ABOVE: Ian Hamilton Finlay in his sculpture garden, called Little Sparta, outside Edinburgh. Finlay died yesterday at 80.

Ian Hamilton Finlay, like many people do, kept a garden. But his was a little different, a little stranger, a little better than most. Little Sparta is a garden sitting on six acres in the Pentland hills just south of Edinburgh, and it was there that Finlay laid out his arrangements of sculptures and plants, turning it eventually into one big garden of conceptualism (although that term is a little too flashy to describe what he made). He worked at Little Sparta for about 40 years, evolving it from a garden with some sculptures in it to a work of art itself—a 2005 survey of Scottish artists named Little Sparta as their favourite art work.

Well, Mr. Finlay shuffled off this mortal coil yesterday at the age of 80, leaving behind his garden, which will be preserved through the Little Sparta Trust, a fund dedicated to maintaining Little Sparta for visitors. Finlay had only been receiving serious artistic consideration in the last few years, so while the recognition was probably nice, it’s a little bittersweet given that it was so overdue.

LINK: The Scotsman > ‘Concrete poet’ Finlay dies age 80