
The garden of 13 Rue Méchain, Paris, France, in the early 1960s. Image by Horst.
This fall and winter you doubtless will be poring over seed catalogues and gazing with lust upon coffee-table books packed with seductive gardens. But why not consider allowing a portion of your landscape go artistically wild?
Tastemaker Pauline de Rothschild (1908-1976) saw no reason to have the lawn outside her apartment in Paris cut to manicured perfection, so why should you? Yes, neighborhood associations get fussy over grass left long and billowing but if you craft such an escape from normality with care and thoughtfulness, surely the naysayers might see its alternative beauty. Especially if you, like the baroness, clip your shrubs (in this case, boxwood) to spherical perfection and keep things it all generally tidy.
Or consider the subversive landscaping of Alice Throckmorton McLean (1886-1968), a New York socialite. In the 1920s at Tulip Hill, her estate in St James, Long Island, she startled her friends by incorporating a garden of weeds. It wasn't planted intentionally, by the way. After coming across a large area overrun with species less-brave individuals would nuke into submission, Mrs McLean blithely installed a path down its center and let the weeds grow, prosper, and be admired.