Where do you go for garden inspiration?

Where do you seek inspiration for your garden?

Oftentimes, in spring, we are "inspired" at the local garden center or nursery--caught up in the color and textures of spring flowers after a long winter.

But come autumn and through winter, I draw inspiration for both my garden and my writing from natural areas--whether it's a walk in the woods surrounding our home, or to this nature preserve in Michigan--a stand of dying red pines, which will give way to native trees and shrubs through the careful hand of the DNR's naturalists.

It could be our local prairie, where red-tail hawks glide high on a current in search of lunch. Or plantings at the botanic garden and the arboretum. Or perhaps it's at the water's edge where trees cast their autumn reflections while fish surface to grab an insect.

Maybe it's a book. The writings of John Burrough's, an American naturalist from the late 19th Century, and of Wendell Berry, provide insights and feelings about land both natural and cultivated. And soon it will be a walk or a cross-country ski across the fields after the first few inches of snow falls. Fulfillment comes not just in planting a few containers or snapping up a new variety of perennial or shrub. It's about observing nature around us, both in our own gardens and in public places.

Waiting for a bus along Chicago's very busy Michigan Avenue in the past few weeks, I've spotted brown creepers, moving from the base of the honey locust trees, in search of insects during their migration south. The temperatures have dipped below freezing in our garden, yet the next day, there are golden skippers--butterflies looking for nectar on the still-blooming salvias. And honey bees doing the same thing. Observe. Reflect. And bloom.