Poet’s Garden: Summer Frost

We’re sharing our scheme for the International Garden Festival at the Jardin de Metis in Grand-Metis, Quebec, Canada. Three words from the famous Robert Frost poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening inspired this Poet’s Garden; lovely, dark and deep. The experience of our Poet’s Garden is intended to be like a journey through woods. A path, semi-enclosed by dark stained ‘stick fencing’ slopes down gently into the depths of the earth such that the smell of soil becomes apparent. Frost’s poem is set in winter, but in summer our journey ends in the ‘lovely’ circular ‘field’ of red poppies at the heart of the scheme. Warhol’s and van Gogh’s The Poet’s Garden were also influences as were Reford Gardens’ own Himalayan blue poppies. The last four lines of Frost’s poem are engraved on a bench on the East side. The garden has the potential to grow and evolve over time since poppies are self-seeding. As the poppies my perish in July, lavender is interspersed amongst them to prolong the enjoyment of flowers. In winter, the garden will more closely ‘resemble’ the poem. The wild-grass-covered open space could be used for events in the year(s) to come.