Mom's Tale

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Exhibition of kind and light ideas for the landscape

It was under such a kind name, caressing the ear and taking away in the most carefree time of life, on the territory of the Kuzminki estate, located in the South-Eastern Administrative District of Moscow, from June 29 to September 10, 2013, the 13th regional festival of flower beds and landscape architecture was held.

The 66 compositions presented at the festival were dedicated not only directly to the topic of domestic and foreign fairy tales (which suggests itself), but also, if you look deeper, to motherhood, child protection, the development of the institution of marriage and family, and the solution of demographic and social problems.

As always, the authors of the compositions showed their imagination not only in their physical expression, but also in their names: "Fly, fly, petal …", "Gingerbread man, I'll eat you", "Goldfish", "Terem-teremok", " Merry Carousel "," Tenderness "," Butterflies-Girlfriends "," Scarlet Sails "," Fairy Village "," King of the Seas "," Ryaba Hen "," Frog Backwater "," Childhood "," Swan Princess "," Gnomes at Work "," Rainbow "," Snail-Florist "," Fairy Courtyard "," Children, Don't Go Walking to Africa! "," King of Chess "," Valley of Flowers "," Good and Evil "," Serve here is our sun "," Miracle tree "," Friendly family "," Geese-swans ", etc.

It is not surprising that the basis of the compositions was made up of traditional, unpretentious and stable in urban conditions varietal annuals (or perennials grown in annual culture): ever-flowering and tuberous begonias, marigolds, coleus, petunias, cineraria, ageratum, salvia, cellosia. Among them, the varieties of begonias, marigolds, coleus and petunias are especially striking in their diversity. Perennial plants were also included in some compositions: irises, daylilies, young thujas, spruces and pines, roses, hosts, liatris, buzulnik, lawn grasses.

At the finished festival, we noted a new trend that had not been encountered at previous festivals: the harmonious inclusion of openly vegetable plants in the composition: tomatoes, cucumbers, white cabbage, beets, sunflowers. This is quite a good and quite original idea for its implementation in the new season on their sites.

In addition to flowering and decorative leafy plants, some compositions used decorative chips and marble dumping, less often - large and small pebbles. The voluminous or flat compositions, demonstrating the wonders of modern printing, were revived by figurines of fairy-tale characters (miracle Yudo fish-whale, three little pigs, Baba Yaga, Kolobok, Goldfish, Princess Frog, Poseidon, geese-swans, Ivan the Fool, Little Red Riding Hood, Mother Goose, Buratino, Firebird, Tsarevna Nesmeyana, Ivan Tsarevich, a straw goby … and even Shrek).

In addition to them, the compositions contained houses, stoves, a hut on chicken legs, a ship with scarlet sails, filled with water or imitated reservoirs, chess pieces reaching human height, etc.

"Scarlet Sails"	"Merry carousel"

Personally, we most remembered three compositions: "Fairy Tale" - with a prince, princess, elves and a beautiful castle, "Tenderness" - with photographs of mothers and their children depicted on the boards, and especially "Fairy Village" - with three piglets, Kolobok and all the heroes fairy tales about the turnip.

Visiting this annual festival and others like it brings not only joy and aesthetic pleasure, but also suggests ideas that you can embody in your garden.

Alexey Antsiferov, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences

Polina Bezukladova

Photo by the authors