At A Glance: Eccentric
Posted on: July 31, 2011 10 Comments
Deborah Silver is an accomplished and experienced landscape and garden designer whose firm first opened its doors in 1986.
Deborah Silver is a landscape and garden designer whose firm, Deborah Silver and Co Inc, opened its doors in 1986. She opened Detroit Garden Works, a retail store devoted to fine and unusual garden ornament and specialty plants, in 1996. In 2004, she opened the Branch studio, a subsidiary of the landscape company which designs and manufactures garden ornament in a variety of media. Though her formal education is in English literature and biology, she worked as a fine artist in watercolor and pastel from 1972-1983. A job in a nursery, to help support herself as an artist in the early 80’s evolved into a career in landscape and garden design. Her landscape design and installation projects combine a thorough knowledge of horticulture with an artist’s eye for design. Her three companies provide a wide range of products and services to the serious gardener. She has been writing this journal style blog since April of 2009.
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I’ve always been partial to deer statues in a garden – I think because there were so of these statues where I grew up in upstate NY. I even like them better peeking out of the bushes. Guess they’ve been there for a while…
I think they have been there a long time, yes. It looks like the junipers have just gotten big enough to provide them some cover.
Love it! Now the espalliers and topiaries are not so eccentric to my eyes, even aspirational, some of them. But the hanging plastic pots make me want to wring my hands….and the blue spruce in the red pot in the gorgeous antique urn, just kill me now.
;c)
Ailsa
Dear Ailsa, my judgments are only deserving of a fleeting glance. They are not worth any extended discussion. Let someone else judge. That said, some garden decisions are to my mind, eccentric. I went on a landscape call far away from the shop this past Saturday. I drove by a garden so eccentric I know I need to go back, park the car, and take a long look. I hope to get pictures. Any and every garden has the right to be, in my opinion. I can like it or not, but any garden expression (hanging all those white plastic hanging baskets in a tree took a lot of time) gets my respect up front. I have no need for any gardener to present papers, produce a license, or write an outline of their intent. I know-what is the idea behind that blue spruce in red plastic set into an antique and cracked urn? I am sure there is a story there. If I ever hear it, you will be the first to know. Deborah
I guess I sounded a little harsh :c(
When I carried some gnomes in my store years ago, many customers looked at me sideways while others couldn’t comprehend my choice. I’ve also been accused of having a lapse in judgement when I “provocatively” hung fuzzy dice from my rearview mirror. That being said, my likes have pretty well run from classic to eccentric and as I age, I care less about what others think. I suspect the story in these displays might be “I’m trying to make things look nice” and any attempt to do that is okay with me — not that it matters a hoot what I think. These two particular expressions are just not *my* (with all that implies about my own background, outlook and baggage) idea of beauty. It might be interesting to investigate differing ideas concerning
‘beauty’ in the garden.
Dear Ailsa, you did not sound at all harsh! You just happen to be passionate about the garden. What you like is the product of a lot of thought, a big dash of whimsy, a considerable history, and all those other factors which cannot readily be explained. What constitutes beauty in a garden-I have lots of ideas about that. I have no problem expressing them. But I have no need for others to think like I do. I would much rather look at what other people think is beautiful-and take or not, from that, what means something to me-than expound about the right and true way. What piffle-there is no right and true way. There are lots of ways. Some speak to me-others do not. I just value how easy it is for me to be exposed to other ideas-should I be open. Deborah
The deer in the junipers? And the ‘hanging gardens’?
I’m amused.
I think what I like about the hanging gardens is how much time that gardener must spend watering and just fussing with them.
Lots of intent there, with appropriate follow-through.
Personal context: Every year my Grandmother would select a beautiful hanging fuchsia for her front porch. Every year it would be dead in two weeks.
Lots of love given to the hanging gardens…
“blue spruce in red plastic set into an antique and cracked urn”
We see that here quite often–or variations of it, anyway–it’s last year’s “living” xmas tree. After the holidays, what do you do with it? Get it out of the house and it ends up in the nearest empty urn.
HB, thanks for this. I was completely baffled-but now it all makes sense. Deborah