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The Border

I have been painting the border of painted concrete floor in the shop the past few days; the word “border” is on my mind. The language of the garden-a special language that crosses over national boundaries and may span centuries.  To whit-a verge refers to an edge in the garden, deeply cut with an edging spade.  A verge also refers to the shoulder of a road.  This is primarily a British term.  I greatly admire British gardens and gardeners; I equally like their use of language.  When I am edging a bed, the idea that I am creating a verge lends great dignity and creates excitement about what amounts to plain hard work.  I know how to amuse myself, when I am working.  A well cut verge is not so unlike a precipice that you could fall into, and break an ankle.  A passionately cut and serious edge on a bed.  Sharp clean edges make for a beautiful presentation. I fancy the grass border pictured above on this walk qualifies as a shoulder of a modest road-a grass verge.  The grass also forms a border for a luxuriant bed of variegated Krossa Regal hosta.  This plant is so textural and lyrical in appearance, a quiet setting would seem to display it to best advantage.  In this case, a border of grass.

This hedge of limelight hydrangea, bordering a hedge of lilac, itself bordered by grass, borders a road.  A border? A border is a line or a mass that visually indicates a boundary.  This border of three plants in three heights forms a boundary.  It screens a private garden from a public thoroughfare. This landscape border is on the verge of spilling over onto the roadway.  OK, I have a very active imagination.   

This boxwood, punctuated by crabapple standards creates a border which separates the public presentation of the landscape from private garden.  There is no reason why the landscape which faces the street need be an entirely public landscape.  This border creates a boundary.  Should you drive by, you are visually privy to what exists planted on the streetside of the boxwood.  Should you be an invited guest, you are also privy to what is planted on the house side of the border.  I like the idea of making friends especially welcome with a landscape experience all their own.    

My fountain brings me great pleasure.  A concrete affair faced in Valders stone, it needs a border that separates it from the grass.  Grass clippings in the pool-not good.  A border of herniaria replicates the look of the grass, but needs no mowing.  The Valders stone is a border which protects the herniaria from the chlorine in the fountain.  Some borders are about visual definition; some borders are about protection. 

This formally clipped yew hedge is a border clearly delineating this driveway. This is a dicey move in our zone; road salt can severely damage yews.  Should you be thinking of bordering your drive with an evergreen, look at your salt habit.  The junipers planted on this slope, so beautiful in their winter color, a spectacularly generous border bewtwen the lawn plane, and the driveway plane.  This simple border tells you everything you need to know about the elevation of the house. 

Perennial borders-no one does them better than the Brits.  My zone 4to5 makes me reluctant to invest too much in a perennial border.  I had lots of space here-so half of it went to a hydrangea border.  The hydrangeas, rugged and dependable.   Given the design of the border, the lawn reads as a road, a generous path to somewhere.  In this case, a pergola.  Yet to come, a focal point at the end of this grass verge which would encourage travel.  I think one of the most important elements of landscape design involves how to encourage people to travel through, and experience that landscape.  


This low and so beautifully constructed wall is a border, a retaining wall, between one level and the next.  A change of grade asks for a boundary.  A change of grade requires steps.  I like to signal that one level is ending, and another level is to come.  I like moves in a landscape that are clear and easy to read.  Clear and confident moves are beautiful to my eye.    A crisp verge-how I love this.

Posted on: February 10, 2011 7 Comments
Filed Under: Garden Design, Landscape Design Tagged With: , , , ,

Sunday Opinion: Imagination And Precision

I owe the idea for this post to Nanne; she commented a few days ago about a sculpture of mine she thought exhibited imagination and precision.  What about it? Imagination may be defined as the ability to form a mental image of something which does not yet exist in any other form other that a thought.   No one will ever hire me to write a dictionary, or teach a course in philosophy, but the word imagination does suggest an activity that floats like a cloud above that stormy sea I call the Sea of Execution.

I am in the process of a series of sculptures about the landscape I believe no one will ever hire me to build.  Why would I do this?  I like making things, whether they be terraces, pinetums, bouquets, or paintings.  But more importantly, the idea of designing an object that could represent the landscape free of responsibility to make it work, live and go on growing seemed like so much fun.  At the top of my top ten list of mistakes gardeners make-and this includes me-is the expectation that a plant will obligingly represent an idea.  An idea about space, beauty, gardens, or  landscapes.  My Honorine Jobert anemone flowers are making me pretty happy right now, but my happiness is the last thing on their blooming minds. They have their own agenda; I just get to tag along.  They do not look the same as they did last year.  They are older; the summer weather is different this year. Nothing stays the same with them; what stubbornly stays the same is my effort to get them to represent  my design.  The lilac planted right next to the kitchen window in hopes that the fragrance will fill that room does not account for the 20′ rangy shrub that comes with that fragrance.  A perfectly good plant in the wrong spot is a product of the idea that design will prevail over biological destiny.  Junipers pruned into spirals, cloud pruned boxwood, stick like burning bushes with a thin frosting of leaves on top, my pollarded Palabin lilacs on standard-they tell a story much like a fairy tale.  Giant shrubs pruned down to half their mature size to fit a space-not so sweet a tale. Making these sculptureswould circumvent all of the frustration of imagining a design, and making it work; it would never have to work.

Every landscape designer has design work that never escapes escapes the page, and breathes. Pieces of that work may go on to become part of another project-like my sculptures.  Or it gets the saucing up it needs to really taste good. Every design relationship is precisely that-a relationship.  Maybe the design work has not met its intended yet. Perhaps it wasn’t worth a hoot anyway, and I should feel relieved I was never asked to transform a pig’s ear of a design into a functional landscape.  

 But I do know that the sum total of my imaginative worth needs a different measure than the the sum total of my bank account.  If I spent every day of the next 100 days giving my imagination free rein, I would still have just as much of it available to me on the hundredth day as I do today.  You need and should have this confidence in what you imagine, as you will need that energy to transform an idea into a living space.  Some ideas won’t stand for being transplanted into a landscape. It is good to know this beforehand.  The day comes when what I have imagined has to settle up precisely with what and how it will work.  The best design work in the world cannot circumvent this.  Once I buy plants in fulfillment of a design, my bank account does get involved.   Putting money to something only to find that it will not or does not work is no fun at all. 

Some issues are a matter of inches.  A bench 4 inches inches higher may be more comforatble; 8 inches is the difference between a garden and a sunken garden.  A tree planted 8 inches above grade may thrive or die, based on soil and water conditions.  A  garden gate off center by 7 inches will always look wrongly placed. A step riser taller than 8 inches is a pain to negotiate.  Paying attention to inches implies a certain precision.   

The sculpture of plastic grass that Nanne referred to in her comment was very precisely constructed.  The materials made it possible for that to work.  Had they been covered in sod-oh my.  I guess I try with my design work to make big simple gestures, as the plants that I will ask to be a party to what I imagine need the room to be what they do best-grow.  The big surprise of the construction of my sculptures-they do need to work.  I am stopped dead, trying to imagine precisely where to take them next.

Posted on: September 27, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Strictly Opinion, Landscape Design Tagged With: , ,

Sunday Opinion: Cheap Tricks

Mow the grass to perfection.  This will make your landscape look well cared for, even if the garden has gotten away from you, and fungus is running rampant in everything from the maples to the sweet woodriff.  

The sweet woodriff might need a little more room-cut the bed 6 inches bigger.  If it has spread into a spot where it is not so happy, move the edge back.  Mind your edges in general.  Compositions, beds, properties, views, walkways-they all have edges.  The effort you put to good edges, as in deep verges, edger strip, brick edges, stone walls-all of this will result in less maintenance, and a better look that costs nothing more than your attention and your timely intervention.

Maintenance is key to a beautiful garden, so do not buy plants on impulse.  Read the literature, visit any trial garden within driving distance, decide if a plant meets your aesthetic or practical criteria for inclusion in your garden-before you plant.  If it does not, there will lots of extra maintenance trying to get it to deliver, or work visually.  I do not mind hard work.  What I mind is hard work to no good end.  Nine times out of ten, I own my own troubles. I try to think before I buy. 

Buy plants on impulse. Your impulse comes from you and you alone; your unique point of view is what fuels the success of your garden efforts.  Having something the way you want it is fun. Make everything you love work together, as in move things around until they are in just the right spot.  You are after all the President and CEO of your garden.  Exercise your executive power, and then your executive shovel.

Shovel out those ideas you believe to be true without having looked at them with a cool eye. Take photographs of everything you do, and look at the pictures. Your relationship to your garden is emotionally charged.  Step back-get that dispassionate lens looking at what you have trouble seeing clearly.  Cell phone cameras-fine.  You need to see the big picture-not the details.

The details could not be more important. Stake those things you know will go over. Water when you need to, even when you don’t feel like it. Deadhead, divide, weed, grow from seed. Be good natured about the fact that the work will never be finished. The difference between a successful garden project and a so so garden project has everything to do with an energy that starts out big, stays big, and finishes bigger.

 Big, broadly conceived moves will draw, engage, and delight the eye.  Express your design clearly. Should you need to write an explanatory outline of your intent and post it at the entrance to the garden-go back to square one. Figure out how to make that garden look like what you intend.  Arrange plants and spaces coherently.  What do you have going on in the air space?  What is going on underground?  Are your social surfaces level? 

Level headed-there are those times when it is a good idea.  I pay my bills, pass by the potato chips in the grocery, and get a yearly checkup.  There are times when this mind set applies to overseeing the garden.  If you plant a tree, will you hand water it until it has rooted in?  If you add a perennial bed, will you mulch weed and water until it fills in?  Plant only what you will look after faithfully.  Make a plan to get where you want to be, one step at a time.  Plan.

Plan and re-revise your plans every season.  A great landscape and garden takes many years. The years that represent hat time is equal to the time it takes you to mature as a gardener.  Take the time.

Time is not on your side.  Make a move-now.  Plant a tree or 3. Redo.  Hire a professional.  It is ok to ask how hiring someone could possibly be a cheap trick. If you buy and plant and don’t get a garden you love, a good professional could save you lots of time and money.  Expose yourself to places that can inspire you.  Beautiful gardens both public and private, books, a garden club or association, a local garden center may have something that enchants you.

What enchants you?  This is the cheapest trick of all, sorting out what seriously interests you from what mildly amuses you.  Take the time to understand what matters to you about the garden.  This might be a complicated topic, but the more you think about what you love and need from your landscape is like is two aspirin and a beer for your design headache.  Any knowledge is a good thing, and it can be had for nothing more than your effort to obtain it.  An inspired landscape and garden of your own will energize and enchant you. 

I like to talk to people who visit my shop. I am in an out of the way location, so I know people come for a reason. They will tell me why the came, or what they are looking for, should I ask.  So many tell me they come here to be inspired, to get ideas, to feel better, to add or change something in their garden. They happily complain that there are too many beautiful choices. They may tell me that something they see makes them change their mind about what they thought they wanted. I like hearing this.  I intend that anyone who comes here gets visual access to my ideas about gardening, beautiful ornament, and design. The store display gardens, how we choose and arrange what we buy, our willingness to talk things over, coach and care-how we put it all together, makes for an experience.  Take advantage of anything or anyone out there that strikes a chord.  

  People do hire me to design and install landscapes and gardens for them-thanks heavens they do.  People who shop at Detroit Garden Works have kept me in business for going on 15 years; I so appreciate this. It is my idea to keep working, keep evolving.  Lots of people have a hand in this-thank you all very much.   We are in the thick of redoing the shop for the fall, and the upcoming winter season. We have a few tricks up our sleeves. Given what lies ahead for gardens and gardeners alike, we are running a special on enchantment this fall-you’ll see.

Posted on: September 19, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Strictly Opinion Tagged With: , ,

Small Spaces

 

The dowager queen French vase from yesterday’s post has a home waiting for her-but not the home I expected.  An object of this size would need an even bigger space, wouldn’t you think?  What evolved was anything but.    

My clients bought a house that had never really been finished.  The landscape was much the same; unfinished.  My client referred to the property on the side of the house as “the music room mulch garden”.  It was bleak.  This very small space functioned as a transition space between the front of the property, and the rear-a sheer 8′ foot drop in grade. A boulder retaining wall at grade barely visible in this picture was punctuated by a staircase down with 16 stone steps-maybe more.  This left the area with an edge that was in fact a precipice.  At the base of the precipice, multiple air conditioning units, and a collection of meters apparent in this picture.     

My first design, they flat out rejected; I had missed some important information. My first design did not take into account that they spent their summers at a home on the East Coast.  OK, my plan for a cutting garden and whatever went with that was way off the mark.  Plan 2-a landscape that would function and look beautiful early and late, and especially over the winter.  A small landscaped area that would have big impact. A healthy hedge of Thuja Nigra sporting one lone out of place Thuja Pyramidalis was a starting point.  

Three linden espaliers of great age would form a backdrop to this small garden.  The green wall they would provide would take up little space, and would screen the clunky boulders and grade changes from view.  Enclosing a small space makes for a feeling of intimacy.  And the room would need some furnishing.  

Three linden espaliers, each about 10 feet wide, completely covered the back.  It would be up to my client to decide whether to maintain the horizontal pattern of the branches, or let the the twiggy growth make a solid wall of leaves. Green velvet boxwood organizes the ground plane.  The precipitous drop to the rear yard is shielded from view by a hedge of Thuja Nigra that matched the hedge already in place on the street side.  Flat and safe spaces are friendly to people. As for the mulch pile we had scraped up-that would be used to mulch the new plantings.  

Decomposed granite walkways make it easy to navigate the space. The color is easy on the eye, but provides strong contrast to the green elements.  There is no reason a small space cannot be a lively and interesting space.

A simple arrangement of plant material and gravel finishes the landscaping portion of the project.  Now what? 

From inside the house, a generously proportioned bench makes the space look inviting. The placement of the bench implies there will be something of interest to see.  I thought that old French vase might be just the thing.  

The colors of each compliment one another. The placement of a large element in a small space can be dramatic.


The view from the bench side is in scale with the size of the house.   Should I plant very tall? Short and wide? With what? It will take some time and thought to get the planting just right.

Posted on: September 4, 2010 1 Comment
Filed Under: Garden Ornament, Woody Plants Tagged With: , , ,