GardenDesignOnline

Books: Magic with Palms

You may think you can't grow palms, but yes, there are some that survive winter temperatures down to zero degrees centigrade, more than survive down to 10 or 15 degrees, and well, the planet is warming.

So you may want to take a good look at Designing with Palms (Timber Press, 2018) by Jason Dewees, palm expert, designer, and horticulturist at Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco.

Dewees and photographer Caitlin Atkinson traveled the country talking to palm enthusiasts, nursery owners, designers, homeowners and many more ... and in the pages of this book, you'll visit fabulous landscapes with palms you've never heard of before.  The flamethrower palm with emerging scarlet leaves; the teddy bear palm with reddish-brown fuzz at the base of the leaves; the satake palm with a purple-brown crownshaft, and many, many more.

For nearly 200 pages, Dewees and Atkinson take you to landscapes with palms of every kind; and then there's a portfolio of palm species, each listing with a description of the palm's main characteristics, its cultural requirements, tolerance for drought and heat, and suggestions for how it might be used in the landscape. Beautiful photos accompany most of the entries. 

The book is everything you'd ever want to know about palms, and a reference work that will be at the top of every designer's list for years to come.

Happenings May 2018

SELECTED EVENTS AROUND THE COUNTRY

Exhibitions:

thru August 31, 2018, "Cultivating America's Gardens," Washington DC
National Museum of American History, sponsor: Smithsonian Gardens & Smithsonian Libraries, 202-633-1522

Events:

May 2, "Form & Function on the High Line," Cambridge, MA
7pm, Lecture, Cambridge Public Library, 781-790-8921
May 4-6, Garden Art & Antiques Fair, Bronx, NY
10am-5pm, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
May 5, All About Containers Saturday, NYC
10am-5pm, NYBG Midtown Center, 718-817-8700
May 5-6 Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour, CA
10am-5pm, Self guided tour, 40+ gardens, various locations
May 5-6 Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: CA,CT, NJ, NY
888-842-2442

May 6, Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, CA
10am-5pm, 30 gardens, Alameda & Contra Costa counties. 510-236-9558
May 10, LA Mary Margaret Jones of Hargreaves Associates, Boston, MA
7pm, Lecture, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 617-566-1401
May 11, National Public Gardens Day, Nationwide
Special events at public gardens throughout the country.
May 12, Georgetown Garden Tour, Washington DC
10an-5pm, eight gardens, 90th annual tour, 202-965-1950
May 12-13, Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: CA, CT, NY
May 12,10:30am, Garden workshop with Lynden Miller, Sharon, CT
May 12, 10am, Lecture, Peter van Hattum talks about Hertenhof
888-842-2442

May 17, Hidden Gardens of Beacon Hill Garden Tour, Boston, MA
9am-5pm, 10+ private gardens, 617-227-4392
May 18, "Georgia O'Keeffe & Hawaii: A Sense of Place," Bronx, NY
10:30am-2:30pm, Symposium, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
May 19-20, Trade Secrets Show & Garden Tour, Sharon CT
Garden antiques, rare plants, private garden tours 860-364-1080
May 19-20, Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: CA, NY
May 19, 4pm, Tom Karwin Lecture on Thematic Garden Planning, Santa Cruz, CA
888-842-2442

May 20, Garden Dialogues, Brentwood, CA
Special tours of private gardens with landscape architects, TCLF, 202-483-0553
May 22-26, Chelsea Flower Show, London, UK
May 26-27, Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: NY, PA, RI, SC
888-842-2442

LOOKAHEAD:

Sept 8, Hollister House Garden Study Weekend VIII, Southbury, CT
9am, Heritage Hotel, "A Passion for Plants," Garden Conservancy, 845-424-6500

Books: NYC Public Gardens

I bet you've never seen the Westside Community Garden, NYC's smallest public garden on 56th St. betweeen 9th & 10th, or the rooftop farm at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

New York is awash in gardens, and while this lovely book, City Green: Public Gardens of New York (Monacelli Press, 2018) by Jane Garmey, includes some well-known gardens like the High Line and Wave Hill, there are many others you'll want to visit.

In all, Garmey profiles 25 gardens.  Each entry includes a written description of the garden's highlights, accompanied by stunning photos taken by the well-known garden photographer Mick Hales.

I loved the three-acre Heather Garden at Fort Tryon Park, and had no idea it was within walking distance of The Cloisters. If you haven't yet been to Brooklyn Bridge Park, designed by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, make sure it's on your list for a visit.  And although many NYC visitors don't make it to Staten Island, you may want to devote a ferry trip over and back in order to see the New York Chinese Scholar's Garden.  Or a trip to Long Island City to see the Japanese-style Noguchi Museum Garden by the noted sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi.

The book is far too big (and heavy) to carry around as a guide book, but put it on your bookshelf or your coffee table, take copious notes, and plan a visit to New York to see some of the city's most under-appreciated but fabulous gardens.

 

 

ASLA Garden Trends Survey 2018

ASLA, Reed Hilderbrand LLC Landscape Architecture, photo: Ngoc Mingh Ngo

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has released its 2018 survey, and PR manager Karen Grajales says one possible conclusion is that "Sustainability is a key trend when it comes to residential landscapes -- as well as space for outdoor fitness activities like yoga and the ability to charge mobile devices."

The survey this year was revised to include single-family as well as multi-family and retirement communities. And due to that change, some new items entered the top 10 project types for the first time:  outdoor spaces that could be used for activities like yoga or movie nights, and charging stations for mobile devices.

The highest client demand was for projects with native plants, native/drought-tolerant plants, and low-maintenance landscapes -- each scoring over 80 percent.

The other top ten elements -- each scoring over 70 percent -- included flexible use spaces, water-efficient irrigation, permeable paving, rain gardens, reduced lawn areas, edible garden areas and charging stations for mobile devices.

Fireplaces and firepits were also popular, along with outdoor seating and dining spaces.  Enhanced railing systems, some with cable or glass, were top outdoor structure elements this year, followed by pergolas and decks.

Sports courts, spa features and swimming pools fell in popularity, replaced by recreation areas for dogs and bocce courts.

And for those of you who still might be into English gardens, formal gardens fell to bottom of the "gardens" category this year, scoring only 15 percent in popularity.

In the Magazines - April 2018

Landscape Architecture April
*Revered National Bonsai Collection Has a New Home -- by yours truly
*In Santa Fe, old acequias inspire new ways to handle stormwater
*A healing garden for patients in crisis
*Bringing a sprawling campus down to scale

 

Garden Design Spring
*Seamless transition inside-out in a rural Virginia garden
*Outdoor rooms for play & healing in Oregon
*Inspiring Edible garden plans
*Profile & gardens of designer & nursery owner Gordon Ratway in Albion, CA

 

Horticulture March/April
*Design solutions for small spaces: Go Up
*New edible garden at the Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Garden
*Beardless Irises
*Blight-resistant tomatoes
*VA Garden Week

The American Gardener March/April
*Alternatives to Lawns
*Exotic perennials for shady areas
*Profile: Cheekwood Estate & Gardens in TN

 

 

Better Homes & Gardens April
*All about Delphiniums
*Tulips through April & May
*Epimediums for everyone
*Outdoor Living: On the porch, At the Beach, Minimal & Modern

Books: Desert Mastery

What designer is not a fan of Steve Martino? And this book tells you everything you want to know about the ways to achieve harmony between residence and garden and the landscape beyond. In Desert Gardens of Steve Martino (Monacelli Press, 2018), author Caren Yglesias and photographer Steve Gunther outline Martino's signature designs with brief garden descriptions and beautiful images that show detail after detail, from the vividly colored stucco walls that frame distant views to native plants and elements like an illuminated yellow fiberglass roof, a fence made from rebar, and stunning water features and pools.

The book includes 21 gardens, and one of them is Martino's own experimental garden in Phoenix.  His backyard courtyard garden is enclosed by walls of different colors so he can experiment with hues and see how they perform in sun and shade.  He grows native plants in containers and moves them around to study compositions and the way the plants perform. 

In an introductory essay, you may be surprised to learn that Martino has no formal training in landscape architecture.  Rather, he describes his work as "weeds and walls," which he says is "the juxtaposition of wild landscapes against my refined structures. I thought of the 'garden' as a man-made place that would represent nature at its best and man at his best....I thought that a garden should have a respect for nature rather than be a place to dominate it."

Martino's site plans and drawings add to the lovely nature of this book, one that any designer would treasure forever.