Colors are provided by 4 oakleaf hydrangeas, 2 Japanese maples, 3 amsonia hubrichtii and 1 redbud.

You know how you suddenly realize the colors in your garden are intense and the light is pretty good and you’d better act now to capture your best photos of the season? That happened this week, the perfect time to photograph my back yard at its fall peak. And of the dozen shots I took, this view through my porch screen really grabbed me. So I shared it on social media and boy, am I glad I did because people have shown it a LOT of love.   

My favorite reaction was that of a Facebook friend I’d never met, asking if she could use this photo to turn it into a painting and I say yes, of course! Then when I reread her request, it’s conditional: “If I turn it into a painting, it would appear in galleries New Castle or Wilmington, Delaware and in Cecil County Maryland where I live.” So to that “If” I say “Oh, please DO paint it! I’ll help you sell it!” 

The artist is Carol Mangano, whose paintings are often shown in my town. We also have a gardening connection – her brother, a professional gardener, lives near me and has a terrific lawn-free front garden.

Despite the newly discovered “if,” I’m psyched about the prospect of Carol’s interpretation of my garden, especially after reading that the piece would be titled “Susan’s Garden.” 

It makes sense that this shot in particular inspired an artist – so many commenters told me they mistook it for a painting at first glance.  I love that!

This is one of the other photos I shared with that first one. 

Counting all the votes

One of the places I shared the image was the “nolawns” group on Reddit, where after just two days it accumulated 3,209 “upvotes” (Reddit’s version of likes), which has blown my mind a bit. Some commenters asked questions about the plants, and others posted some version of “Inspo!” Then all those upvotes and comments more than doubled my accumulated Reddit karma! (If none of that makes sense to you, I’m reviewing Reddit for Gardeners next week and I’ll post the link to that here.)

But more than pleasing Reddit, the reaction to the image is “inspo” for me, too, the happy gardener.  Though the garden is mainly for me, it feels damn good to see it inspire others. You know, after struggling 14 years to design that little space.