The Monet Bridge in the Gibbs Gardens
Claude Monet, 1840-1926
Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, 1899
Oil on canvas
36 1/2 x 29 in.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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Garden Smart is a show which features gardens and gardeners around the United States. This week, the host of the program, Eric Johnson, went to Georgia, to the Gibbs Gardens in Atlanta, where landscaper architect Jim Gibbs has designed his own home's garden.
Gibbs talks about his initial idea of designing his garden, and how he went about collecting the plants and designing the landscape.
Below is the full (26 minute) video of Garden Smart showcasing the Gibbs Gardens.
This excerpt starts around the 5 minute mark of the video, and ends around the 7 minute mark:
- Johnson: Today we're going to visit your opus, your masterpiece, Gibbs Garden. I can't wait to tour it.Jim Gibbs then talks extensively about his daffodils, and later about his flowering trees, and especially on how to prune crepe myrtles.
- Gibbs: Thank you, I look forward to showing it to you.
- Johnson: why did you select this site?
- Gibbs: In 1973, I knew that I wanted to build a world class garden. But I knew that first of all, I had to come up with a criteria for searching for and. I knew that I needed an abundance of water. I needed a mature, forest setting. I wanted to make sure that we had rolling topography to feature all the plant material...So I started searching for land in 1980, and I found this beautiful piece of property. There was no question I had all the water that I needed. Hundreds of springs everywhere. And a stream that flowed through the valley. And I would be able to create all of the ponds - there were 32 ponds I wanted to build - the bridge crossings and the waterfalls.
- Johnson: This garden has a very old look about it. And you said you started in 1980, so this is a 33 year-old garden. It looks like it's been here for over a hundred years.
- Gibbs: Most people that come to the Gibbs garden say: "Did you inherit this from your parents?" And of course, if you can find a piece of property as beautiful as this is with all the natural formations that we had, it'd make such a difference, because so many gardens that have been built have started as prairie land and it takes seven years just to make the garden have enough age and maturity.
- Johnson: Sure. Give us a quick overview of the garden.
- Gibbs: We actually have sixteen garden venues. Three of these are feature gardens. And they serve as the three magnets that pull people from one point to the next. And within those three magnets, we've been able to develop the other sixteen garden venues. So when you come to Gibbs Gardens, if you come every three weeks, you're going to see something different in bloom. It was designed that way from the first of March to the middle of December. So we like for people to come and see every bloom festival. And we have a calendar that shows our flower festivals and our music festivals
Below is a map of the garden, showing the Monet bridge, the waterlily garden, and the daffodils which cover a large area of the garden.
Crepe myrtle (also known as crape myrtle) from the Gibbs Gardens,
which are located in northern part of the garden.
Pruning crepe myrtle is not essential, but aesthetically recommended.
Other interviews of gardeners by Johnson can be viewed here.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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