GardenDesignOnline

Books: Classic 21st Century Gardens

If there are discernible trends in modern American Garden style, they tend toward clean lines, the spare and simple and natural plantings. 

In his new book A Clearing in the Woods: Creating Contemporary Gardens (Monacelli Press, 2009), award-winning photographer Roger Foley profiles 25 landscapes spanning a variety of garden styles by some of the country's top designers.

Foley has been photographing gardens for more than 30 years, and in this book he allows the viewer to step into the garden, inhabit the space, and experience nature itself.  As Foley puts it in the introduction, he wants readers to "become more keenly aware of the splendor found in beautiful gardens where the natural world invites us in to a sanctuary where we belong. The yearning for this connection is what inspires people to commission gardens, to design gardens, and to photograph them.  The act of capturing this alchemy, where light and air mix with plants, dirt, stone, and wood to create something more than the sum of its parts is the reason why we do what we do."

In this book, you'll experience two lush tropical gardens in Florida by landscape architect Raymond Jungles that make you feel like you're in the midst of natural ponds alive with migrating songbirds and groves of exotic trees and shrubs. You'll walk through a rooftop meadow in downtown Washington DC overflowing with blues and golds and yellows and greens, designed by Lisa Delplace of Oehme van Sweden & Associates, Inc.  On Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, you can sit outside on a flat lawn terrace and view the ocean through drifting masses of native grasses and vegetation, the creation of Steve Stimson.

From the Texas garden by Bill Bauer that's reminiscent of Tuscany to a  modern Virginia classic by Richard Arentz to the minimalist East Hampton garden by Edwina von Gal & Co, many of the latest trends in contemporary design are represented in this book.

It goes without saying that the book is filled with 200 of Foley's breath-taking color photographs ... making this a book you'll consult for design ideas and treasure for many years to come.

Happenings Oct 09

Selected Events Around the Country:

Oct 1, Big Little Skip in the Middle, Washington DC
5:30 PM, Lecture, landscape architect Ken Smith, Music Room, Dumbarton Oaks 202-339-6460
Oct 1 Green Landscape Tour, Oakland, CA
5PM-7:30PM, Margarido House, Tour of LEED-H Platinum rated home, landscape & roof garden. $25, benefits Garden Conservancy 415-441-4300
Oct 1-3 The Landscape Show, Orlando, FL
Orange County Convention Center, Seminars, Demos & More 800-375-3642
Oct 2, Global Plant Conservation, Chicago, IL
8:30AM-6PM, Symposium, Chicago Botanic Garden, 847-835-8261
Oct 3, Garden Conservancy Tour, Pawling, NY
2PM-6PM, Brine Garden

Oct 4, Garden Tours, Charleston, SC
12 noon-4PM, Folly Beach, Charleston Hort Society 9th annual "Gardens for Gardeners Tour," 843-579-9922
Oct 4, New Forms & Texture for Gardens, Washington DC
2PM-4PM, Lecture by Horticulturist Sean Hogan, US National Arboretum 202-245-2726
Oct 9 Symposium on American Landscape History, Bronx, NY
8AM-5PM, NY Botanical Garden, "Shaping the Am. Landscape: NYC & the Region," 202-483-0553
Oct 10-11 Green Festival, Washington DC
DC Convention Center, Green Homes, Gardens, and Much Much more.

Oct 11, Garden Conservancy Tours, TX
10AM-4PM, Arlington & Fort Worth
Oct 13, Symposium on American Landscape History, Nashville, TN
Day-long Conference, Cheekwood Gardens, "Shaping the Am. Landscape: Tennessee Valley Authority," 202-483-0553
Oct 16 Perennial Plant Conference, Swarthmore, PA
Scott Arboretum, Swarthmore College
Oct 17, Chickenomics, Brooklyn, NY
12 noon-2PM, Lecture, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 718-623-7200
Oct 17, Garden Conservancy Tour, NY
10AM-4PM, New Paltz
Oct 17 - Nov 15, Kiku in the Japanese Autumn Garden, Bronx, NY
Special Exhibition, Many Events, Final Year of the Kiku Exhibition, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700

Lawn Magic

If you missed the Thursday New York Times, you need to go back and read the story about Harvard University's lawn experiment.

Harvard is going all natural, thanks to prodding from landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh and others.  And guess what -- the lawn is much healthier, once chemicals were abandoned and the switch was made to compost and compost tea.  And Harvard has now put up a website that gives homeowners instructions on how to replicate the project in their own yards.  Pretty cool. Read the story here.

Design: Pea Gravel with Pizazz

In the season, I go on a lot of garden tours. I tend to favor those gardens designed by professionals, but you can always pick up useful knowledge, even when the gardens do not have the obvious finished look that you get with an expert designer and installation team.

I've seen scores of gardens with pea gravel paths, but I've never seen one with stone insets like the one shown here.  I simply loved the funky kind of look that the additional stones add to the gravel.  I mean, how do you jazz up pea gravel?  This homeowner obviously had one answer.

I'm not sure that I'd go for the stacked stone objet's d'art, (are they glued together???), but I sure liked this homeowner's decision to experiment with the materials and come up with something that you certainly won't see in every other garden with pea gravel. What you usually see is the brick or cobble or flagstone edge to keep the stuff from flying all over the place, but I really do think the darker small stones add a real designer's look to this path.

Happenings Sept 09 Update

Sept 26 Rain Garden Workshop, Bethesda, MD
9AM-4PM, Learn how to install rain gardens ... all-day workshop led by principals of Natural Resources Design Inc

Garden Photos: Expert Advice

I recently toured this lovely rural garden in Sudbury, MA (designed by Laura Kuhn of Arlington, MA) -- where the local chapter of APLD was holding a hands-on workshop focusing on the right way to photograph gardens. 

Pro photographer Rich Pomerantz led us through the basics, then set us free to roam around in the late afternoon sun and shoot the scene.

This photo of the house was taken from some distance away -- across a huge lawn and from the back side of a planting bed. The shot was taken through plant material, which Rich called "an effective way to display the house."

The photo from the porch (click on it for a larger view) is not a winning shot.  Taken standing on the porch of the house out into the landscape, it's another way to frame the view and it also puts the viewer into the photo. (ie, you can imagine yourself standing on the porch, looking out).

But Rich says (and I agree), that the "composition is not great, it's too busy, and the horizon is tilted." But one positive note: he says the general idea behind the photo is good.

This shot was also taken from out in the landscape, and Rich says it's composed quite well because it "uses the path to create a leading line from the lower left corner that brings the eye into the frame and down the path."

Rich reminded us about many of the simple rules that can make your images more effective.

One is the "rule of thirds" :  either three main elements in every photo, three points that can be connected (like a triangle), or dividing the picture into three parts ie, the horizon line shouldn't appear half way down the image, but either in the lower or upper third of the composition.

Rich likes aperture priority best (instead of shutter speed) because it lets you choose whether the entire image is in focus or whether, for instance, the rose in the foreground is sharp, while the background is somewhat blurred.  Of course, when a strong wind is blowing and you don't want a blurry image, then you have to use a fast shutter speed to stop the action.

In the Magazines Sept-Dec 09

The American Gardener Sept Oct

• James van Sweden & the New American Garden - profile by yours truly
• Native decidous hollies, including winterberry, possumhaw, and six others available through specialty nurseries
• The 12-acre Heartland Harvest Garden -- all vegetables -- in Kansas City
• How to garden on a steep slope
• Q & A with Antonia Adezio, Executive Director of The Garden Conservancy

Garden Design Sept Oct
Green Design Award Winners:

• Napa Valley natural by Blasen Landscape Architecture
  
  • Water-wise Paradise Valley garden by landscape architect Steve Martino of Cactus City Design in Phoenix
    
    • Low-impact landscape in Westchester County NY by Reed Hilderbrand Associates

• The 4000 square foot Brooklyn roof garden designed by Rebecca Cole
• LEED-H Platinum award: Margarido House in Oakland, CA designed by Lauren Schneider of Wonderland Garden & Landscape
• Landscape Architect Christy Ten Eyck: Q&A on green design

Horticulture Oct Nov

• Native North American ornamental grasses: non-invasive choices for cool & hot weather
• The re-birth in urban gardens of the ancient practice of contour planting
• Profile of Camellia Forest Nursery in North Carolina
• Dan Hinkley's preferred choices in ornamental grasses

Tulip for Henry Hudson

New York City has just received 120 thousand bulbs for the tulips pictured above ... a gift from Holland to commemorate the 400th anniversary of explorer Henry Hudson's discovery of Manhattan and the river on the island's west side, which of course bears his name. The 'Henry Hudson' tulip -- Tulipa wedenskyi 'Henry Hudson' -- with a wonderful reddish-orange hue -- was bred by The Institute of Plant Breeding in Wageningen, and grown on by grower Piet Apeldoom.

The tulip bulbs were presented to New York by Princess Maxima of the Netherlands in a ceremony at Battery Park, on the site of the fort that once guarded the fledgling colony of New Amsterdam.  The tulips are to be planted in all five boroughs this fall, with blooms appearing in spring.

Not sure where and when this bulb will be available to the general public, but it looks like a winner, so watch for it.

2010 New Plants - I

OK, here goes with the first installation of new plants for 2010 ... this selected group from Monrovia.

Vancouver Starry Nights™ Clematis
(Clematis x 'Vancouver x 'Starry Nights')

 
 

The color of this clematis looks purple-ish in this photo, but it's described by Monrovia as fuchsia rosy-pink, with blooms a whopping eight inches in diameter.  The mid-rib is also said to be "dusted with gold," particularly nice in sunlight.  Zone 4-9, this clematis reaches about 10 feet in height.

Charisma® Nuttall Oak
(Quercus nuttallii 'MonPowe')

This tree has more than one thing going for it ... first, it's a native, and second, the leaves and stems are this terrific chocolate color, (Monrovia says maroon to chocolate) at least early in the season.  Early growth is the color shown above, and the leaves eventually turn to a deep green color later in the year.  Open branching habit, great red fall color, and it grows almost anywhere, even in poorly drained soils (and isn't that a plus in regions where clay soil is dominant).  It requires minimal pruning, has a moderate growth rate and matures at about 60 feet tall and 50 wide.  Zones 5-9. Great choice for an unusual shade tree.

Surprise Bouquet™ Yucca
(Hesperaloe parviflora 'Surprise Bouquet')

 

This has to be one of the most striking yuccas on the market today.  It's an evergreen perennial, and the tall spikes are of two colors ... a deep rose pink and a yellow-orange.

It flowers almost year-round, and the blooms attract lots and lots of hummingbirds (and likely bees and butterflies, too).

It requires full sun, grows three to four feet high and wide, and the flower stalks attain a height of four to six feet. It would certainly look terrific massed in a garden bed; and, as shown here, it makes a pretty spectacular container plant all by itself.

Zones 5 to 11.

Killing Kudzu

Kudzu, the killer vine of the southeast, which strangles practically everything in its path, could be on the way out, thanks to a natural fungus that kills it almost as fast as it spreads.

Scientists at the Southern Weed Science Research Unit in Stoneville, Mississippi (of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service) are now testing the fungus, Myrothecium verrucaria.  Plant pathologist C. Douglas Boyette says the fungus works so fast on kudzu that "you can apply it in the morning and see damage in the plants by midafternoon." 

Boyette started studying the fungus about 10 years ago and found that it killed 100 percent of kudzu seedlings in greenhouse experiments.  Boyette used a spray form of the fungus, which also killed 90 to 100 percent of older kudzu plants in outdoor trials. 

The fungus spray caused little or no injury to more than 70 percent of woody plants that occur in kudzu-infested areas.  Among those plants were oak, hickory, cedar, pine, pecan, sassafras and blackberry, and although remaining species showed some sensitivity to the effects of the fungus, those plants recovered fully within several weeks.

While a few companies have shown interst in a commercial form of the fungus spray, scientists are still working to reduce its effect on humans.  The spray has been found to cause skin irritation and other side effects if swallowed, but researchers have now found a way to mitigate the harmful effects and say the spray now meets standards acceptable to the EPA.

The scientists hope the new production techniques will re-kindle commercial interest in the fungal spray, which they say it is also effective for field use to combat weeds when growing tomatoes, soybeans, rice and other crops.

(photo: Peggy Greb, ARS)