DOSSIER

If you are lucky enough to have outdoor space, then most likely, you’ve already started your garden for the season. If you are like us, we are a little late to the game. We escaped NYC for our upstate cabin and our garden is at the forefront of my mind on most days. That is why I couldn’t be more excited to watch the film Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf this weekend. Streaming available this weekend only, Friday 24 April – Sunday 26 April 2020 via Hauser & Wirth.

Oudolf is best known in New York City for his landscape design of The High Line on the west side. His approach to landscape is that of an artist, his innate ability to design an outdoor space that will continue to give you beauty through all of the seasons. I’ve been reading Oudolf’s book, Planting: A New Perspective but I look forward to learning more through his film.

The director, Thomas Piper says “One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Piet talks about how gardens mimic our own life cycle of birth, life and death, but they do it every year, year after year,’ says Piper, ‘which is perhaps less about perseverance and endurance, and more about acceptance, or appreciation—appreciating the present moment, whatever stage that happens to be. Piet’s celebration of late fall and winter in a garden is ultimately a very optimistic act.”

If that isn’t inspiration enough to make you watch the film, then I don’t know what is.