GardenDesignOnline

Happenings October 2017

 Selected Events Around the Country:

Exhibitions:

thru Oct 29, Artworks & more by Dale Chihuly, Bronx, NY
NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Oct 30-Jan 12, 2018, The Landscape Arch. Legacy of Dan Kiley, Milwaukee, WI
Univ of Wisc School of Arch. & Urban Planning
thru August 31, 2018, "Cultivating America's Gardens," Washington DC
National Museum of American History, sponsor: Smithsonian Gardens & Smithsonian Libraries, 202-633-1522

Events:

Garden Dialogues: Garden tours with landscape architects, TCLF, 202-483-0553
Oct 15: Garrison, NY:  Manitoga

Oct 1, Late Season Garden Interest, Sharon, CT
10:30am, Workshop with Lynden Miller, Garden Conservancy 845-424-6500
Oct 4-5, Landscape Expo, Long Beach, CA
Long Beach Convention Center, Lectures, Demos, Exhibits, More.
Oct 7-8 Garden Conservancy Open Days Program: NY, TX
Suffolk Cty, NY; Fort Worth, TX

Oct 11, Plants that Inspired Laura Ingalls Wilder, Bronx, NY
11am-12:30pm, Lecture, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Oct 13, Saving the American Ash Summit, Bronx, NY
10am-12:30pm, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
October 13-14, 64th Annual Fall Symposium, St. Louis, MO
Next Generation Biology: Species to Ecosystems, MO Botanical Garden, 314-577-5100
October 14, Water-Wise & Earth-Kind Garden Tour, Dallas, TX
9am-1pm, 23rd annual tour, 11+gardens, 214-670-3155
Oct 14-15, Garden Conservancy Open Days Program, TX, NY
San Antonio, TX; Putnam, Dutchess Ctys, NY

Oct 16, Landscape Design Portfolio: Optimistic Landscapes, NY, NY
6:30pm, LA Signe Nielsen, NY Botanical Garden Midtown Center, 718-817-8700
Oct 20, Perennial Plant Conference, Swarthmore, PA
9am-4:30pm, Swarthmore College, 610-388-5238
Oct 20-23, ASLA Annual Meeting & Expo, Los Angeles, CA 

Oct 25, Planting Design at Hermannshof with Cassian Schmidt, NY, NY
6pm, Lecture, Sothebys, sponsor: NYBG, 718-817-8700
Oct 25-27, APGA Native Plants & Conservation Symposium, Framingham, MA
Garden in the Woods, sponsors: APGA, USDA Forest Service 610-708-3010
Oct 28, All About Containers Saturday, NY, NY
10am-5pm, Three Separate Lectures, NYBG Midtown Center,
Oct 30, Landscape Design Portfolio: A Designer's Eye, NY, NY
6:30pm, LA Arabella Lennox-Boyd, NY Botanical Garden Midtown Center, 718-817-8700

LOOKAHEAD:

Nov 1, Film & Talk, Beatrix Farrand, Washington DC
6:30-8:30pm, National Building Museum, 202-272-2448

Nov 3, Invasive Species Summit, Bronx, NY
10am-4pm, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Nov 4, Lawrence Halprin's Legacy & Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
9:30am-4pm, Conference, A+D Architecture & Design Museum, sponsor: TCLF, 202-483-0553
Nov 6, Landscape Design Portfolio: Public & Private, the Twin Poles of LA, NY, NY
6:30pm, LA Laurie Olin, NY Botanical Garden Midtown Center, 718-817-8700
Nov 14, The Evolving Role of Urban Landscapes Conference, Winterthur, DE
8:30am-4pm, Winterthur Museum & Gardens, sponsor: ELA, 617-436-5838
Nov 17-18, Urban Agriculture Conference, Philadelphia, PA
Penn Design, "The Culture of Cultivation: Designing with Agriculture," 215-898-6591

Books: Taking you Back in Time

I don't exactly know where my love of plants and landscapes came from, but the Little House books were among my very favorites as a child.  One or two came every year as Christmas or birthday presents, and I devoured them all.

In her latest book, The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Frontier Landscapes that Inspired the Little House Books (Timber Press, 2017), author Marta McDowell reminds us that these books taught us about prairies and woods and everything in them from New York and Wisconsin to Missouri and the Dakotas. 

I remember being fascinated by cottonwood trees, and wanting a prairie rose, a thimble flower, and many of the other plants I"d never seen in Michigan.  

In the book, McDowell takes the reader through all the landscapes that influenced Laura, from her birthplace in Wisconsin to the prairie of Kansas in Indian Territory, the Dakota prairie, the Great Plains, and finally, settling down in Mansfield, Missouri.  Along the way, there were harrowing adventures, and lovely descriptions of all the plants and animals that Laura encountered along the way.

There's also a chapter on visiting Laura's gardens that are open to the public.  From New York to Missouri, Kansas to Minnesota, these are gardens well worth a visit.

The book has beautiful illustrations -- some from the Little House books -- but also photos of plants, drawings, paintings, maps and early posters.  In the back, there's a list of plants -- and the books and diaries where they're mentioned.

Anyone who was a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder would appreciate this book -- and it would likely inspire many others to read the Little House books -- or read them to their children -- for the first time.l

Garden Trends 2018

The Garden Media Group has released its annual Garden Trends Report for 2018 ... this year focusing on gardens as "Nature's RX for Mental Wellness."

Quoting the WHO, the report says anxiety will be the number one health issue by 2030, but as most gardeners know, gardens are the place to slow down, relax, and relieve stress  ... the prescription for mental and physical wellness.

According to the report, this is the first generation of gardeners who cannot rely on past scientific records to tell us what to expect in the way of climate, but we can plant weather-resilient plants, wind-resistant gardens, install rain gardens to soak up excess water, and do more indoor gardening.

Other insights:

Plants these days are happy in communities, so we should think of the garden as a social network, and plant those cultivars that work together in harmony.

Gardens don't have to be perfect.  Practice Wabi-Sabi, an ancient Japanese tradition that celebrates imperfections in life. Re-purpose old garden items that age with time, tolerate a few weeds in the lawn, and plant natives that attract birds and pollinators. 

Grow your own protein, like quinoa, corn, kale, millet, and other edible plants.      And also grow some purple foods like eggplant, plums, beets and black raspberries that have a wealth of anti-oxidant properties. 

Download the full 2018 report here.

ASLA Sustainable Design Guides

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), has released a series of free online design guides to help homeowners create and install landscapes that increase energy efficiency, improve water management, use low-impact materials and design for ecological impact.

Marmol Radziner courtesy ASLA

These four guides in the series are comprehensive in nature, each one offering a series of design solutions to solve particular problems.  The image above is from the Ecological Design guide, and it includes information on native plants, permaculture, pollinators, indoor plants and residential composting. 

Similarly the guide on Low-Impact materials has special sections on sutainable woods and concrete, reflective materials and permeable surfaces. 

Well worth a visit online.

 

 

PHS Gold Medal Plants 2018

2018 Gold Medal Plant Winners selected by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS)  include some of my very favorites:

photos: PHS

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena'

I used to have a 'Jelena' witch hazel at my old residence, and it was one of the plants that I hated to leave behind.  Its copper-colored blooms in February-March are a welcome harbinger of spring, and they are a welcome change from all of the witch hazels with yellow flowers.  This large deciduous shrub does well in sun to part shade, and its vase-shaped form makes a fine specimen in many a garden bed.  15-20 feet tall, 10-15 feet wide, USDA zones 5-8.

Cornus kousa 'Greensleeves'

This Asian dogwood is classified as a medium-sized tree or a large shrub, and it's usually planted as a specimen because of its late-blooming, pointed white bracts that eventually mature to a light pink.  Edible red fruits follow in fall, and the foliage turns a dark red to maroon hue. It grows 15 to 30 feet high and wide, USDA Zones 5-8.

Ligustrum sinense 'Sunshine'

'Sunshine' privet makes a stunning golden hedge, and it's a sterile cultivar, so it will not re-seed into the surrounding landscape. Its bright yellow foliage is evergreen, and its size, 3-6 feet high and 3-4 feet wide, make it an ideal candidate as well as a specimen or in a container. Full sun, USDA Zones 6-10.

Perennial winners for 2018 include:

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (Leadwort)
Phlox paniculata 'Jeana' (Garden Phlox)
Baptisia 'Purple Smoke' (False Indigo)
Chelone lyonii 'Hot Lips' (Pink Turtlehead)

 

ASLA Residential Awards 1 - 2017

Landscape architect Andrea Cochran took the top honor in this year's ASLA Residential design awards for a landscape in Birmingham, Michigan that pays homage to the area's industrial past (and present).

photos: Marion Brenner

The modern residence, home of an art collector and fashion pioneer who owns boutiques in New York and Birmingham, is grounded on a platform of lawn surrounded by corten steel, which anchors the large concrete building to the site.

Paths were constructed to allow visitors to experience the landscape in different ways, and a courtyard/sculpture garden extends the interior of the home outside.

A massive sculpture that looks like pick up sticks screens the garage and also serves as the entrance to the modern sculpture garden.

As Cochran put it in the project statement, "The shared belief that a unique personal vision can be embodied in the landscape and that residential landscape design need not be bound by conventional materials and practices guided the design team and client, motivating them to stretch the creative and technical design of the project."  The design jury agreed, saying "It's the culmination of a patron investing in a designer or landscape architect in their own vision of where they want to take this."

Read more on the project here.