GardenDesignOnline

Garden Design: French style in Cleveland

A dilemma for any landscape designer ... how to transform a landscape surrounding a "Beaux-Arts" style house built in the early 1900's that's a registered historic landmark in Cleveland.

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Designer Ann Rosmarin was brought in to design the formal French gardens that were part of the original design ... but  never completed.  Ann designed a number of garden "rooms" -- including the Chinese-style terrace that I wrote about in an earlier post (here).

Beautiful iron work abounds in this garden ... here one's eye is attracted by the climbing clematis on the fence post, offering just a glimpse into the formal swimming pool area.

Sitting on the pool terrace, with the wide stone deck and surrounding lawn, you can almost imagine yourself in France. 

Garden Furniture: Windmark

I'm always looking for something different in garden furniture, and this new line -- Windmark -- from Landscape Forms, is perfect for a contemporary garden, or perhaps an urban townhouse, deck or balcony. (click on pix to enlarge).

Designed by architect Margaret McCurry of Chicago, Windmark is light and airy, sophisticated and whimsical.

The tables have aluminum strap or origami-style sheet metal bases, and the chairs and ottomans have aluminum strap frames with seats of patterned steel or wood slats.

Happenings August 2011

Selected Events Around the Country

Aug 2, Front Yard Design, Glencoe, IL
7-9 PM, Workshop, Chicago Botanic Garden, 847-835-5440

Aug 6-7 Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: CT, NH, NJ, NY, VT, WI
CT: New Haven Cty; NH: Cheshire, Hillsborough Counties; NJ: Morris Cty; NY: Orange Cty; VT: Windham Cty; WI: Ozaukee Cty.
Aug 9, Back Yard Design, Glencoe, IL
7-9 PM, Workshop, Chicago Botanic Garden, 847-835-5440
Aug 9 & 10, Terrace Gardening, Bronx, NY
10AM-2:30PM, Workshops, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Aug 12, Meet the Designer, Seattle WA
9AM-noon Garden Tour with landscape designers Daniel Lowery and Glenn Withy & Charles Price
Sponsor: NW Hort Society

Plants: PHS Gold Award Winners 2012

 

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The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) has announced its 2012 Gold Medal Plant Awards. Here they are:

Redbud The Rising Sun™ (Cercis canadensis 'JNJ')

I love the new redbud shown here.  Its sweet pea-like flowers are a rosy orchid color and the foliage, tangerine to apricot hues, holds its color into fall.  The bark also has a yellowish cast, making the tree a real standout in the landscape.  Wow, if you want a tree for a focal point in the design, this might be an ideal candidate.  It's tolerant of heat, cold weather, and even drought. Approximately 12 feet tall by eight feet wide, it would be perfect for a small garden almost anywhere.  Zones 5 to 8.

National Hammock Day

Tomorrow (July 22) is National Hammock Day ... and there's no better place for a hammock than a garden.  The one pictured here (click to enlarge) is a hammock overlooking Tashmoo Pond on Martha's Vineyard -- a garden I visited a few weeks ago on a Garden Conservancy tour.

 Hammocks were used by native Americans in the West Indies, and brought to Europe by Christopher Columbus.  Since then,  they've spread around the globe and today are made in many different styles and from many different materials -- rope, canvas, leather and synthetic fibers.

If you're in the market for a hammock, the Hammock Company has a deal going through July 25th -- 15 percent off any hammock purchase with the coupon code RELAX15. 

Summer's around for another month or so -- so climb into that sling and relax with a good book.

 

Garden Design: A Garden to Live In

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This was one of the gardens on tour at the APLD conference in Cleveland this year, and the grand front entrance, nary a blade of grass in sight, was brimming with texture, color, and  shapes carefully jigsawed together, but it was just a hint of what was to come.

The driveway itself?  A beautiful espalier of Braeburn apples against a stucco wall is not something you'd likely see in many other similar locations. 

 

Add to that the striking parking court with the intricate paving and rose-covered trellis with six arches stretching all the way across the back between the property line and the garage.

The Eco-friendly Tree Killer

If you haven't already heard, the New York Times is reporting that a fairly new weed-killing chemical -- Imprelis -- which is supposed to be environmentally friendly, is the prime suspect in the death of thousands of Norway spruces, eastern white pines, and other trees.  It's used around the country, and is only sold to lawn care professionals.  Read the entire story here.  Landscape designers beware.

Update August 12, 2011

The Environmental Protection Agency has now banned the sale of Imprelis, pending an investigation and review of the product.  Quoting agricultural experts, the NYT says the tree toll could reach into the hundreds of thousands -- and that the national law firm Parker Waichman and Alonso has filed a dozen lawsuits already against DuPont in courts across the Midwest.  NYT article here.

Books: Fruit for the Landscape

I finally decided this year to try my hand again at growing fruit trees, mainly because I don't know anywhere around Cape Cod where you can buy fresh sour cherries or local figs. I loved my fig tree that I had in DC, but it never produced enough for us. So I bought (mail order) a 'Hardy Chicago' fig, figuring if it would survive in Chicago, it would do just fine up here.

So the fig, the cherry tree, and an apricot tree are now in the ground, and we'll see how they do next year.  In a new book,  Growing Fruit Trees: Novel Concepts and Practices for Successful Care and Management (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011) French authors Jean-Marie Lespinasse and Evelyne Leterme explain that apricots are originally from China and likely were brought to the US with the establishment of early missions in California and Arizona in the early 18th century.  In the east, Thomas Jefferson planted apricot seeds in the 1770's -- seeds he received from an Italian wine merchant. 

This is the book for you if you want producing fruit trees or if you want to know how to design with fruit trees. The authors tell you everything you need to know to cultivate fruit trees successfully, from cultural requirements to pruning, training, successful fruiting and harvesting.  It's comprehensive, easy to understand, and probably the best I've read so far on the subject.

The book does not include citrus trees, but it covers 15 popular fruit and/or nut trees, including hazelnuts, olives, grapes, apples and almonds, quinces and kiwi, and more. The book is filled with more than 300 drawings and photos that clearly illustrate all the techniques you'll need to successfully grow each variety.

An essential volume for designers with clients who wish to have producing fruit and nut trees in their gardens.

 

 

 

In the Magazines July-Sept 2011

Garden Design July
*Terence Conran's country garden, designed for entertaining outdoors.
*Judy Kameon's "Rat-Pack"-themed garden for a mid-century modern house in Beverly Hills.
*New lighting and seating styles for 21st century gardens.
*Commune Design in LA teams up with landscape designer Matthew Brown to transform a sprawling landscape in a bohemian enclave into a mod, eco-friendly outdoor living area with Asian accents.

Sunset July
*A front-yard edible landscape designed by Ivette Soler:  looks that could fool almost anyone.
*Homeowners in Portland, OR turn their front yard into a community garden.
*Helpful items for harvesting all that produce from your kitchen garden.

 

 

The American Gardener July-Aug

* How to design with self-sowing plants.
* All about ice plants and bugbanes
*How to take care of plants when drought strikes.
* Regional gardening events.

 

Garden Design: Seating Everywhere

A garden design with seating galore was one of the highlights of a Garden Conservancy tour late last month on Martha's Vineyard. 

(click on images to enlarge).

A stroll down the gravel drive takes the visitor to a large parking area with a vine-covered arbor entrance to the pool and luscious perennial borders.

The blue and white patterns on the outdoor cushions will be repeated later throughout the garden, tying the front and back yards together.

  A  walkway of large fieldstone pavers takes one around the side of the house and on to the front yard, which is situated on a bluff high above the water.   I loved the little niche off to the right of the path that featured a small stone bench surrounded by shade plants and white and pink astilbe, a perfect place to cool off and get away from the summer sun and heat.

Just in front of the house, there's a bluestone patio with a bench that overlooks the water.  The blue cushions pick up the color of the water and echo the colors on the seating around the pool.  Tall, limbed up trees (I believe the one to the left is a pine) and evergreens provide enough shade for a relaxing seat and a thrilling view of the water and passing boats.

The view back to the house from the bluff's edge depicts the rustic pine-needle path and the blue and white awnings that stretch over both the upper deck and the lower patio just outside the French doors.

At the bottom of the path, really just a short stroll from the house,  is one of the garden's finest features ... a water's edge dining area nestled among the pines ... you'd be hard-pressed to find a more pleasant setting for summer breakfasts and lunches.  And yes, the railing in the background encloses one edge of a stairway that takes you down to a small lakeside beach.

I can't remember a garden I've recently seen that had so many specially designed small patios and decks  for summertime reading, conversation,  and contemplation.