Local photographer Diane Guthrie has an eye for color and balance. When coupled with her lifelong passion for gardening the results are stunning. For over 26 years, Diane and Jim Guthrie have nurtured their west Lawrence garden, patiently allowing it to evolve into the beauty they enjoy today. Jim Guthrie is quick to point out that gardening is an evolutionary process. Their garden has “grown along with Diane’s growth as a gardener.” Periodically, though, garden expansion is less a process and more a case of “punctuated development” where new beds quickly explode under Diane’s careful eye. Such is the case with the flower beds leading to the front door, carefully adorned with colorful annual plants and the dry creek bed recently installed to address drainage issues.
Other beds have progressed more slowly, responding to a changing environment. Shaded beds now stand where once sun tolerate plants lived. As trees matured on the property, a wooded landscape emerged. In response, Diane has been experimenting with layers of green throughout the shaded areas of her garden. Spring color is provided by a forsythia hedge that serves as the backdrop to early bulbs, lilies and hellebores. The pond, complete with goldfish, provides movement and sound as it attracts a variety of wildlife to the sitting area. Trellises topped with flowering vines cross the stone pathway that eventually leads to Jim’s vegetable garden where mullein, onions, swiss chard, butternut squash and zuccato zucchini are among the favorites.
Tucked away at the back of the garden is a beehive producing honey for family and friends. The bees are particularly fond of the sweet smelling boxwoods and nearby locust trees. Other garden highlights include a magnolia tulip tree – Maggie – planted in honor of Diane’s grandmother, and an Asian pear tree planted in remembrance of September 11th. The space also provides an area for Diane’s outdoor yoga classes, where friends can move and mediate in view of peonies and other favorite perennials. Namaste!
Master Gardeners of Douglas County, KS 