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.
Rob does a lot of the holiday display work in the shop. It may take me a while to figure it out, but usually there is some recurring theme in his work that finally surfaces. In addition to his light garlands, this year of his was all about the trees. Trunks, branches, and stems got taken apart, and put back together in some beautiful way. This spot in the shop is home to its third tree of his making. This collection of bare box elder branches was assembled as a multistemmed holiday tree-this one simply decorated in beaded snowflakes and glass birds. The others, hung with glass icicles, have new homes for the holidays.
The idea of a holiday tree small enough for a sideboard or table is an appealing one. This “pear tree” is decorated with glass pear ornaments and icicles; the partridge is sitting in her brown glittered nest. This holiday tree is a one of a kind expression with a big visual impact.
This glass vase he filled with the skeletal remnants of weeds from the field next door. The blown seed pots of asclepias tuberosa, or butterfly weed, softens the look of the sticks. A very subtle and unexpected addition? A few platinum glitter picks make what at first glance seems ordinary, sparkle softly.
These very sparkly trees take up next to no room on a mantle or buffet. This Pucci-inspired version of a tree-great fun. The glittered seed pod trees have the same effect-very festive.
Coulter pine cones are the largest cones on the planet. They are little wood trees, in and of themselves. A very large Coulter cone which stands up on end, perfectly balanced, makes small but stunning holiday tree. 
Rob frequently displays holiday ornament in tree branches. Many years ago I decorated a small deciduous tree from my property for the holidays. This does have an understated and spare look reminiscent of the feather trees so popular at the turn of the century. These ornaments from bark strips look right at home here. 
This vase with a tree comprised of a few pine boughs and field weeds gets some punch from a feathered cardinal ornament. It says holiday with the fewest words possible. 
Anything that transmits or intensifies the available light I find hard to resist. Michigan is one of those states with mostly cloudy days in the winter.
It was Henry Mitchell who wrote that defiance is what makes gardeners; I believe him. Everyone who works for me gardens. It is interesting to see what they make, and how they use their voice. This loft right downtown in Pontiac is home to Lauren Hanson; she works in the store. It is one of many buildings in the area in various states of disrepair and dereliction. But it is obvious she has an idea about how to live and garden. Defiantly.
She is young, and has adventuresome ideas. She tells me she likes living in this loft, that it has so much more presence and attitude than a suite of rooms in an apartment building. This urban location doesn’t dismay her in the least; she is energized by it. A friend built her a windowbox for the floor of her mini-deck, and she planted flowers in very lively colors. The mossed baskets in the windows take some of the edge off the bars on the windows.
When Lauren has a design idea, she figures out how to get there with materials she spots at house sales and thrift shops. The planted galvanized florist’s buckets hanging from the railing look sassy, and sensational. They are a great shape, and the silver sheen repeats the color and shine of blue sky reflecting off the windows glass. She tells me she will live here until she finds a house she can buy. In the meantime, she has made this loft a home , with a very good looking garden. All the plants are well grown, and kept up. She is of independent mind, and she has a great spirit; this is unusual people her age. She has her own ideas about what’s good, and what’s important. Even more impressive, she’s self effacing to a fault; my customers really like her. She has made it her business to learn about plants, and their care, so she can help people. She’s made an effort to become knowledgable about what we have-this you cannot hire.
Number 43 is not only occupied, but it is occupied by an urban pioneer who gardens. She has big ideas, and good things ahead of her. This very petite blond woman hauls around forty pound bags of soil like its nothing. She looks after our plants and pots. She photographs everything we have, and maintains our website. She does the work of the posting for me. Like I said, she has a fire burning all of her own making; it will be interesting to see where she takes that.