GardenDesignOnline

Saving Landscapes

Landscapes often get the short shrift when it comes to historic preservation, although the contributions of landscape architects and designers are just as important to the country's cultural legacy as historic buildings and monuments. Now,The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has released it's third biennial list of endangered properties, Landslides 2006, which focuses on American Gardens at risk.

The 18 unique gardens on this year's list include public and private landscapes designed by some of America's most famous landscape architects as well as others designed by horticulturists or homeowners.  The gardens at Gibraltar  in Wilmington, DE, were designed by Marian Coffin in 1916.  She was one of the best known landscape architects during the "Country Place Era" from the late 1800's until World War II.  This garden, with Italianate design and English planting style, is laid out in a series of terraces that descend 30 feet, connected by a curving marble staircase.  Now a public garden, Gibraltar needs volunteers and money to continue restoration and to maintain the garden for future generations.

In Yachats, Oregon, Jim & Janis Gerdemann have spent 25 years creating a masterpiece woodland garden on three and a half acres right next door to the Siuslaw National Forest and facing the Pacific ocean.  The garden is filled with native perennials (trillium, viola, columbine, Western lily); rare rhododendrons; and unusual plants from abroad, including New Zealand tree ferns, the Chilean flame tree, Grevillia from Australia, and many more. It's also home to a variety of wildlife, and the rare Giant Pacific Salamander has been sighted three times.  The Gerdemanns are now in their 80's and in declining health. The garden could be subdivided upon their deaths, but they are seeking ideas on ways to preserve it for the future.

(photos: TCLF)

Plant More, Plant Different Species

Landscape designers like to plant masses of one perennial, one tree or one shrub to "make a statement," but perhaps everyone ought to re-think the issue.  A major new study published in this week's issue of the journal Nature  concludes that ecosystems with many different plant species are less vulnerable to disease and pests, are more productive, and recover more easily from extreme variations in climate.

Over a 12-year period, scientists at the University of Minnesota and the University of Nebraska conducted experiments to determine if plant diversity affects the stability of ecosystems. The experiments took place at the National Science Foundation's Cedar Creek Natural History Area.  According to Martin Caldwell, program director of the NSF's Division of Environmental Biology, "This study clearly demonstrates that stability of a plant community through time increases as species richness goes up."  The scientists found that plant communities with the greatest biodiversity also produced the greatest plant growth and were far more likely to hang onto essential soil nutrients.

(photo: David Tilman, UMN)