The Beatles and the Beeches
“There are places I remember all my life though some have changed, some forever not for better. Some have gone, and some remain. All these places have their moments with lovers and friends I still can recall. Some are dead and some are living, in my life I’ve loved them all.” – The Beatles.
We all have those places, people and moments that will be with us forever. The memories keep coming back like the chorus in our favorite songs or the the threads interwoven in our favorite fabric. The same is true in nature and our favorite landscapes and places. There is something in their presence that keeps coming back no matter how much they change or even if they are gone to remind us of the pure innocence yet wildness that takes us away in their midst. When it comes to the plants and animals in those places I have loved them all, but there is one tree that all my life has emerged, returned and in some cases is gone, yet in my life I’ve loved it more.
The Beech is a magical tree for me. As a small child growing up in a small college town, I lived next to one of the greatest gardeners the town had ever known. I was about six years old and he was in his sixties, and in his yard was the only Beech in town. He had planted that tree from a small mail order twig some forty years earlier. It’s branches were rarely touched with a pair of pruners and draped all the way to the ground. When he first took me inside of the canopy to show me the glory of the bark, it was like entering some hallowed Cathedral and once inside that seemingly old man turned into every bit of the six year old I was. Like so many other people and places they are both gone from my life now, forever if not for better. Yet I am sure that tree still remains, continues to provide magic to someone and sparks fires in the hearts of gardeners.
Like so many people that have come and gone from our lives, Beeches keep coming into mine. When I first started learning the basics of design and a vast knowledge of plants under the tutilage of my first mentor (now the director of the Kauffman Memorial Gardens), one of our favorite journeys was to a giant Purple Beech. It resided in the garden of an old science library with some of Cupernicus’ original handwritten journals and the toys he created to prove his theories. That Beech’s bark still brought out the six year old in me. When I first had my calling and knew for the first time I had to go into design, I was sitting under an American Beech originally planted by George Kessler as I was overcome by one his greatest designs. From the comfort and protection of that Beech I was able to see how he had physically and emotionally moved me through the landscape and how I could someday do the same for others. When I came to Asheville to buy a new home to settle, as we entered the Smokies from Tennessee, the golden leaves of juvenile trees in winter lit up the under story of the mountains. They led the way like gold coins sparkling in the forest all the way through the gorge.
Now as I sit on the side of my mountain, many of those places and Beeches are gone forever, if not for better. But for having known them I am a better person, and I have loved them all. Just as is true for having known the people who introduced them to me along the way. Now I am surrounded by Beeches, and the people and places I love are the fabric of my life. Sometimes I take them for granted and need The Beatles to remind me they won’t be there forever. As I built Botany Buddy this summer, when I needed to get away I would retreat through the grove of Beeches outside my back door to journey to the creek and escape. Yet somehow, I managed to forget to include them in the original library. For that I apologize to everyone, but especially to the Beeches. Sometimes we just need our favorite songs to remind us of the love that surrounds us here and now because it might not be there forever.
“But of all these friends and lovers there is no one compares with you, and these memories lose their meaning when I think of love as something new. Though I know I’ll never lose affection for people and things that went before. I know I’ll often stop and think about them. In my life, I love you more.” - In My Life – The Beatles
