MEMBER PROFILE
MARY ANN NEWCOMER
Daniel Mount – a gardener comes to term with green
PHOTO COURTESY DANIEL MOUNT
You might say that we have no idea where life will take us . No . Idea . Daniel Mount , of Mount Gardens , Carnation , Washington , has had a colorful gardening career path — one that has spanned a couple of continents .
“ I started out as an art major in college . I didn ’ t want to get dirty or be a farmer type . I had high ideals .” Those are the words of Daniel Mount .
When he went to college , Daniel was very much in love with art . “ I loved art so much . At some point , I found botany and switched majors . Art is always in the background . I did collage for many years , before becoming a full-time garden designer . It really helped my design skills ,” he said . “ I went to the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee , graduated with a degree in botany , a fine arts minor , did a stint as an intern and employee at the Missouri Botanical Garden and later discovered the forgiving gardening climate of the Pacific Northwest .”
He now gardens — as in getting dirty and being a farmer — and personally cares for seven acres of land just a stone ’ s throw from downtown Seattle . In the last year , the property — part of a designated marsh — has flooded seven times , and he has been forced to don chest waders to walk out and get to town .
VACATION JOB TO FULL-TIME GIG
Daniel comes from a big family where everyone gardens — some more famously than others . His great uncle was the head gardener at Casa Rosada , the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires , Argentina , in the 1930s .
At one time , Daniel was a gardener on the Isle of Elba , Napoleon ’ s Mediterranean island of exile . He told the story of living , gardening and bartending in Cologne , Germany . It was there that he came across a copy of Gardens Illustrated , which had an article on the gardens of the Eremo di Santa Caterina , off the coast of Tuscany .
“ I wrote the garden manager a letter , offering to garden in exchange for a place to vacation . I went , I gardened , I was there for a week and then Hans Berger offered me a job . How could I refuse ? I was wearing rose-colored gardening glasses ,” he said . “ I thought , ‘ Wow , I can live on an island — an island in Italy .’ ” The original idea was to create a garden representing the native and endemic plants as well as heirloom crops of the Tuscan Archipelago . Daniel explains , “ We wanted to create a preserve , as well as a public garden for education . I spent the better part of a year there . I have been back several times in the last decade to help with collecting plants and design ideas , and recently , two essays I wrote about that garden were published in Berlin in the book Giardini dell ’ Eremo .”
WORLD OF COLOR On this side of the world , Daniel is known for his award-winning essays on color . Last year he picked up a GWA Gold Media Award for his magazine article “ Over and Under the Rainbow : A Gardener Comes to Terms with Red ” and a Silver Award for the magazine article “ Over and Under the Rainbow : A Gardener Comes to Terms with Blue .”
“ The color series started with a garden design class I was teaching for the Northwest Horticultural Society ,” Daniel said . “ At the same time , I was doing an article for the quarterly magazine of the Pacific Horticulture Society on species tulips for Northwest gardens . After spending a year doing the research , I realized they were not especially good plants for the Northwest garden . At the last minute I asked my editor , Lorene Edwards Forkner , if I could switch to an article about color in the garden . She let me run with it .”
GARDEN WRITING When asked how he found his way to GWA , he told of taking a writing class from Debra Prinzing , who was president of the GWA at the time . “ She saw something in my early scratchings , considered me a budding garden writer and thought the organization would help me meet my goals as a garden writer . I joined in 2008 .”
Debra recalls teaching a half-day “ garden writing ” workshop in her living room for the Northwest Horticulture Society
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