From a article in today’s NY Times(Sally McGrane) . . . the last line:
“You accept death. You don’t take the plants out, because they still look good. And brown is also a color.”
Exactly, I agree 100%. Design the landscape for 4 seasons, not for the month the landscape looks the best, or for the 1-3 weeks a perennial or flowering shrub looks it’s best.
It’s more than the color of the flowers.
The Wisdom
Here’s some more good stuff from Piet
“If you have beautiful plants, it doesn’t mean your garden is beautiful. Something is complete when everything works together.”
and another;
“Normally, people who garden would have cut this back by now. The skeletons of the plants are for me as important as the flowers.”
“It’s not about life or death. “It’s about looking good.”
That is really good stuff
Design a garden that lives in and through the 4 seasons. Learning to appreciate the good and great with the not-so-good creates gardens that are more in tune with nature, more alive.
I think the absence of control is a good thing.
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Addendum: Link to the printed version of the article.
Link to the original web version of the article.
Photo’s are from the NY Times article, the photographer is Herman Wouters, here is the link to the accompanying slideshow with the article.
The Whispering Crane Institute 
You’re right… that is really good stuff. And for those people who may not readily appreciate the beauty of dead plants, one other thing to consider is this: What interest does a bed bared of cut-down plant skeletons give you? Really? (Bo-ring!)