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Article Published in Wilmington Magazine AIRLIE GARDENS’ LANDSCAPE SHOWCASEThe Green Man: A landscape masterpiece
 pproaching the small
garden, visitors are met by a waist-high gate forged with great care
by human hands. Upon the gate lives an iron image of one of man’s
most ancient symbols of nature: the Green Man. Beyond him is a garden that is eerie yet soothing. All of the minute details have been carefully placed to create a supernatural air that the English may have felt walking out onto the Moors at night. The garden is among nine created by local landscapers and garden clubs for Airlie Gardens’ annual Landscape Showcase, which will remain in place until November. In June, the Green Man was voted the best of the best in the 2004 Showcase. For thousands of years, the Green Man’s facade has lived in primeval caves and on aged tombs throughout Europe and Asia. Oral traditions and physical representations of him have maintained his ability to create an understanding and connection between humankind and the environment. The Green Man embodies the notions of rejuvenation and rebirth, the cycle of life and death. Without one, the other does not exist. Nature reveals this balance in the elements: light and dark, water and earth, stone and living plants. The elaborate garden creation is the work of Lloyd Brinkley, a landscape artist for more than 20 years and owner of Lloyd’s of Landscape in Ogden. Walking with him through his nursery on North Market Street, you wouldn’t figure him a high-brow intellect – his fingernails and faded T-shirt are proof of time spent with dirt, his permanent tan of long hours in the sun. He seems more at home with black-eyed Susans and crepe myrtles than research books. But let him get started on the Green Man, and you soon see the time he’s spent in history books and architectural magazines to find inspiration for his projects. “It’s fascinating what the Green Man can teach us,” Mr. Brinkley said. “Read the books, go on the Internet. The research on him dates back centuries.” Invoking the prehistoric yet eternal spirit of the Green Man and incorporating all of the elements of nature, Mr. Brinkley crafted a masterpiece using land as his canvas. Stepping inside the gate, the garden envelops and surrounds. At the forefront, there lies a circular cobblestone veranda. A gentle waterfall resides in the heart of the garden. Horticulture from the past, such as the Japanese evergreen oak and the magnificent magnolia, and contemporary plants like the drupacea yew and the East Indian holly fern inhabit the land. Daylight exposes the obvious beauty, while after dusk, a second, hidden countenance of the Green Man is unveiled behind the waterfall from an underwater lamp. And the final touches of the garden lie on the backside of the gate, visible only to those who have entered that realm. Within the intricate pattern created by Wilmington artisan Alex Moss are the Celtic knot and the Knights of Templar cross. This year’s garden took two months to plan. Participants are given one month to build, and most gardens are finished in a week or two. Mr. Brinkley and his staff needed all of January to complete theirs. The garden rises 15 feet from the flat ground, an instant visual aspect that separates it from the competition. “In a 20- by 24-foot space, it’s got to be intense,” Mr. Brinkley said. That it is. Being drawn into the garden, being surrounded by the garden, becoming one with garden – all culminates with the Green Man, showing the true genius of the design and the designer. |
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