Garden Hearts

Images taken by Felder of heart-shaped garden stuff

Every Valentine’s Day I give my sweetheart Terryl a collage of iconic heart-shaped symbols, all taken in garden settings.

One year I made her a tire planter with small red hearts all around the rim, and I even have a small heart-shaped tattoo on my chest with her name in it. And I’m not alone in this display of desire, affection, and loyalty. The shape, which is one of the best-recognized symbols in history and all over the world, was used in pottery and other art as long as 5,000 years ago, usually depicting leaves. The fig leaf became heart-shaped in Buddism, and symbolizes enlightenment. By the 12th and 13th centuries A.D. it was being used widely to depict “love” in its many splendors, including both spiritual (eternal love and faithfulness) and physical (erotic, physical love). By the late 1400s it was showing up on decks of playing cards, and from there it became a cultural mainstay, culminating in Victorian-era St. Valentine’s Day cards.

In garden settings I have found hearts painted on walls, cut into fences, made out of bent metal, planted in daffodils, and made out of pebbles and pottery bits impressed into concrete. I have a pair of plastic pink flamingos creating a heart shape as they face one another intimately. There’s even a cool blue stained glass one overlooking the grave of Elvis.

The Garden Heart is here to stay. Does your garden have <3 ?

(think about that symbol - look familiar?)

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