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Monday Opinion: Diversion

January is by no means my most favorite month.  Being outdoors requires a level of intestinal fortitude I just don’t have.  I dislike the cold.  I dislike the garden- dead to the world.  I hate the relentless gray.  My spirits can be the same color as that sky-gloomy.  A little self-made diversion can help.  The first step is to alleviate that cold.  My boots and slippers alternate on the radiator, so I have warm feet for at least some part of every day. Buck likes an overnight temperature in the house of 64 degrees.  Really.  I have recently added an extra blanket on my side.  I indulge in a hot bath at least once a week, both January and February. I pile on the clothes.  On occasion I keep my coat on all day.  When my winter headband is not on my head, it is around my neck.  Sometimes I wear them in multiples.

I drink lots of coffee, and load it up with half and half. Hot and frequent meals are good, even though getting those January pounds off in late March gets harder every year.  Though I have no interest whatever in cooking, I love reading about food in January.  Reading about food is a much better plan for me than eating, though sometimes I will add a cupcake to that hot cup of coffee.  My favorite place to read online about food is 66 Square Feet.  Her writing is superb, so I am sure what she cooks is every bit as good.  She makes the story of a salad concocted from foraged roadside greens exciting, and satisfying.  The food she prepares with its roots in her South African heritage-it all sounds delicious, not just exotic.  Sustaining.  It just so happens that she gardens as well-what’s not to like about this part?   Her writing is consistently thought provoking and entertaining- her life and times quite interesting.     www.66squarefeet.blogspot.com

Reading is an excellent winter diversion.  If I am reading about gardening in January, I like to either be entertained, or transported-or both.  The Garden Outlaw is highly entertaining, sometimes provocative.  His blog post about Christmas lights was incredibly funny.  His take on the gardening world will make you forget that it is January.  www.outlawgarden.blogspot.com    If I am looking for a little transport, a tour of an English garden via the Galloping Gardener (www.thegallopinggardener.blogspot.com) can be just the diversion I need.  I have taken her tours more than one time-they are that good.  The blog Rock Rose (www.rockrose.blogspot.com) features a garden so unlike my own that I am transported.  She travels to visit all sorts of other gardens, and is very good at illustrating and writing about her visits.

Any garden reading which is either too involved or too serious makes me sleepy in January.  I am only looking at the pictures in Gardens Illustrated now.  I will read it later in February, when that cooped up feeling gets good and fierce.

I highly recommend an afternoon nap as a perfect January diversion.  It is a very good time to be dreaming about that garden to be.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on: January 21, 2013 10 Comments
Filed Under: Garden Stories, Strictly Opinion

The Garden Gate

Every landscaped space has an entrance.  That entrance may be physical, as in a path or stairs that lead the eye, and inspire the feet.  Some entrances are strictly visual.  A large open space without a visual cue about how to enter and where to go may seem muddled.    A landscaped space running the depth of a property might have screening, or fencing on the long side, but there should be clues about where to enter, and where to exit. Some gardens have a gate at the entrance.  Garden gates are beautiful, and functional. This gate spanning a driveway is one of a pair that when closed, says private.  When they are open, they say welcome.   

This decomposed granite walkway to the rear landscape is bisected by a pair of gates. The gate is a visual cue about a change of venue.  In the time it takes to open the gate, and pass through, a visitor has paused, and is ready to move on.  This gate does not particularly keep anyone or anything in or out.  It is a beautiful opportunity to rest both visually and physically, before going on.  

Some gates are part of a wall.  The brick wall enclosing this garden permits a visit to the rear of the landscape; take your pick, which gate you wish to open.  The pair of gates finishes each end of the long mirrored section of wall.  A landscape beyond is clearly visible above the wall; the gates are an invitation to visit that space.  The gates are wood, painted in a subtle color that does not detract in any way from the beauty of the walls.    

Vegetable gardens in my zone need to be fenced.  We have woodchucks, rabbits, and deer for starters.  The gate here-an exact replica of my client’s father’s vegetable garden in Italy.  A simple pine frame with a crossbar and an X covered in galvanized chicken wire seems completely appropriate to the feel and the function of the space.  The simple hand forged gate hardware-beautiful.  This garden gate is designed to make good on its promise to keep out furry trouble. 

Gating an arched space can be handled in a number of ways.  This gateway has a fixed panel of ornamental iron at the top.  The gates are tall rectangles that cleanly meet that pediment.  These gates separate the rear yard from the pool yard.  These gates are beautifully forged, yet easy to see through.  A gate left open is inviting.   

Some walls ask for a gate that is barely visible.  Why is this? This gate goes to a place not nearly so dramatic a place to be as this pool deck.  Some gates are about utility, and function.  Subtle gates make passage possible, without disturbing any of the visual experience of the space.     

This solid wood gate has the look of an interior door.  That solid surface screens the space beyond, and provides a beautiful backdrop for a small antique sundial. Once the arborvitae grow in, the tall chain link utility fence will no longer be visible.  The gravelled space in the foreground functions much like a foyer in a home. 

Some gates have a specific purpose.  This gate may not be gorgeous, but it is child proof.  Some gates are more about safety, than beauty.  Clients with small children need to restrict certain spaces-in this case, a swimming pool.  Once the children are old enough, the gate can be removed.  


My gates and fence keep kids out of my yard.  I have no objection to kids in my yard, but my fountain could be a hazard.  Both gates into the yard are kept locked. They also keep my corgis on the property, and out of the street.  The open ironwork preserves the view out, and the view in from the sidewalk; there is no need to block the view, just the passage.  These gates replicate a pair of iron panels outside the front porch.  They do a graceful  job of making a space both private and safe.

Posted on: August 24, 2011 1 Comment
Filed Under: Garden Ornament Tagged With:

Memorial Day

Memorial Day-it was busy, breezy, warm-great.

  In the back of my mind is how it came to be that I am free .  Free to garden, free to pursue my interests. Free to consider doing things differently. Free to speak my mind.  Free to travel,  free to think,  free-as nature intended.  Free to plant, reconsider, reorganize.  Free, to change my mind.

Freedom does not come without a price.  On my mind today are all the people who protect my freedom. I do not know their names.  I do not know their stories.  I do not need any information beyond this,  really. I live in a country that values freedom above all else.  I am so lucky to live here; I am so lucky to have them. Not knowing the names of the people who protect my freedom, I honor them; all of them.

  Think of it-we are the only nation on earth that values, and protects  freedom, and  the sanctity of individual expression.  If  you should be an organic farmer, or an orchardist with a passion for delicious fruit, or a restaurant serving fresh and delicious food, or a gardener scooping up what the world has to deliver to better your garden,  or a simple  citizen  planning for your child’s graduation -hear this.  Honor those who protect you.

There is a big  group of people, nameless, who’s stories I  don’t know, who make many things possible for me, and you.  We are the only nation on  earth that values freedom to the extent that you and I enjoy.  Are we not so lucky?

Those troops who protect our country, and our way of life-treasure them.  I am thinking about them today, Memorial Day.

Posted on: May 25, 2009 2 Comments
Filed Under: Upon Reflection

Sunday Opinion: Safe To Come Home

Sometimes Buck will call and say he has taken care of some problem or another.  He will say, “I have already watered the pots; it is safe to come home”, or “I have cleared the fallen branches from the drive; it is safe to come home”.  Once he called to say  “They got the guy who was breaking into cars on the street; it’s safe to come home”.  I was thinking about this yesterday, on the occasion of the 4th of July holiday.  I like this holiday, as I think it is important to celebrate the qualities that made Americans go to to war to be free,  and the day that independence was secured 234 years ago. Americans are intelligent, imaginiative and hard working. They lend a hand, when a hand is needed.  I would not want to live any where else than exactly where I live.  Americans that came long before me made it possible for me to grow up safe, and be free from oppression.  I went to school, I worked, I pursued a career-you know, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  I own a small urban property and a small house-that ownership is very important to me.  I may only own one zillionith of all the land covering the face of the earth, but it is mine.  Mine to be responsible for, but also mine to do with what I please. 

I live in a neighborhood where lots of other people own their own property.  They may paint their front door a color I find unappealing, or grow roses and lilies in the most vulgar colors I have ever seen, but I put little time to my disapproval beyond wrinkling my nose.  Why is that? I was raised to value my freedom, and the freedom of others.  Everyone in my neighborhood is free to decorate their property, raise their kids, attend the church or their choice, or not-in short, they are free from me, and anything or anyone else that threatens to oppress them.  I am old enough to have recited the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in grade school.  Having recited “one nation, under God,  indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” thousands of times, it is safe to assume that as an adult American I still believe in it.

My favorite part of the 4th of July weekend was actually Saturday night.  Buck and I were home, in the garden. We had our own quiet plans for the evening.  The neighbors to the south and the west were celebrating the holiday with big parties.  The street was jammed with cars.  My yard is completely enclosed from any views to my neighbors, but I could hear them.  The laughter, the music, the kids, the dogs-the sound of celebrations going on. It all seemed amiable, and lively.  I enjoyed hearing it all;  I liked being exposed to something I was not party to.  I like that I live in a community-we all mow our lawns, pay our taxes, and wave to our neighbors.  We live our own individual lives, but we are a group.  We get our street plowed in the winter, the mail comes every day, we share access to help from police and fire, we support the schools, the parks, and the library.  In return for fulfilling our obligations as citizens, we are free.  This is a situation I feel safe to come home to.

I suppose this has much to do with why I have done contemporary landscapes, revised and updated mid century modern landscapes, planted perennial gardens stuffed with every perennial that thrives in Michigan, designed all green gardens.  People have very different views about what constitutes a beautiful landscape, and they are free to express that. I have no interest in my landscape being anything other than what I come home to.  Part of the challenge of the shop is insuring that no matter your taste or period, you will find something to like.  This means buying with an eye not just your own, but with the eyes of others in mind.  It is not tough to appreciate a beautiful garden-even one you would not want to own.  My neighbor’s freedom is as important as my own. The real music behind the 4th of July celebration?  Let freedom ring.

Posted on: July 5, 2010 2 Comments
Filed Under: Strictly Opinion