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with outreach and strategic planning. In 2015, the American Horticultural Society bestowed its highest honor on Fairey: the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award. A living thing, the garden is always evolving — and that's a constant source of both fascination and frustration. "We are charged with preserving the horticultural integrity of this place to the standards that John would want, but plants die and grow, they change," Twaddle says. "The gardens are getting shadier all the time, which has consequences. Light was incredibly important to John in the design of the garden." Fairey planted in layers so that sunlight coming through plants and trees of various heights and sizes would create unexpected and beautiful effects. "Parts of the garden would be dappled with light, others in deep shadows, then just inches away the sun would be shining brightly," highlighting a plant or area. Fairey also used plants and trees to create architectural spaces, and some of those areas are also threatened by lack of sun. Twaddle and his team are outlining a management plan to address such issues. They're also inviting experts who worked with Fairey to walk the gardens and suggest solutions in line with Fairey's original wishes. "There's no straightforward answer for any of these questions," Twaddle says. "That's why it's so difficult, and one of the reasons we need to be diligent in trying to understand John's intentions, to use that as the baseline. At the end of the day, what would John do?" The John Fairey Garden, 20559 FM 359 Road, Hempstead, 979.826.3232, jfgarden.org. FAIREY LAND "Back to the Garden," an exhibition of John Fairey's folk art collection will run through August 20, with limited hours. The show is a selection of works from The John Gaston Fairey Mexican Folk Art Collection at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas,featuring more than 500 pieces that John Fairey amassed over the years and exhibited in a gallery he created at the garden. jfgarden.org. Tree-like Yucca rostrata plants, native to Texas and Mexico, cast artistic shadows on the gravel berm. In the West Woodland Garden, a vibrantly blooming Chinese witch hazel tree is native to Asia but flourishes in Texas.