Landscape and Garden as Language

Meeting with a client over the weekend, speaking of a bare soil area under the shade of some Pine trees, I suggested we just put mulch instead of trying to grow grass that will never grow. Recognizing at the same time this mulched area would, if the client chose for a more manicured look, cause more work in managing spontaneous naturally occuring vegetation, I pointed out that we are only mulching as a sign, to signify, like a word, only in landscape not text, that there is human intention, intelligence, and care given to this space.

​...

This morning
over coffee
I continued my perusal of Walter Benjamin's essay "The Task of the Translator"...

"The question of whether a work is translatable has duel meaning. Either: Will an adequate translator ever be found among the totality of its readers? Or, more pertinently: Does its nature lend itself to translation and, therefore, in view of the significance of the mode, call for it?"

...
...
...

Every reading is a translation
from a language
into experience

...

As a designer
For example with my recent clients
My work is to understand
the basic elementary language
of mulched beds.
It does exist.

A language
that is to you
an unconscious structure
But to me
and object of study
that I live to be outside of
So that I can do my work
as a translator
of the worlds you both imagine and walk in.