Planting Inspiration - a thought

I wonder sometimes about the planting design process of other designers. Some always design the "bones" of the garden first and work their way down to smaller plants, others begin with a point of inspiration, a style, and build a garden around that concept. I seem to work in more than one direction at a time. Occasionally a garden will tell me what it wants to be, sometimes I have to ponder longer to find its voice.Whatever happens on a project, though, I maintain a substantial image library. I recently visited Filoli earlier this month and took the photo above of Crocosmia and Hydrangeas planted together. I recognize that not everybody would respond favorably to this combination based solely on the colors, but seeing them together like that gave me the idea for this post - what if you compared several cultivars of Hydrangea with a variety Crocosmias (in a mix-and-match format)? What interesting planting combinations would arise? Would others find Crocosmia combined with Hydrangea attractive then?Just a thought.  I like them all.

Filoli in August

I have to admit that my plan to visit Filoli several times this year fell apart over the summer....but I did visit the gardens yesterday, August 8th, and took a few snapshots. This time, I watched people (and eavesdropped) as much as I enjoyed the gardens. The light was glaringly bright, and good pictures difficult to get, but my ancient digital camera and I did our best.
It was a great day for people watching, though.  The visitors I encountered were (if accents are any indication) from all over the world, and they brought lots of kids with them (which can be both hysterical and loud).  There were also some people there talking about their own gardens....perhaps looking for design ideas?One couple appeared to be touring the garden with their designer. This is what I overheard:Wife: I love those white flowers over there (they were a full bed of white Agrostemma). I mean they're all nice, but I do have some sun and I like those, they're so delicate.Designer: Yeah, with those you need to have full sun.Husband: uh huh.Wife: They're just so pretty.Husband: But this is the Summer. Think about what they'll look like at other times of the year, it will be just this (points to the soil underneath).Designer: yup.What???  Is he kidding?  Not to get into that specific plant, and I have no idea what they are designing for/around...but Agrostemma is an annual and one can plant bulbs underneath or ground cover plants if a spot of bare soil is a major issue for the husband.   In addition, the designer could (should!) be designing so that the garden's inherent design is beautiful whether it is Summer or not (and needs to illustrate this to his clients). If the wife is smitten with white Agrostemma, they should be at least under consideration.  To be fair, I don't know what happened after that....I try not to assert design "rules" because for every rule, there is likely at least one successful example that breaks it...but I do believe that Filoli is a fantastic place to see occasions when an area in its 'off-season' is beautiful, too.What you are focused on is what you will notice.  If you are focused on how much you hate a certain view, guess what?  That view will bother you all the time.  If you are looking for bare patches of soil, congratulations!  Bare soil is what you will find.  What would happen if we all adjusted our attention? What if we saw more than bare soil and ugly views?The paired images here are from Feb 2010 and August 2010.

Filoli Before Spring

Notice how even in lousy light and with the deciduous woody plants being void of leaves, this garden is photogenic? That it's simple (especially at this time of year, before the flower riot is in full swing) the plantings are stunning, and how the structure of this garden - the layers and mass of its "bones" - support the flower beds. When looking at the images, did you feel like it was not colorful enough? I didn't.

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First Contact and The Lingo

"Could I request a post on finding and making first contact with a designer for those of us with gardens out of your jurisdiction so to speak? You’ve convinced me that outside help would be a good idea for my yard, but I don’t know where to go for it, and I don’t want to give the wrong first impression by not knowing the right terms."

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How to become a Great Client

I just got this blog post in my e-mail from Seth Godin this morning which ties in nicely with the book What Your Contractor Can't Tell You that my good friend Susan introduced me to.  Nevermind that Mr. Godin uses logo design as his example, and never mind that the book focuses on working with Architects and contractors as opposed to Landscape Architects.  BOTH sources discuss the same notion: being a "good" client, or at the very least, an informed one (weirdly, though, they seem to disagree on some points)."Good" clients are beneficial to the entire process, save everyone time, money, and headaches.  The responsibility is not the client's alone, however.  When the relationship between the client and the professionals they've hired is a productive one, the project always benefits.  I am thinking about getting extra copies of that book for my office (knowing full well that suggesting to someone that they read either the post or the book won't necessarily result in them reading either).  It is that good.  No, really.  The $15. you spend on that book can save you thousands in the long and short run.  Not a bad return on investment!I leave you with images from the Windmill Garden in San Francisco - a seasonal planting that I really enjoyed back in April 2006.

Water use's not-so-obvious issues

I am sorry to say that despite the incredible amount of coverage that water use gets these days, almost none discusses some of the long-term effects of inappropriate watering practices.  I am not going to start counting how many gallons you can save by switching to drip irrigation, or the fact that spray irrigation can lose 50% to the wind and evaporation before your plants get any of it....nope, I'm not.  I do want to mention a few things that I've learned through being a Landscape Architect and a gardening enthusiast:Roots: I read a letter to the editor in our glorious Alameda Journal (23 october 2009) in which a woman complains about street tree roots buckling her walkway.  I have not seen her property, but I would bet a whole lot of donuts that the problem can be traced back to shallow irrigation.   Roots know what they're doing, they take up water and nutrients for the plant (tree, shrub, whatever).  They will go where the water is, and if the good stuff is to be found in the top layer of the soil, that is where you will find the roots.  This goes for a tree, a shrub, all plants including a lawn.  So when your sprinkler system is on for 10 minutes and soaks in maybe 3", or you stand outside with a hose for half an hour, you can expect the majority of roots to gravitate to that topmost layer, including those of walkway-bucking trees.Here's the part I wish those water-wise articles would mention:  IF you water your plants deeply and less frequently, their root systems learn to dive deep to find it.  Even a lawn can have roots that are a couple of feet deep!  Water deeply, and the water lasts longer, is available to the roots of your plants, and then when there is a drought, those plants have a better survival rate thanks to their deep, probing root structure!!Containers: I prefer terracotta pots for the numerous ways in which they have been a good home to my plants over time (oh yeah, this is about water, not pots... I'm getting back on track now).  Whatever containers you use, when the root ball dries out, it shrinks and pulls away from the sides.  The next time water is poured into that container, the water runs around the rootball (not through) and out the bottom, doing the roots of your plants no good.  There are goofy weird products on the market that claim to hold moisture in the soil, or add water over time, blah blah.  I've tried many and never liked one.  In my garden, I have a 1/8" thick wire stake of forgotten origin that I use to poke holes into the rootballs of neglected container plants when I water.  The holes allow air to escape, water to penetrate, and roots to get what they need.  If I have been particularly rotten to my container plants, I fill a bucket or my wheelbarrow with water and I soak them in it to allow them to really soak it up.  A note:  I don't think self-watering containers work well.  The photo below shows a lovely display from the Los Angeles Getty Museum gardens several years ago - I wonder, though, are they hand-watered?  is the water allowed to drain out?  Was I just lucky enough to see this display before that water stained the paving?  Container plants need water and drainage in order to stay nice for more than a short time.succulents at the GettyWatering Practices:  I love walking around in the evening, winding down after my day.  I see a lot of irrigation at night, though, and wish that more people understood the benefits of watering in the early am instead.  Plants lose most of their moisture during the heat of the day as a byproduct of photosynthesis (evapotranspiration from photosynthesis is where plant-released oxygen comes from), so watering before plants need it is ideal (but if you have wilting, dry plants at noon, they need it asap!).  If you have good drainage, so much the better because the (assuming we're not growing aquatic plants) roots won't be left to wallow in suffocating muck.  Leaving plant roots in cool, damp soil as the temperature drops (evening watering) can promote the growth of undesirable mold, fungus, and plant disease.  Please also pay attention to the drainage of your soils!  The water here is pooling due to being both trapped by the edging and also because the soil in this area is so over watered, it has developed a scummy skin that keeps their irrigation efforts on the surface for hours after each watering.Please know that there are evapotranspiration (ET) irrigation systems that can adjust automatically (with the help of a weather station) to turn the water off when it is raining, adjust for seasons, soils, slopes, and planting types!  You do NOT have to rely on remembering to run out in the rain to turn the thing off or waiting for your maintenance service to do it for you.bad drainage suffocating muckRunoff: Okay, so we've talked about water and your vegetation, and we know that we don't want to water the sidewalk, but what about all that flooding that we get in a good storm?  Permeable paving products hope to help solve the problem, see this report adopted by the California Coastal Commission in March, 2007.  I would point out, however, that permeable paving solutions are dependent on proper maintenance, and that even compacted soil can resist water penetration as well as any hard paving material.  So, not to get into a discussion of style or design, I would encourage everyone to consider where a permeable solution can be used.  It is far nicer to have all that lovely rainwater seep into the soil than to run off our urban and suburban surfaces, filling up the storm drains instead.  I was given this book on Rain Gardens as a gift about a year ago, it is worth reading.  I bring up runoff, because I've noticed several water-saving lists recommending adding non-planted areas to cut down on the amount of water needed to irrigate.  I think that suggesting this is misleading and not necessarily an environmentally friendly practice.

Sentimental Plants

nerine from mom My mom used to have "naked ladies" (Amaryllis beladonna) in her garden until she dug them all up and gave them to a neighbor.  Lucky for me, she had some Nerine bowdenii shoved in a corner of the yard (not planted, just set aside bare) and when I asked if the Amaryllis were all gone, she stuffed the Nerine in a box and gave them to me.  Hey, close enough.  Every fall when these things bloom, I think of "home" (though I haven't lived there in quite a long time).I've had a few clients with similar hand-me-down plants, and I think these are (depending on the client's wishes, of course) essential to any new design work.  How rude would it be if you had a Hydrangea from a loved one's garden (heaven forbid that person is gone!) and I just designed it right out (and oh, yes, I've seen this happen) of the new garden.So below are my Nerine.  I'll come clean with you: my yard is a disaster area (no, check that - it is a teensy American Meadow), I haven't done any maintenance since spring, staying inside and working on everything else instead.  I live in an apartment, so yes, my friends, the Nerine are living in a kitty litter bucket with holes drilled in the bottom.   They don't seem to mind, I pay them absolutely no attention whatsoever and look what they gave me back this year:nerine from mom 2

Ridiculous quantities of inspiration

GAP Photos is a UK based website that has an insane quantity of garden photos.  They've got the most amazing search abilities, and their photos list actual plant names whenever possible.  Being of the UK, most of the images are "english garden" types, but there's also images of flower shows (like Chelsea) and beautiful veggies.   I think the site speaks for itself, just watch the clock - a person could get lost in there for hours.

Water conservation in the landscape - the obvious stuff.

If you have read anything online, or watched the news, or read a paper in the last decade, you already know that water use and conservation is an issue in our state. Things that can save water include:* mulching* grouping plants into water-use zones, and using drought tolerant plants that are adapted to your area* switching from a typical sprinkler system to drip irrigation or sub-grade irrigation* Watering in the early am (not late at night, please!!! that actually promotes pathogens) so the plants can take up the water in time for the warm day ahead.* cleaning sidewalks and driveways with a broom instead of a hose (well, duh)

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