" To think I have the ability to create what nature has already said to perfection would be foolish. If I can illuminate and be sensitive enough to rearrange the words that are rooted in her language, perhaps I will have the ability to invite others to feel inspired, uplifted and healed by her metaphors." Meg Lord
Standing beside the beautiful Cedar that was dug up as a sapling before my mother died from where we lived. She donated it to the Longfellow Arboretum in Portland Maine and now grows in memory of her.
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Mom and I enjoy a rest together after our walk at the Ashumet Holly Reservation |
Finding solace (11yrs old)
I come from a long line of conservationists, preservationists, artists and gardeners. Meg Lord Landscaping was created out of the combination of my deep respect and stewardship I feel towards the land and my passion to create.
I have been designing, installing and maintaining landscapes for 35 years. I have a BFA in Painting from The Portland School of Art (now MECA). Before moving to Portland, I studied Botany and Horticulture at The University of Vermont. But... the knowledge I value the most has come from the "hands on" observations I have experienced over the many years of having my hands dirty.
Those quiet intimate observations have carried me to where I land now; with an undeniable feeling of responsibility to use my 35 years of experience to support and advocate for the health and healing of this Earth and her incredibly important ecosystems.
I have a love for aesthetics with a background in design but above all else, remain vigilant that I am working with living energy. I am only one in a larger conversation; what is true in one spot may not be in the next. I have learned to love and respect that. What I have been told, what I have read in a book dwarfs in comparison to what I have learned from the plants themselves over all these years. This is what I value the most. This is what builds reverence.
I seem to have developed a "reputation" for "always trying to save and protect trees and existing plant material" It has certainly come with strong resistance, at times, but my best days have been the ones where my convictions have helped educate my clients and left another tree standing or another shrub producing fruit for the coming winter for migrating birds, safe cover and homes for other inhabitants sharing the landscape.
Bridging my desire to create what is asked of me and my unspoken connection to this earth, to the understanding and implications of my actions, to communicate for the unseen as well as the seen has been the challenge. That thread has often pulled on my heart but in its unraveling, it has rewoven an even deeper desire to more intentionally create. We need environments that both support and sustain a biodiversity. In truth, this community is essential to Earths existence and to those she has so generously given her resources to even under such dire circumstances.
I feel excited and proud when I hear old crew members carry on with the same "code of ethics", in their own work, that I hoped to instill through my devotion and reciprocity to all that is sacred. It takes community to pass from one hand in the soil to another, baring witness to our capacity to make change unknowingly. Changes that will ripple out and influence the larger web of life under and "above" ground.
I continue to feel an enormous gratitude to my roots, to the elders and people who have shared their stories and time with me.
Sandy Chipman, a pioneer in her own right, among women organic gardeners and herbalists, an incredible house/home builder, a member of the infamous all women 'Nomad Builders', dear friend of Helen and Scott Nearing hired me willingly without much experience. We worked hard and I loved it. Several times we stopped to haul blasted rock from a road construction crew that we turned into gorgeous terraced walls and steps for an entry she designed; she taught me by example, not to waste a thing!
Many years later I was driving in a coastal area and stopped when I saw a beautiful sapling fence. I KNEW it was her. She opened the gate into her magical space built using everything she had to clear in order to build her home...everything was reused respectfully; the soil, the rocks, the saplings and the mature trees. Our visit ended with that same child like excitement I witnessed while working for her. She took me to a shady wooded corner she had left disturbed to show me the beautiful Cypripedium (Lady Slippers). Her influence runs through my blood and I feel truly honored to have been so lucky for her to have taken me on.
Then there are the elders. "Meg loves plants, animals and old people!" the crew would say. Yes, and I have always loved listening to their stories.
Earl Lange became a dear friend while working on the "Old Payson Estate". I remember the day I met him and after talking for awhile , he took my hand in both of his and kindly said "Im going to enjoy working with you!" He and I both recognized in one another the deep respect for the land. He had worked on this estate since a teenager under his mentor Cram. He said he "was ashamed he didn't know any of the fancy names of the plants " but he "knew them all personally and did his best to give them what they needed". I sat many times listening to stories he and Cram and another friend shared with me over evenings of "the blue plate special". He spoke about carrying seedlings over to Peaks Island on the old ferry. He told me about "how it used to be" describing the old estates before all the new building. He told me which community had which type of soil before "they hauled it all in and changed everything." He knew the land, he loved the land. I got to listen to these wonderful stories and feel his compassion and the stewardship with which he lived his simple life caring passionately for what he knew someday may be gone.
These are my teachers. The most profound lessons have come from the plants themselves. I have always found grace in the wild places, living rurally and retreating to the woods, the dessert, the ocean. I need to return what they have gifted me. My connection this earth is unwavering and my passion to share with others the profound importance of helping her now. I need to align my work more purposely with my heart.
My intention has always been to create spaces that are beautiful, that lift the spirit and bring more joy to those who enter them. That hasn't changed and never will! I am not a purist. But perhaps I can do it more eloquently by building on the native community that remains and building back what has been lost in the process.
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Spending time with my friends the late Edna and Mac (George) MacKinnon became one of my favorite things to look forward to in Spring. They were the owners of The Waquoit Heather Nursery, "one of the best Heather Nurseries on the east coast. I happen to have grown up in Waquoit. |
The Whirligig that Mac made and gave to me that I fly in memory of them. It was the first he made and 'survived all the hurricanes on the Cape. It should be well suited for Maine!'
~I invite you down my other path~
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