Gardens of Meaning:
Larry Weaner

For landscape designer and composer Larry Weaner, garden design and music composition have much in common. While one may be visual and the other sonic, both look to explore freedom of expression within formal constraints. Both are endlessly engaging pursuits, where no matter how much you know…there is always more to discover. Working with plants—like playing jazz—is a give and take, a call and response, where every action stimulates a reaction—with sometimes unexpected consequences. Weaner believes that understanding the principles and techniques of composition can help designers create “musical” landscapes that can evoke powerfully direct emotional responses, reveal themselves gracefully over time and the seasons, and incorporate elements of improvisation.

Larry Weaner, who founded Larry Weaner Landscape Associates in 1982, is a leading figure in North American landscape design and restoration. His award-winning work has been profiled in The New York Times, Garden Design, and Landscape Architecture Magazine, among other publications. His Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change received the 2017 Book Award from the American Horticultural Society.

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