GardenDesignOnline

ASLA Award of Excellence

photo: Rebecca O'Neal - Jeffrey Carbo LA -click on images to enlarge

ASLA's top Award of Excellence for 2014 in the Residential Category went to Jeffrey Carbo Landscape Architects in Louisiana for a project in Caddo Parrish.   The five acre property consisted mainly of wooded slopes of pine and native hardwoods, and one objective was to preserve views of the residence through the forest.

photo: Chipper Hatter Architectural Photography

The clients had spent summers in the Cotswalds, in England, and wanted features reminiscent of the area, so the landscape architect complied, with low stone walls, architectural and site details of limestone rip-rap, which gave the elements a more local vocabulary.

The project includes lawn terraces where children can play, a plank bridge of milled cypress logs, a rear rain garden, and an elevated entry drive to preserve tree canopies.  Native plants are used throughout the site.

The jury concluded that the project was "subtle and beautifully done," with an "elegant use of native plants" that balances design and nature.

More photos at the ASLA Awards site here.

 And more of the awards to be featured in later posts.

Happenings October 2014

Thru December 7, Recapturing the Scenic Wilds, Bronx, NY
Exhibition on natural history display, Wave Hill, 718-549-3200
Oct 2-26 Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden, Bronx, NY
NY Botanical Garden, Exhibition, Lectures, Demos, Poetry, Bonsai & More. 718-817-8700

Oct 2, Thinking into the Future: Robie House Series, Chicago, IL
5PM-7PM, Lecture, LA James Corner, TCLF, 202-483-0553
Oct 7, Agents of Change: Botanic Gardens in the 21st Century, Washington DC
9AM-5PM, Symposium, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
Oct 8, Managing Historic Landscapes, San Francisco, CA
9AM-4PM, Conference, TCLF, 202-483-0553
Oct 10, Thin Places: Gardens That Move You, Bronx, NY
Noon-1PM, US Botanical Garden, Lecture by LA Richard Hartlage, 202-225-8333

Oct 12, Oliver Ranch Art Tour, Sonoma, CA
Tour & Luncheon, TCLF, 202,48l3-0553
Oct 15, Planting for a Changing Climate, Glencoe, IL
11AM-4PM, Symposium, Chicago Botanic Garden, 847-835-5440
Oct 15, Fall National Convention & Rose Show, Tyler, TX
8AM-5PM, Holiday Inn & Tyler Rose Center, 318-938-5402
Oct 17, Perennial Plant Conference, Swarthmore, PA
9AM-5PM, Scott Arboretum, 610-328-8023
Oct 18, Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: AZ, CT, DC, MD, NJ, NY
AZ: Pima County; CT: Litchfield Cty; DC; MD: Montgomery Cty; NJ: Hunterdon Cty; NY: Dutchess Cty.

Oct 20, Zen & The Japanese Garden, NY, NY
6:30-7:30PM, Lecture, LA Shunmyo Masuno, NYBG Midtown Center, 718-817-8700
Oct 22-24 PLANET Green Industry Conference, Louisville, KY
Louisville Marriott, 703-736-9666
Oct 23-24 Gilette Forum: Making Beauty Sustainable, Richmond, VA
5:30-9PM & 8:30-4PM, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, 804-262-9887
Oct 25: Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: Westchester Cty, NY
Oct 25-26, What's Out There Weekend, Richmond, VA
Expert tours of designed landscapes, TCLF, 202-483-0553

Oct 27, The High Line & Beyond, NY, NY
6:30-7:30PM, Lecture, LA Lisa Switkin, NYBG Midtown Center, 718-817-8700
Oct 27, Creating Atmosphere: The Power of Collaborations, W.Hollywood, CA
6:30PM, Lecture, Designer Luciano Giubbilei, The Garden Conservancy, 845-424-6500
Oct 28: Landscape Design Alumni Series: Design Spectrum, Bronx, NY
1PM-3PM, Lecture, Designer Hanna Packer, NY Botanical Garden 718-817-8700

LOOKAHEAD:

November 3, Nature & Modernism, NY, NY
6:30-7:30PM, Lecture, LA Gary Hilderbrand, NYBG Midtown Center, 718-817-8700
Nov 4-7 APLD International Design Conference, Orlando, FL
November 7, The Changing Nature of Nature in Cities, Bronx, NY
9:30AM-12:30PM, Symposium, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Nov 12-15, Cities Alive, Nashville, TN
12th Annual Green Roof & Wall Conference, 416-971-4494
Nov 13, Landscape Lecture, Teresa Galí-Izard of Arquitectura Agronomia, Boston, MA
7PM, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 617-278-5156
Nov 21-24, ASLA Annual Meeting, & Expo, Denver, CO

Russell Page Garden at the Frick

photo: via tclf.org

The Garden Conservancy has joined the movement to preserve the courtyard garden at the Frick Collection in New York City that is threatened by future development.  The museum is planning to renovate the building, and in the process, the garden, designed by renowned landscape architect Russell Page, would be destroyed.

As the Conservancy notes, the Page garden has been described as "... his lasting contribution to the city," a "courtyard jewel," and "...one of the masterpieces of the Frick Collection."

Even the Frick, on its website, says its two famous gardens -- one designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr and the other by Page -- visually integrate "art and gardens in a way no other museum in the city can." 

Garden Conservancy president Jenny Young du Pont said that green space is vital to the inhabitants of large urban areas. "Nowhere is this more important than in large metropolitan areas like New York City," she said, "where steel, concrete, glass, and stone dominate."

 

 

New Roses 2015 - David Austin

David Austin has released four new 2015 roses for markets in the US and Canada. All four are repeat blooming throughout the growing season and have the classic David Austin forms and scents.

'Maid Marion'
This rose is said to have superbly formed flowers, rosette shaped in a saucer shape with outer petals forming a perfect, round rim.  It's a clear pink with a fragrance of myrrh that, over time, develops into a scent of clove.

'The Albrighton Rambler'
Unlike most ramblers, this one puts on a repeat show from spring until season's end.  Light pink flowers with a light, musky scent. This is a short rambler, best for climbing on arches, pillars, walls, trellises, or even small trees.  How about planting it under a lilac, whose blooms fade in early spring?

 

'The Lady Gardener'
This rose has been added to Austin's list of the most fragrant English roses, and even better, it's a pure apricot color -- one of my favorites -- that eventually fades to cream.  It has a tea rose fragrance with a bit of cedar and vanilla thrown in, and the flower shape is classic rosette.  Sounds like a real winner.

 

'Thomas á Becket'
Well, there has to be one red rose, and this is it.  It has a natural, shrubby shape, with large. light red flowers that pale over time. It has and old rose scent with a hint of lemon.  This might make a very nice rose hedge for all-season color in the border.

 

High Line Completed

photo Kathleen Fitzgerald

The final section of the High Line in New York City is now open, extending the elevated park from West 30th to West 34th St, with a big swing west toward the Hudson River around the old rail yards.

In this section of the park, part of the old rail line is left intact, complete with wild, untamed plantings that self-seeded when the old elevated track was abandoned.  Designed by James Corner Field Operations with Diller Scofidio & Renfro -- and plantings by Dutch designer Piet Oudolf -- the rusted tracks are filled with Queen Anne's lace, chokecherry, milkweed -- what you'd expect to find in an abandoned lot. 

Like the rest of the High Line, there are places to pause and rest on benches, but the designers have also added picnic tables, a spacious plaza, and a place where children can scamper and explore.

With the final section now open, the High Line now extends nearly 1.5 miles from Gansevoort Street to West 34th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to read the full story on ArchDaily. 

Books: A Garden Destroyed & Remade and US Garden Guide

You probably know Sir Roy Strong best as the former director of Britain's National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, a writer, a historian, and a broadcaster.  But he's also a landscape designer and gardener.  His own garden, the Laskett, which he has described as "the portrait of a marriage," was created with his wife, theater designer Julia Trevelyan Oman, over 30 years. 

In Remaking a Garden: The Laskett Gardens Transformed, (Frances Lincoln Ltd, 2014), Strong relates how in the course of those decades, the garden had become vastly overgrown.  Vistas were destroyed, some areas became filled with weeds, and sunny areas turned to deep shade.

After Julia died in 2003, Strong spent a decade remaking the garden.  As he says in the preface to the book, gardening is about change, and from time to time, about radical change.  "The message to those who question whether to make such changes is not to hesitate but be bold. Gardening is like a picture that is never finished, one that is forever calling for alteration and retouching," he says.

More than 200 gorgeous photographs by Clive Boursnell document the process in great detail, garden "room" by garden "room." Hedges and trees came down; garden ornament was painted; statuary was moved; new borders were planted.  Now, the gardens are open to pre-booked groups of 20 or more two days a week. If you are a designer or gardener who's interested in garden restoration, this book is definitely the one for you.  And even if you're not into garden restoration, it's a marvelous story of one man's determination to make the garden his own. 

Another noted British garden writer, Tim Richardson, has written a beautifully illustrated guide, now out in paperback,  to some of the best gardens across the United States.  Great Gardens of America (Frances Lincoln Ltd, 2014) contains portraits of 25 gardens, from Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate in Tarrytown, NY, to Lotusland in Santa Barbara, Innisfree in Millbrook, NY, and the Lurie Garden in Chicago.

Not every great garden is in this book, but Richardson is a terrific descriptive writer, and you will certainly appreciate his garden portraits.  There can never be too many garden guides, and this one is a great addition to the bookshelf.

In the Magazines Sept-Nov

Sunset September

Top 7 outdoor spaces in Sunset' Small Space Home Awards
including: transforming a sandbox into a backyard retreat; an eight-foot wide backyard lounge; creative 10 foot wide side yard, and more.

Landscape Architecture September

*California's drought & the impact on plants & landscape
*A Long Island landscape by LaGuardia Design to protect an oceanside residence.
*The first decade of Chicago's Lurie Garden in Millenium Park

 

Fine Gardening Oct-Nov

 *How to design intimate spaces
 *Best of the Japanese Maples
 *The best plants for curbside survival

 

Better Homes & Gardens September

*Outdoor design ideas from interior designer Bunny Williams
*The edible garden of photographer & writer Mathew Benson
* Artistry with Tillisandia

 

Horticulture September-October
* Uprights for shade gardens
*Australian plants that survive drought
*Designing with orange plants

Private Garden - Public Treat

It's not exactly easy to see this garden .. it's a private garden that's open to the public only one day a week in late July, August, and early September.  The number of visitors is also restricted, so you must make reservations early. 

I was lucky enough to see it on September 4th -- the last day of the year it was open.  It's the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor, Maine, on Mt. Desert Island.

The main part of the garden was built in 1928 by Abby and her husband, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., after many inspiring trips to England and travels to Asia in the early 1920's.  The garden combines both English and Asian traditions. 

With help from the reknowned garden designer Beatrix Farrand, there's a central perennial garden in the English style, and an Asian "spirit path" around it.  In a book about the garden by son David Rockefeller, he says his parents were greatly moved by the beauty of what they saw in China, Japan, and Korea.  "Clearly," he says, "this experience motivated them to do something in Seal Harbor that would remind them of what they had seen in Asia."  He adds that his mother also wanted a cutting garden filled with annuals and perennials.

After Abby died in 1948, John D. worked directly with Farrand and head gardener Roy Young to keep the garden going.  David Rockefeller and his wife, Peggy, inherited the garden after John D.'s death in 1960.  Peggy took over the garden and managed it for 27 years, and now, her daughter Neva Goodwin has taken on that responsibility. 

It's definitely a garden you want to visit, for the riotous joy of the perennial borders and the calm solitude of the Asian areas.  How lucky we all are that the Rockefellers decided to share this American garden treasure with the public several days a year.

David Rockefeller's book about the garden may be purchased at the site

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New "Green" Guide

ASLA has released a new, online, green infrastructure guide, and you'll definitely want to bookmark the link.

It lists all the benefits of green building and landscaping, whether on a large or small scale.  There are special sections on forests and nature reserves; wildlife habitat and corridors; cities; constructed wetlands; green streets; green roofs and walls.

For each section, there's an overview -- but best of all, there are lists of U.S. and international organizations that may be helpful; blogs and magazine articles that deal with the subject; plus lists of research articles that you are not likely to find elsewhere.

This is a magnificent resource for anyone who is interested in the health of the global environment and sustainable landscapes.  Use it!

New Oudolf Planting - NYBG

photos: NYBG-Mark Pfeffer - click to enlarge

Before winter sets in, take a trip to the NY Botanical Garden to see the new Seasonal Walk next to the Enid Haupt Conservatory.  It was composed by renowned Dutch designer Piet Oudolf and contains some 8000 bulbs and perennials, all in a 200 foot long double border.

The perennials include some that are rarely seen in the United States: Actaea 'Queen of Sheba', Phlomis tuberosa 'Little Amazon', Thalictrum x 'Elin'.

The walk is designed to change week to week, as some varieties fade and others come into their own.  Well worth a visit to study color and texture combinations.