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The Birmingham Pots

I cannot really remember how long ago it was that the city of Birmingham called, wanting to purchase planters for their sidewalks.  After considerable research into what was available, I decided to propose a custom made concrete pot-designed and fabricated by me.  I felt everything available was either too small, or had too big a footprint to fit gracefully on the walk.  Rob was mildy appalled that I would commit to making pots-I had, after all, never done it before.     

A contractor with whom I had done many projects assured me that I could make the pots.  After much review from this city agency and that, we were hired to make 30 pots.  The fabrication actually went quite well; my crew made them over a winter.  We submitted a proposal to fill the pots and plant them for the summer and winter; a three year contract was signed.

The city eventually awarded the winter pot contract to someone else.  I was disappointed-doing those pots for winter was lots of work and loads of fun. I planted the summer pots for many years-until this year.  The contract was awarded to someone else.  I so loved planting these pots-each and every one was different.  Though I am very disappointed not to be doing them, I did have the opportunity to do them for many years.  Here is a small collection of some of my favorites. This one was planted in celebration of the Wings winning the Stanley Cup.  The variegated hibiscus is handsome.  

This insouciant number with its swaying banana looked  to me like a visual samba.  The pots are very large, and required materials that would grow even larger.  A banana is obliging in that regard.

This red leaved hibiscus is notable for the color of its foliage-I have actually never seen one bloom.  It grew into an enormous shrub over the course of the summer; the skirt of coleus and lime licorice lights up the top.  The bullseye geraniums I planted in May are now completely engulfed by licorice-save for one red bloom.


Yellow sun zinnias and red geraniums make a big splash.  That’s what you want, when a vast majority of your viewers are driving by, not lingering.

Cannas are happy in large pots and in hot weather.  The air temperature on a busy city street is bound to be cooking hot in August. Not every plant loves an environment like this.  Conversely, there are plants that will be happy in the environment you have-it is a matter of making their acquaintance.

One year I loaned the city some evergreen topiaries, and underplanted them. 

Also on loan, a topiary lantana that had belonged to me for years. It had gotten so large I no longer had space for it at home.  


I have planted hundreds of different compositions in these pots over the years; it was a great job.

Posted on: June 4, 2010 11 Comments
Filed Under: Garden Ornament, Garden Design Tagged With: , ,

Pots And Boxes

Pots and boxes-this client has plenty.  Sixteen window boxes on three sides, of the house, and close to thirty pots. It is the better part of the day start to finish to get then dressed for the summer.  The shopping and transport is time that doesn’t show here.  This plant comes from that place, and that plant from somewhere else miles from stop number one.  There is the loading, the driving and the unloading.  But the big story of this entire week’s planting-the heat.  I call 90 degrees since May 21st extremely unseasonably hot weather. Making sure the plants survive in spite of their very small rootballs, a time consuming challenge.    

This gorgeous pair of Mital terra cotta pots handmade in Impruneta Italy on attending plinths are giant sized.  Placed outside a small side terrace, they add a lot of punch to a large drivecourt near the rear of the house.  The banana in the center will grow to a substantial size.  Fisdh and bananas have this in common-they will grow according to the size of their environment-whether that be water, or soil.  If the heat we are having persists, this pot will grow fast.

The side terrace is home to a collection of glazed French terra cotta pots.  Sonic New Guinea impatiens will thrive in this spot; the light is strong for 6 hours a day.  Flanking the couch, a pair of lime irisine grown in tree form.  Sporting green and lime leaves atop red voilet stems, they have a distinctly tropical feeling.  They will have to be pruned regularly, as they grow like weeds. 

This is one of the most beautiful pools I have ever seen; the pergolas are stunning as well.  None of this was designed by me-I just plant the pots.  My client was the force behind the Italian pots-he likes them.  The DeGroot spire arborvitae spend the summer in the pots, and the winters in ground.  They are a reasonable approximation in shape to Italian cypress. If I could petition nature to let just one plant run around the hardiness zone rule, it would be the cypress.  As sculptural as they are stately, they bring Italy, and Italian gardens to mind. 

The color scheme this year-yellow, lavender, purple, white-and cool green.  The pots have lots of variegated licorice.  This green of course is a nod to the starring figures-those 6 Degroot Spires.  Most of the color is not so evident yet-the plants have a lot of growing to do.  Yellow and Vanilla Butterflies argyranthemum are lively, mixed. Popping up between them, yellow and white dahlias gallerys series dahlias. 

Pool decks tend to be very hot places; white in the composition keeps everything looking cool and fresh.  The trailing verbenas have shed their penchant for mildew; the Lanai series is particularly healthy growing.  If they are kept deadheaded, they bloom nonstop long into the fall.  This very dark purple reads well in the company of white petunias. 

This picture in no way reveals that it was cooking hot on that terrace-you will have to take my word for it. The window boxes were especially challenging in that heat. All of the plant material had to be hauled up our extention ladder. This kind of planting is not for the faint of heart.  

It is finally warm enough to bring the heliotrope out of the greenhouse.  This new lavender variety is especially attractive. I am sure you can tell that I like it-I used lots. 

An old iron trough is planted with black leaved orange cannas, and black leaved Fascination dahlias. Wild Lime coleus, Tricolor and Caliente orange geraniums add an unexpected dose of hot color. These big individual cabanas could use it.  

There is much that is yet to come for this terrace.  I can see the pots grown in, and people in the space.  Lovely.

Posted on: May 27, 2010 6 Comments
Filed Under: Garden Ornament, Garden Design Tagged With:

Black And White

Running crews is the perfect thing for my three month old titanium knee whatever apparatus.  As much as I am inclined to baby that thing, working demands that it be put to use-confidently.  This is not to say that the men on my crews do not cut me some slack-they do.  They get the plants to me; they make sure I get up and down, as needed.  But that knee is getting the workout it needs. This was a black and white day.  My morning installation-so many variations on black, chocolate, red and orange in the plants.  Seeing my palette of bananas, black oxalis, red irisine, lime selaginella and so on, my client asked if I were going traditonal on him.  Very very funny, this from him.  His planting-distinctly alternative.  Very much about spare, serene and modern design.  Much about visual challenges that hopefully represent his notions gardening.      

This quietly gorgeous Francesca del Re tapered pot got a green and black calocasia front and center.  The black red spikes-an unexpectedly tall underplanting. Lime selaginella energizes the entire discussion going on between that large leaved and curving voice, and the spiky and dark second fiddles-good music. 

The centerpiece of these pots-bananas.  Banana plants-they grow  proportional to the pots/soil mass they are planted in.  In ground, 14 feet. In these pots-6-8 feet.  Green and brown leaved, with red violet midribs-a concert with a great opening, and and a dramatic finish.  All of the other plants in this pot will be in celebration of the bananas.  

Lime and black is a dramatic combination.  That said, be sure to back up the black with a lime element that will showcase the subtleties of the black foliage. Consider the eventual size of each plant-growing up and growing out will tell everything about your understanding of maturity.   This lime dracaena will grown faster, and outdistance these black red spikes.  The green/black/red stemmed pepperomias are a transitional element.  The lime creeping jenny to trail- exquisitely lime. Contrasting colors is not enough.  Mass, texture, rhythm-consider these elements as well. 

My box trucks-I haul soil, bark, tools, stakes-whatever.  All over.  My shop is located in an industrial park far off the beaten path.  This makes us a secret of sorts, and we certainly are all about being dirty.  Whenever I see this truck, it makes me laugh.  We like dirty-that dirty work makes a good garden possible.  

The box truck is home to all the tools of the trade-and then some.  The translucent roof makes it possible for me to see what is up there. The American companies that made this truck available to me-many thanks.  This roof-a dream come true for any designer looking at color.  Or for any crew person looking for a roll of bark wire.

My afternoon was all about a client who loves white.  She has no use for anything that even remotely resembles black, although her taste runs to clean lined and modern too. I am happy to oblige. When planngs are done in a single color, the visual emphasis changes.  Form, mass, texture and line become the important issue.   A black morning and a white afternoon made for an exciting day. 

White dahlias, white trailing verbena, white annual phlox and variegated licorice-a very strong statement in white and green.  But not nearly as strong a statement as this steel break formed pot.  48 inches in diameter, there is room to plant plenty.  It would  be equally happy to be planted with loads of a single plant.  I am reluctant to plant one variety only-one never knows what the summer weather will be.  I  would rather replace a few things, than the entire planting. 


No matter the black or the white, the design issues are all the same. This airy euphorbia gets plenty of emphasis from the contrasting green and white large leaved plectranthus.  The relationship of these two plants enchants me.  The best part of my job is being party to lots of gardens, with very different points of view.  I have all kinds of music going on; I could not want for much more.

Posted on: May 24, 2010 2 Comments
Filed Under: Garden Ornament, Garden Design Tagged With: ,

Carter

The saga of the rebuilding of my fountain begins and ends with Carter. The man with that short scruff of a white beard, the navy shirt, vest, and cap-that’s Carter.  A combination of considerable brains, even more experience, patience and exacting craftsmanship-he and his crew have been my pleasure to observe for the last three days.  They tore my leaking fountain apart, and rebuilt its foundation some three weeks ago.  The stone for the coping had not been delivered two days when he picked it up; time to finish.

For pools and fountain stone, I specify a stone native to and quarried in Wisconsin.  This particular limestone is dense, and has few pores.  Indiana limestone is so porous, that pool copings and decks absorb too much water-a perfect medium for moss and algae.  Though I would as soon look at moss as anything nature provides, I do not want to walk on it around a pool-too slippery. This stone is as dense and smooth surfaced as marble-and weathers my climate without a problem. 

Buck did CAD-computer assisted design-drawings for the quarry-each piece was cut to his exact specification and dimension.  Communication is the art of life, a client once told me. I could tell Carter thought it was very cool that he did not need to cut or otherwise modify any piece of stone.  I do not think I have ever seen a crew of  four measure and remeasure like Carter’s group did; when a piece of stone was laid, it was laid in the right spot.   

Each slab needed to be set in precisely the right location.  OK, once located, each slab needed to be set exactly level.  Watching Carter level a piece of stone is exactly like watching paint dry.  Each piece took an incredibly long time. My eyes were crossing, and I thought I might black out-watching him tinker and tap.   

He has a tool-a gizmo-that helps him determine if a slab is set level.  The laser level-I could tell by looking at its battered casing that he uses it non stop.  But make no mistake-I could see him using, and trusting his eye.  I am very interested in the history and practice of fine craftsmanship.  I have been watching the real deal, in my own back yard, for three solid days. 

The Wisconsin limestone is so dense, Carter directed that each piece be buttered with thinset mortar before he placed it in the mortar bed.  The mortar bed was levelled and relevelled.  Think of the foundation, and finish stone as a cookie-the thinset, and the bulk mortar-the creme filling.  Unlike a sandwich cookie, the filling needs to grip both the foundation and the stone, and stay stubbornly stable in spite of stresses from up above, and underneath.   

A client remarked recently that small spaces need to be designed just so-there is little margin for error.  Any mistake in the layout or execution is all the more obvious in a small space. I did have occasion once to deal with a pool that had been dug, and shot with gunite-out of square.  Needless to say, the pool coping stone, and its pattern had to be modified.  Luckily, the pool terrace stone could be modified and recut in such a way that makes this mistake almost imperceptible.


We had quite the event going on.  I larned quite a bit about the technology and properties of concrete and mortar-not to mention the science of making something lay flat, and stick tight, for good. 

Last night at 7 they finished the last of the mortaring of all the stone joints.  I will need to wait 5 or 6 days before I can repaint the pool interior; all the work needs time to cure.  I should have running water in no time.

Posted on: May 21, 2010 2 Comments
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Garden Ornament, The Natural World Tagged With: ,