouds, the growing fruit 
shaming itself in the end for bending to the earth with a red that 
darkened slowly day by day, the blackbirds that nested in it   
singing all day from the earliest dawn till the sandman came   
at my bedside always too early in the evening, the army of ants 
marching up and down the stem too busy with solving riddles 
they only could tell themselves, the horizontal curling strokes of  
rind that in tearing away comforted sad moments so gently and  
well, the cruel yellowing of the leaves in autumn and the strong 
scents in the crown almost malicious but strength dispersing at  
the same time too. An inspiring world to interact with.
       

  

                               

    

                                     Another favorite plant will lifelong be the "Japanese lily" that
                                     grew underneath that cherry-tree. On this page a picture is
                                     shown from a corner of a garden I designed long ago at my 
                                     parents'. Of course a Hosta undulata is flowering, alongside
                                     an Agrostemma - the flower Plato seems to have liked - and
                                     the very decorative Senecio accompanied by Coreopsis. 
                                     The Senecio will flower later in the year, as the nearby Azalea
                                     does in spring together with a lot of bulbous plants. Quite
                                     dominant in view in early summer on this 'yellow' spot near the
                                     three little ponds is also the Hemerocallis - in the center - and 
                                     the Telekia ("Hera's eyes" as I call them following its popular
                                     name: "cow's eyes") at the right, and in the back together with 
                                     a little field of ferns. Against a wall where the pipes and the 
                                     other techniques for the water-falls are hidden, one of the few 
                                     grape species that will grow fruits in the Netherlands is 
                                     developing well. The main idea of this spot is that in the progress 
                                     of spring a colorful harmony grows, that slowly fades away into 
                                     a complete different, almost uncolored, summer harmony with 
                                     a contrast full variety of leaf forms. It all makes up also a nice 
                                     little South-East garden with a minimum of maintenance only at
                                     the end of winter.
                                     Next a close-up is shown of the Senecio and (in highly contrast) 
                                     the flowering Coreopsis,  that is called in the Netherlands:
                                     "Girl's Eyes".

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