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Layering

I spent the better part of this week walking from one end of my property to the other- watching Rob and a crew haul out everything he had ordered for spring, tear the entire existing space apart, and put it all back together.  I could not even guess how many thousands of pounds of terra cotta, stone, wood, lead, were involved all told-but I would guess many.  I thought his method was smart-everything got moved into the driveway lane, leaving each side ready to be cleaned up, and re-raked.  Though our all over surface is compacted decomposed granite, it doesn’t feel like spring until it every vestige of last year gets raked out. Those of you who know of the late Allen Haskell-he took up, washed, and relaid all of the gravel in his nursery every spring.  Think of it.  Beyond relevelling the gravel, even more interesting was how he put things together. 

I would not have a word for this, but for Pam.  She designs, plants, and maintains gardens, so she has a point of view about it.  She was telling me she admired another desgner she knows for her ability to “layer” in plants.  By this she means plants are paired or grouped so while one is going quiet, another is coming on.  Daffodils with daylilies, or oriental poppies with phlox, or phlox with Japanese anemone.  Skilled perennial garden designers are adept at arranging plants to avoid what I call a gaposis. I like treating these perennial spaces with big growing annuals, but some like to handle this perennially. A large clump of oriental poppies going dormant is not such a pretty sight-something needs to be coming on strong in the spot in front of that poppy-otherwise a gaposis. 

I think this is a good description of how Rob has arranged the outdoor spaces. He packed materials in close quarter that seemed to like each other or play off each other.  In this case, the steel striped bench echo the wood stripes; its scrolls recalls the scrolling corbel detail.  Surfaces and colors are different, but friendly. Lots of materials and styles are represented here.  His arrangement is a conversation about choices.   


Contemporary garden ornament can include a wide range of objects. This early twentieth English wood trestle table is clean lined enough to be quite comfortable with some galvanized steel wire crates, and some painted French garden chairs. The round acid washed steel pots are finished with a nod to traditional forms, but have a subtly more modern shape.  

This space is densely populated.  On the table, below the table, in the air, on the ground-everywhere you look, something is going on.  I am surprised how amiable the contemporary limestone balls are to the modern lead sculptures of classical design.  I do not see any argument about to erupt.  I suppose any object for a garden implies that partnership-all of these things have a landscape to come in common.  Maybe this accounts for how they all get along. 

A pussy willow stem and a trench drain have almost nothing intrinsically in common.  What they do share is how they are arranged in a similar V-shaped fashion.  The color of the iron repeats the stems of the still dormant Boston ivy. What a different view will present itself once that wall is green. But given the early spring season, I like the bouquet shapes.

These steel tuteurs are Rob’s interpretation of some formally trimmed yews at Versailles.  I have already been scheming about what could be planted inside them, that would still reveal the outer form.  But it is the multiple forms in multiple pots that makes for such a big impact.  The blue/grey and terra cotta color scheme is repeated in the background in a very rhythmic way, alternating pots of different shape and height.  

An arrangement of geometric shapes is so pleasing to the eye; the V-shapes in differing materials compliment that.  The color is strikingly contrasting-black and white, with just a little in between.  A restricted color palette is a modern gesture; the twigs soften this.  


He has quite an eye, and an ability to layer all his own.

Posted on: March 19, 2010 1 Comment
Filed Under: Garden Ornament, Detroit Garden Works, Landscape Design Tagged With: ,

Rainy March Day

We’ve had a run of unseasonably warm weather that has helped to make a major overhaul of the outdoor spaces a lot easier. We have another week yet to go on that giant project.  But today the rain blustered its way in-not that I mind.  The front gardens have tulips sprouting; I like to see them get a good drink once they break ground.  Weather is an important design element in garden making-I feel lucky for this.  Barring distructive weather, I like how nature changes the channel.  It is so interesting to see what the rain makes of how we have put the collection together.


I am likely to keep writing for a while about collecting-its part of what I do.  I also have a keen interest in how and what gardeners collect.  Collections are somewhat about scale and emotional cache-100 beans of assorted varieties on display has a much less dramatic impact than 100 corgis running.  This probably accounts for why I do not have a hellebore collection-I have masses of white and green hellebores of varying species and cultivars.  The mass makes the statement, not the specific plant.  I am sure you know by now I am not a plant collector-I have other things in mind.  As in the relationship of these modern Belgian elm barrels, with this 19th century English stone bench. Round shapes versus rectangular-there is a face off right up front.  New and old in proximity-interesting.   The rain makes much of, and magnifies color relationships.  The galvanized steel bands on these barrels repeat that wet limestone grey. A satisfying discourse here.    

The music of the spheres-I am a fan.  I collect them-to this I confess.  What gardener could pass up an allium?  I have spheres made of grass, steel, seed heads, limestone, boxwood, mineral; there is something about the stability and beauty of a sphere that makes them so satisfying in a garden.  These stone and glass spheres-where might they find a home?  In the landscape, or on the kitchen table-take your pick.  Rain wet stone, by the way, is really beautiful.

Some elements of the spring collection get here strictly on the basis of their presence-on their own. You shut your eyes, and cross your fingers, that when a collection of pots arrive, they make themselves at home, without going sleepy.  I value anything that asks for my attention in a strong way.  How they come to make friends at the shop is a process of trial and more trial. This Belgian steel garden table with a concrete top works with these dark and textured pots like I hope for things to work.  The late light on the rims of these pots recall the blue steel.  The relationships between the shapes-music.  The drenching March rain makes every gesture look better.  

I have some very chunky and fluidly finished granite benches-from our neighbor, Canada. Stone so thick and expertly rock faced-beautiful.  Those rustic cylinders I have been writing about-you are seeing their wet  incarnation.  These objects make for a relationship that will attract attention.  Once I see a gardener fall for something, I understand the process of deciding how and where that object might fit.   

A pair of very old forged steel snake bench supports-I forget how I came by them.  Buck made a new back and seat from white oak, and put back together what age and neglect threatened with a trip to the scrap yard. These old snakes look handsome in concert with these dry cast limestone deco urns-don’t you agree? Someone will come along, and love this look for their garden.  There might be something about it that adds to their collection. 


We have shopped for garden ornament in England regularly for the past 15 years. Their garden history I greatly admire and value. What we retrieve and bring over always seems to move in with us -without fanfare.  This vintage English trestle table is home to plenty of diminuitive plant species of the lichen/moss sort-a gorgeous old garden table.  Is this table appalled by its complement of French contemporary chairs-not in the least bit. The Brits-the gardening Brits-really friendly.  

Anyone who collects devotes lots of time and thought to their collecting-I am no different.  How a garden collection I put together gets integrated into a garden-this is all about what it is to have a relationship with other gardeners.  My gardening community-I would not give it up for anything.

Posted on: March 13, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Garden Ornament, Detroit Garden Works Tagged With:

Putting Together A Collection

Creating and arranging a collection is a passion known to many, not just gardeners.  Even the most hard line minimalist collects their empty spaces as if empty spaces were on the endangered list; yes?  Gardeners collect seeds, tools, hellebore cultivars, rocks, birdfeeders, trees-you get the idea.  I have amassed a collection of books in the past 25 years that must number over a thousand volumes by now. It is a long standing coherent collection documenting my adventures as a gardener. Putting together and arranging a coherent collection for my shop is a big part of being able to advise people about how to design their gardens. 

Every year’s collection for Detroit Garden Works is different.  It might be based on one particular object whose size, surface, shape or style or aura proves to be a magnet for Rob’s attention.  Alternately, his  basis for a collection might be triggered by a place he has visited or an idea that’s surfacing.  We made a conscious effort to shop the US for antique, vintage and new things a few years ago.  Thus the collection always has a strong American element. An organizing metaphor-we like these. His point of view about what is beautiful is a catalyst for a constellation of pots, sculpture, prints, garden furnishings, fountains-any object which might evoke a little magic for a garden.   


These clay cylinders are all about what Rob calls a chamaeleon surface. In addition to their gritty texture, the color changes given the light.  After last night’s rain, the color was saturated and rich-different than their dry color.  Mineral surfaces exploring color and texture such as this will be friendly to no end of different kinds of plants. Pots of simple shapes makes the color and texture the most important element.  These pots will take on the atmosphere of its placement, and plants, and play a serious supporting role in big visual scheme of things.  

These rectangles made from thin slabs of volcanic rock are close in color, shape and size to these oval galvanized tubs.  Their differences give the eye a workout.  I am seeing his idea become tangible.   A collection of objects of simple and varied shapes distinguished by their interesting surfaces are what I would call a visual variation on a theme.    

A pair of very old and fine American urns and pedestals dating from the early twentieth century focuses my attention on their shape and surface-and away from a historical label.  In another context, I would see them as very traditional American garden ornament.  In Rob’s context, kept company by a family I would not have imagined, I am looking at them in a different way.  The impossibly wide and low shape of the urns, the simple swirls indented in the pedestals-I am thinking about the universality of beautiful objects for gardens-never mind their age, period, or label.     

Volcanic rock in its natural state-this I am used to seeing.  Volcanic rock slices are a product of modern technology.  I have not seen this before.  The intersection of ancient materials transformed by modern technology-Rob has gotten my interest. This I admire about him so much; he posits lots of questions to whomever might be interested- without fanfare.  He assumes that gardeners are a group in touch with the physical world, and provides them beautiful choices.  Alternative choices.  

This Austin and Sealey sculpture from  19th century England was minutes from being moved as I took this picture. I liked the old hand carved stone backed up by a contemporary Belgian elm barrel-why would I go there?  I am looking at shapes and surfaces without regard to the sentiment of a given period-many thanks to Rob.  It is the best of what I have to offer as a designer-a gardeners point of view, without any predicatable baggage.

A major reconfiguration of the shop is a major effort.  We do this every spring.  Spaces get emptied, cleaned-raked and ready to redo and live new- a dream come true.  Every new gardening season warrants new thinking-we try to oblige. The driveway is congested with things from this show or that, that source or this vintage shop in Virginia-if you have an interest in how Rob spent his winter, come and look around.


I do not have to do that much work to figure out where Rob is going; not really.  No one could possibly love their I-phone as much as he does. The internet/photo capability of that phone has set him free.   I get indundated by the photographs he takes-everywhere he goes.  client’s homes.  trips.  vacations-ok, busman’s holidays.  buying expeditions.  random thoughts. By the time the winter is coming to a close, I have a huge photographic record of his collecting.  He prints and posts the pictures he has sent me on a big wall in the workroom.  I have advance warning.  But this does not truly prepare me for what gets unloaded here in the spring .  The evidence and impact of his collecting-it will take me a season to absorb.

Posted on: March 12, 2010 2 Comments
Filed Under: Garden Ornament, Detroit Garden Works, Good Design, Spring Tagged With: , ,

Breaking Dormancy

winter cleaning 004Though the shop garden is very much frozen in time, there is work under way, under ground, in anticipation of spring.  We planted 2600 tulips in this garden last fall.  Each and every one of those bulbs is programmed to wake up and grow, come the spring thaw.  Everything needed to grow and bloom is stored and waiting inside that bulb for that moment when the switch flips.  Though it seems hard to believe, tulip bulbs do not freeze solid through and through.  Planted some 8″ below the surface, they spend the winter chilled to right around 32 degrees.  They need that hibernation time to properly spring forth.

table top 017Inside the shop, it takes plenty to get ready for spring. We do a spring cleaning in February; once spring actually comes, there is no time for that.  I do not mind that I have missed this part at all.  Steve took every book off the library shelves, dusted them, cleaned the entire space, repainted the room, and put it all back together-all I had to do was choose the colors.  Green for the walls of course-but a very light green this time.  The room looks light and airy now.  For the shelves and trim-what I call Belgian chocolate.

table top 018The floor of my office is courtesy of Flor-the company that makes carpet tiles in all kinds of colors and textures.  This series is called house pet-it is so easy to pull up a stained square, and replace it with a new one.  Gardening being the dirty business that it is, I think I am due for all new squares.  Having a project indoors helps the winter fly by. 

winter cleaning 013

We repainted most of the shop as well.  The room with the greenhouse roof got its first redo in 14 years.  As I had originally faux-finished it with mossy water stains and dirt marks, it never did look its age.  I repainted the walls a medium stone brown; the greenhouse ceiling is darker yet.  The limestone colored shelves stuck out like a sore thumb, until they were covered with things.   

winter cleaning 018The auricula theatres got new outfits as well.  The best fun was finishing the terra cotta pots.  Each pot was primed in UGL basement waterproofing paint.  This gave the pots a substantial gritty texture. This also keeps the top coat of paint from peeling off, once the pot is a home for wet soil.  Each pot got a jute knot or bow. With the finish coat of ivory paint we soaked the bows in thinned paint; I like the look.  I could see these pots planted with small growing herbs-or succulents-or even miniature ferns.   

table top 019They layout table was handy for painting the pots.  I could never again do without a table at a height comfortable for me to stand and work.  This we made with a 4 by 8 foot sheet of exterior grade plywood.  The top is held up by a pair of shelves four feet deep.  These shelves hold long blueprints that I need to store.

winter cleaning 019The little pots look great.  Machine made terra cotta pots can be finished in so many ways, when you tire of that orange clay.  This shape is called a rose pot-they are taller than standard terra cotta pots. They are great for growing plants with long root runs.  Bareroot roses that are potted up for sale at nurseries are generally on the tall side.  Large rose pots are also great for growing tomatoes. Rose pot and long tom are interchangeable common names for pots taller than they are wide. 

winter cleaning 021One of the plant theatres got a coat of Belgian chocolate paint. 

winter cleaning 002Pam has been making small topiary sculptures from preserved eucalyptus and other preserved greens.  The trunks are made from cedar whips, kiwi vine, and fresh blacktwig dogwood.  They are great for spots indoors asking for something soft, that will not support plant life.  As I have no interest in house plants, these suit me fine. 

winter cleaning 025
The newly painted rooms are ready for the arrival of our spring collection.  When gardeners break their dormancy has nothing to do with the weather or temperature.  One day it is winter, and the next, gardening people are out prowling around, wanting some sign that spring is not far behind.  We’ll be ready, come March 1.

Posted on: February 15, 2010 2 Comments
Filed Under: Spring, Detroit Garden Works, Good Design, Landscape Design Tagged With: