Is your garden “inauthentic”? Should you care?

Americans don’t need to look overseas to create something beautiful in the garden. In fact, author Claire Sawyer goes so far to say doing so is inauthentic in her new book, “The Authentic Garden: Five Principles for Cultivating a Sense of Place” ($34.95).

Gardens should reflect their time, place and culture, she says. Somehow, I don’t think she means plastic yard art from Wal-Mart and those little wood cutout people with the printed panties in the air. Here’s a question for the ages: does striving to be authentic make your actions inauthentic?

Here’s what the author suggests – you decide:

Capture the sense of place: Discover and preserve what is special about your site and work with what you have rather than struggling against it.

Derive beauty from function: Essential features such as a driveway, mailbox, or storage area offer opportunities to provide beauty as well as functionality to gardens.

Use humble materials: Using materials familiar and tied to the land, whether they’re indigenous, natural or recycled materials, helps convey a mood of modesty and casualness.

Marry the inside to the outside: Blur the lines between the built and the natural, between the architecture and the landscape; bring the outside in and take the inside out.

Involve the visitor: The more you and your visitors touch, smell, hear and see in the garden, the more profound and transformative the garden’s effect.