GardenDesignOnline

Happenings Sept 09

Selected Events Around the Country:

Thru Oct 9: Botanical Architecture, Northampton, MA
Exhibit, Lyman Plant House, Botanic Garden of Smith College 413-585-2743

Sept 1, Measuring Sustainability in the Garden, Washington DC
10AM-noon, Lecture, Dr. Steven Windhager of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, US National Arboretum, 202-245-4521
Sept 5, Succulent Plants Symposium, San Marino, CA
8:30AM-5PM, Huntington Botanical Gardens, 626-405-3505

Sept 9, Botanical Gardens & Our Future, Los Altos, CA
7PM, Lecture by Bill McNamara of Quarryhill Botanical Garden, Christ Episcopal Church, sponsor: Western Hort Society, 650-948-4614
Sept 12, Invasive Plant Control for Homeowners, Stockbridge, MA
1PM-3PM, Workshop, Berkshire Botanical Garden, 413-298-3926
Sept 12, Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours, CO, NJ, NY
Centennial, Englewood, Greenwood Village, Denver CO; Pottersville, Colonia, Far Hills, Gladstone NJ; Amagansett, East Hampton, Wainscott NY
Sept 13, Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours, CT, NY
Avon, Burlington, Farmington, Glastonbury CT; Rhinebeck, Lewisboro, North Salem, Waccabuc NY

Vacation Days

Hi everyone,

Garden Design Online is on vacation until just after Labor Day ... except for a post on Sept events toward the end of the month.
A few of my favorites over the past year are listed below .... but peruse the archives at your leisure. 

Books: Sensational, Inspirational Gardens:
http://www.gardendesignonline.com/gardendesignonline/2008/12/jungles-book.html
Garden Mosaics:
http://www.gardendesignonline.com/gardendesignonline/2008/07/garden-mosaics.html
Urban Gardens: A Tiny Jewel:
http://www.gardendesignonline.com/gardendesignonline/2009/06/urban-gardens-a-tiny-jewel.html
ASLA Awards 09:
http://www.gardendesignonline.com/gardendesignonline/2009/05/asla-awards-09.html
Garden Sculptures for the Modern Age:
http://www.gardendesignonline.com/gardendesignonline/2009/04/garden-sculptures-for-the-modern-age.html

"Green" Design & Landscape Architects

According to a recent article in Architecural Record, landscape architects (and designers???) are taking a leading role in green design.  The article originally appeared in Engineering News Record, but you can read it online here.  According to the author, it represents a comeback for a profession that had lost it's way.

Design Contest: Michael Jackson Monument

If you're a designer and a Michael Jackson fan, check out the rules for the MJ Monument Competition ... due August 22nd, so you still have a little time.

Details here.

A Designer's Eye: Lucy's Garden

 It's tempting to think that plants alone can make a great-looking garden.  They can't.  Plants, of course, are important, but it takes an understanding of good design principles to make a garden something special.  A case in point is the small but stunning garden in Somerville, MA that belongs to Lucy Borodkin.  Lucy studied design in Britain and had a design-build business for quite awhile, but now does only garden consultation (or coaching, or whatever you want to call it).  Note the variety of textures and colors, the lovely circular stone path with small stones set between the larger ones, along with the bird sculpture just to left of center, above. (click on photos to enlarge).

The rear yard is only about 30 x 30 or so, but there's room for a tiny pond, birdhouses hanging from the lower branches of a Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Aurea,' (seen in the first photo) whose color is picked up in the golden hakone grass to the right and the flowers in the tiny pot next to the frog. Another bird sculpture graces the bench, and the pots next it are filled with plants that Lucy has ordered by mail.  "I collect young trees," she says, "root prune them every year or two, and transplant them to bigger pots."  On the bench is Cornus 'Golden Shadows,' which she ordered from Heronswood, and to the left of it is the full size Cornus kousa 'Gold Star.'

In the Magazines July-Oct 09

The American Gardener July/August

• Curbside gardens how-to: beautifying the hellstrip between the sidewalk & curb.
•  Q&A with topiary artist Pearl Fryar of Bishopville, SC
• How-to:  Creating water-wise gardens anywhere in the country.
• Hardy hibiscus
• Plants for summer foliage: calico plants, copperhead plants, waffle plants & dewberrys & more

Horticulture August/Sept

• Who Owns Nature: a very important article about the war in the seed industry over patented seeds.
• Profile of plant collector Paul James.
• Three nursery profiles: Niche Gardens in Chapel Hill, NC; Cady's Falls Nursery in Morrisville VT; Dancing Oaks Nursery in Monmouth, OR.
• Dan Hinkley's take on five favorite maples -- including one of my favorites, Acer carpinifolium (Hornbeam Maple)

 

Fine Gardening Oct

• How to design an entry (including great plants for entries, not all of which I agree with).
• Fuchsias
• Foliage Plants for Shade
• Container combos you can copy
• Organic products that are not so enviro-friendly, and those that are
• Perennials for autumn

Betty Ford Garden Award

Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in Vail, Colorado

Vail's Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, the highest botanical garden in the country (8250 ft), has received this year's Award for Garden Excellence from the American Botanical Gardens Association (APGA), sponsored by Horticulture magazine. The APGA award honors a public garden every year for excellence in commitment to plant collections, outstanding horticultural displays with top design, and gardening practices appropriate for the regional environment, among other criteria.  APGA executive director Dan Stark cited the garden for its hard work in "creating, maintaining and growing a truly wonderful botanic garden in such a trying environment."

The garden, founded by the Vail Alpine Garden Association in 1985, is located in Gerald R. Ford Park.  It was named in honor of former first lady Betty Ford in 1988 because of her  contributions to and association with Vail Valley. (Remember ... when Ford was president, he often vacationed and skiied at his home in Vail).

Since its establishment, the garden has been recognized as the country's foremost authority on high-altitude plants in natural and cultivated environments throughout the Rocky Mountains. The garden also promotes conservation throughout the region and is home for many threatened exotic and rare plants and alpine wildflowers.

Sustainable Garden Tour

I've never been on a tour of "sustainable" gardens before.  This one, in Falmouth, MA, was billed as "Earth Friendly Gardens ... Beautiful and Edible."  So it was certainly timely.  Not all the gardens were designed by professionals, but nevertheless there were some lovely touches and some great ideas for living a more sustainable lifestyle.

If you look closely, you'll see the "rain chain" descending from the gutter to floor of the outdoor shower.  And because the property is on a lakefront with lots of large trees, no need, really, for a built enclosure around the shower.  All the gutters on this house had rain chains, several of which descended into garden beds, obviating the need for water.

The house is heated with solar thermal panels (up on the roof) that provide hot water for heating and for personal hot water use ... and according to the homeowners, their supplementary heating bills last year totaled $88.  The house also has 5KWH of photovoltaic panels that provide electricity, and they have enough to send power back to the grid.  They paid nothing last year for electricity.  I don't know how much the installation cost, but it's something for everyone to consider.  Aside from the butterfly bush, which could be invasive in MA, there were lots of native plantings to attract birds and butterflies, including common milkweed.

The family's large vegetable garden supplies them with plenty of fruits and vegetables for the summer (and enough to put up for the winter, too). There's a natural split-rail fence around it, raised beds, and paths of straw.  Nothing fancy, here, but it does the job and looks quite charming to boot.