GARDEN IDEAS AND PHOTOS FROM MY FACEBOOK PAGE #1

Sunset website - photo by Andrea Gómez Romero.

'Serenity in the Garden Blog' is the name of my Facebook Page.

Each day I post a photo of something that is garden related...it is an eclectic assortment indeed: Flowers, chairs,people,  gardens, artwork, planters....

I post whatever  I think might appeal to other kindred spirits out there. You can click here to go to the site: Serenity in the Garden on Facebook.

I have decided to make a post of whatever I post on FB on a weekly basis here in my blog...that way it will be available to all the non-Facebook users out there.

I will number the posts ( this is number 1) and will go back in the archive on some posts because I have alot to catch up on.

I hope you enjoy these photos and ideas. If you do, please let me know - Thanks!

 

This flagstone walkway at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in Ojai, California (a very special valley!) features a Bermuda grass double helix. To create the decorative effect, the designer framed the rectangular space with wood, then laid 4-inch...-wide blue-board foam as a placeholder for the pattern. After installing the paving, she removed the foam, filled the resulting 4-inch-wide channels with soil, then planted the sod. A weed eater is used to mow this strip. photo by Andrea Gómez Romero.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Madoo is the name that artist, Robert Dash, gave to his ever-changing, fun loving garden in Sagaponack, in New York's Long Island. It evolved over his lifetime and is now a conservancy open to the public. Here, boxwood orbs seem to roll ac...ross a path, making "the trunks of the gingko trees look like giant mallets in an ongoing game of croquet." (quote and photo by Steve Silk in his wonderful Clatter Valley Gardens blog. http://clattervalleygardens.blogspot.com/2008/11/fab-foliage-fridays.html)

 

 

 

 

 

The beautiful hybrid Baptisia X 'Carolina Moonlight' was selected at the North Carolina Botanical Garden by Curator of Native Plants Rob Gardner in 2002. It is a cross between two native Baptisia species: white wild indigo (Baptisia alba) a...nd the yellow wild indigo (Baptisia sphaerocarpa). This gorgeous plant is insect and deer resistant and has yellow lupine-like flowers on erect flower spikes in May. When in bloom, flower spikes can number 40 to 50 spikes.

 

 

 

 

 

On a steep elevation, looking down on birch, aspen, pine and sculptural stones, the Juvet Landscape Hotel near Valldal, Norway has seven rooms built separately into the landscape. The panoramic widows makes you feel as 'if nature flows to ...you' (hotel website says this). http://www.juvet.com/default.aspx?menu=619

I once spent several week in Valldal (picking strawberries for room and board) and can say that western Norway area is incredible. bucket list item.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claremont Landscape Garden is one of the surviving English Landscape Gardens still featuring its 18th century layout.
Begun in 1715, by 1727 they were described as ‘the noblest of any in Europe’. The grounds represent the work of some of... the best-known British landscape gardeners including Charles Bridgeman, Capability Brown, William Kent and Sir John Vanbrugh. This amphitheatre was designed by Charles Bridgeman.

In 1949 the gardens were donated to The National Trust for stewardship and protection. By the 1970s, the gardens were overgrown and in a poor state. The Slater Foundation gave money for their restoration in 1975. Thank You Slater!

 

 

 

Isamu Noguchi, Sculptor and Garden Designer

Isamu Noguchi (1904 -1988) was a Japanese  / American sculptor who was raised in Japan and came to the United States when he was 13.  He is best known for his work with stone but was also a master craftsman and landscape artist. 

 

 

Born in Los Angeles to an Irish-American teacher and a Japanese poet, Noguchi was a true blend of the best of both worlds, combining seamlessly the modern 20th century aesthetic with his artistic Japanese sensibility. 

 His art exalted the materials to generate a calmness that was palpable.

While studying pre-medicine at Columbia University, he took evening sculpture classes on New York’s Lower East Side, mentoring with the sculptor Onorio Ruotolo. He soon left the University to become a sculptor.

 Noguchi worked for a time in Paris as an assistant to the sculptor, Constantin Brancusi. When he returned to New York, he became known for his 'akari' light sculptures.

Noguchi studied how people relate to and within the environment and approached garden making as if he were designing a walk-in sculpture:

"I like to think of gardens as sculpturing of space... An empty space has no visual dimension or significance. Scale and meaning enter when some thoughtful object or line is introduced. This is why sculptures, or sculptural objects create space...The size and shape of each element is entirely relative to all the others and the given space. What may be incomplete as sculptural entities are of significance to the whole."

Noguchi worked around the world creating a large number of playgrounds, parks and gardens.His projects include the gardens for Keio University in Tokyo, Lever House in New York, Unesco’s headquarters in Paris and a sculpture garden for the National Museum in Jerusalem.

His last park in Japan

In 1985 Noguchi opened The Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, New York.  Located in a 1920s industrial building across the street from where the artist established a studio in 1960, it has a serene outdoor sculpture garden and galleries that display Noguchi’s work.  Worth a Visit!

Peter Zumthor and Piet Oudolf - Serpentine Pavilion 2011

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011 by famed Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.

photo by Hufton and Crow

The 2011 Pavilion is the 11th commission by the Serpentine Gallery. Every year a well known architect is asked to design this seasonal pavilion. Zumthor's structure is his first building in the UK. It includes a specially created garden by the influential Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf.

photo by Hufton and Crow

The concept for Zumthor's Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a Latin term for 'enclosed garden'. It is a contemplative room, a garden within a structure.

photo by Atsuko and Joe Keating

One enters the building and begins the transition into the central garden, a place buffered from worldly noise and traffic. It is an interior space designed for sitting, walking and enjoying the garden.

photo by Cybermyth13

I find Zumthor's statements in this Video instructive. He says as he gets older he is more tuned into the the garden. Sometimes it takes architects years before they realize the building and the surroundings are one and the same.

Hit this link below to see a minute long Video interview with Zumthor:

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011 by Peter Zumthor from Serpentine Gallery on Vimeo.

Jacques Majorelle and his Blue Garden

Blue features are the most mysterious elements in a landscape.

Nowhere is this more true than in the magnificent ‘Majorelle Garden’ located in the heart of Marrakesh, Morocco. Originally created in the 1920’s by the French artist and gardener, Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962), this remarkable 12 acre haven has revolutionized the way we think of color in the garden. 

Majorelle was an avid plant collector and filled his botanical park, now open to the public, with exotic plant species from all over the world.  But the overriding feature in this hot and dry environment is Majorelle’s favorite color: a rich shade of cobalt blue. It embellishes buildings, pergolas, fountains and more.

Photo from Talking Dog UK

This alluring color comes out of the traditional Moroccan aesthetic but Majorelle used 'his blue' with great abandon.  It serves as a spectacular backdrop for multi-colored bougainvillea, bright orange nasturtiums and planters filled with pinks, yellows and apple greens that are scattered about the grounds. In fact, he used it so extensively in the gardens that it now has a trademark name called, fittingly, ‘Majorelle Blue’.

Jacques Majorelle's garden was saved by Pierre Berge and Yves Saint Laurent, the great French fashion designer. Today the Majorelle workshop houses their magnificent Islamic art colleciton.  Put this on your gardens to visit list as it is a place of great serenity, luxurious vegetation and powerful inspiration...and a lot of cobalt blue.

A Glorious Fall Planting at the NY Botanical Garden

Recently I visited the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Gardens at the New York Botanical Garden.

What a treat in November!

I was was so impressed I decided to share with you some of the plants in one corner of this wonderful garden space.  And to think this is in the Bronx, NY.....

Lynden Miller and her Central Park Conservatory Garden

A while back I took my landscape design studio class from Columbia University (I teach there)  to a powerpoint presentation given by the 'grande dame' of New York City gardens, Lynden Miller.

 It was a fabulous talk about the various gardens she has installed all over New York and the impact they have had on city life..

(BTW, we saw Lynden at the N.Y. Horticultural Society, which has a fantastic horticultural library - open to all - on 37th Street at 7 Avenue.)

Wow! What a legacy Mrs. Miller will leave.  She specializes in glorious mixed flower and plant borders which you can find in all parts of the city.

Lynden calls her gardens 'sanctuaries for the soul in the city' and that they are.

Lynden Miller has been, in my estimation, the modern driving force behind the beautifying of New York.   Her first commission was to restore the aged and forgotten six acre garden called Central Park Conservatory Garden....

As Director, Mrs. Miller raised an endowment for this grand garden's  renovation and long term care. She raised private funds, redesigned the plantings, hired qualified staff and organized  a dedicated volunteer group of gardeners. Today hordes of people enjoy this special place at Fifth Avenue and 105th Street.

Of course, it is especially crowded in Spring.  There are weddings galore and don't even try to go there on Mother's Day - its full. 

To enter you must pass through the Vanderbilt Gate, one of the best examples of wrought iron work in New York City and a popular photo spot.

The Conservatory Garden is filled with heirloom roses, English yew, barberry, holly and, of course, "Manhattan" Euonymus.  It is divided into three distinct sections, each representing its own specific style. These are the north (or French Garden), the Central (or Italian Garden) and the south (or English Garden).

(this photo from a wonderful photostream by Trish Mayo at Flikr - a very talented photographer! )

What Lynden Miller has done in restoring the Conservatory Garden, and all the other gardens she has installed in NY,  is remarkable.  You must know that when I was growing up in the city there were no gardens other than our botanical gardens.  Sure, we had the magnificent Central Park but there were no formal flower gardens to speak of.  Flowers were few and far between then. Nothing like today.

This designer deserves recognition!  Buy her book, Parks, Plants, and People: Beautifying the Urban Landscape and see the amazing things this pioneering and wise gardener soul  has done!

Without Lynden Miller, New York City would be a much more solemn, gray place.

New York's Bryant Park - What Makes a Great Urban Park

N.Y. City's Bryant Park in Summer

This is a revised and enlarged version of a previous post I wrote.....Jan

Bryant Park is one of the most successful outdoor spaces in New York. But why?

Well, it is open on all four sides to the public.  You can enter it easily although there is a distinct separation from the street and a more formal entrance off 6th Avenue.

It is also a mix of overhead trees and open level green space. (I guess each comprises 50 percent of the whole). This is an important and salient design point.

from the website : www.soulofthegarden.com/dailymuse0703.html

It offers many different active and passive recreational pursuits. Chess tables and sculptures share the park with ice skaters, a carousel and bird watchers.

Chess players in Bryant Park

Ice Skating in Bryant Park

One of the most obvious features of Bryant Park is the perimeter planting of tall Plane Trees. These stately trees were planted years ago and have been pruned to a high canopy which offers filtered shade and a needed buffer from the surrounding skyscrapers.

photo by Jan Johnsen

I took this photo of Bryant Park in the summer. The furniture is lightweight and highly moveable. People can place their seats anywhere they like.  Bravo!

Urbanist William H. Whyte suggested the use of this kind of seating for the park. He wrote in his book The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces:

"Chairs enlarge choice: to move into the sun, out of it, to make room for groups, move away from them. The possibility of choice is as important as the exercise of it. If you know you can move if you want to, you feel more comfortable staying put."

 It also shows people sitting in niches set off from the main walk - another great design idea! Set the seating out of the flow of people. It also shows the trees bordering both sides of the paved walkway.

Where did this idea come from?  Well, look at Villa Medici in Italy for this niche idea.

Villa Medici - photo by Hermes, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon

And what about the large central rectangle of lawn that Bryant Park features? It harks back to as Village Green.  This is what 'House and Garden', said of a plan for a 'village green' concept in June, 1926:

"A new prototype of an urban park for American cities features a raised, multipurpose grass terrace surrounded by a double rows of trees. Separation from traffic and street noise is provided by low plantings and balustrades."  from the website, 'Exploring Concepts of Landscape Architecture ' ... Bryant Park is a Village Green.

Bryant Park plan from the book, 'Great City Parks' by Alan Tate

Now contrast that scene with this one:

I took this photo years ago of a vest pocket park in New Orleans. It, too, has trees on both sides of the paved area. It also has seats in niches. So why is this so unappealing while the other park is so inviting?

Gary O Robinette termed it, 'Reduction'.

In Bryant Park, the width of the paved walk is small compared to the height of the trees bordering it....You feel enclosed, embraced and sheltered.

from the book, 'Plants/People/ and Environmental Quality' by Gary O. Robinette

The ratio of the trees to the paved area in the New Orleans park is very different. The trees are too small, too far apart and the paved zone is too wide....They should have placed the trees closer to each other tather than hugging the walls.  The  widecentral paved area has no reason for being...A narrower walk with wide planting beds would have created a softer, sheltered space.

There is no buffer from the street. No activities are offered or planned for. It is a dead end space - no flow.

As Gertrude Stein said (a sculpture of her is in Bryant Park) "there is no there, there"..she was describing Los Angeles but it could apply to this New Orleans park.

Gertrude Stein in Bryant Park - given to the park by Maury Leibovitz (he was a client of mine and had this statue at his house before donating to the park)

The Dreamy Brooklyn Bridge Park - April 21, 2001 Tour

I spent a part of my childhood living near Brooklyn Bridge...back then, us kids didn't venture down to the river even though our elementary school, P.S. 8,  was in its shadow. The neighborhood by the waterfront was sketchy, filled with abandoned piers, parking lots and dilapidated industrial buildings. I would go home to my little apartment and dream of trees and flowers.

Today, thanks to a lot of talented, committed  people, Brooklyn Bridge Park is a beautiful riverfront landscape dotted with rolling hills, promenades, playgrounds, bicycle paths  and restored marshlands. The view of lower Manhattan from the park is amazing... My dream has come true.

plan- courtesy of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

In the future, a total of 12 acres of paddling waters will be created for kayaks and  rowboats and there will be designated fishing areas and a marina.

On Thursday, April 21 the landscape architects of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. and Jennifer Klein, Dir. of Capital Operations at Brooklyn Bridge Park will give a tour of the 85-acre Brooklyn Bridge Park. (click on text for info).   The tour will be of the Pier 1 and Pier 2 tidal pool.

 This summer, Jane’s Carousel will open, on the waterfront, housed in a Jean Nouvel pavilion.

The next phase of the park will include three large playing fields for soccer, field hockey, softball, cricket and football - as well as a picnic peninsula on Pier 5 (projected Summer 2012). Future phases include basketball courts, handball courts, an in-line hockey rink, and tennis courts.

 WOW WOW WOW...I guess I should have stayed in Brooklyn.


Tickets:

$10 Urban Green Members

$15 Non-members

$10 Students (must show valid ID at the door)

As a budding garden writer, I must share with you one of my favorite authors - Edith Wharton.

Edith Wharton was a famous woman of letters in the 19th century when she went to Italy and wrote her seminal, turn of the century  Italian Villas and Gardens. The writing is classic garden literature.

First serialized in the popular 'The Century Magazine' and then released in book form in 1904, Italian Villas and Their Gardens is Wharton's description of her visits to 75 different villas. It combines Wharton's flowing prose, her keen intellect and eye and Maxfield Parrish's striking and nuanced color  illustrations.

What a combination for such a wonderful topic!

All the Parrish illustrations shown here are from a fabulous website called 100 years of Illustration and Design by Paul Giambarba (click here).

The book was a genuine collaborative effort between the two. Each traveled to Italy to gather material for the project and then they met later in The Mount, Wharton's home in Lenox, Massachusetts, to compare notes and to discuss the themes of the book. 

The Parrish illustrations of these legendary Italian villa gardens are typically dreamy and  look the stuff of fairy tales.

The book is a jewel of garden writing and design analysis. It is, as a reviewer wrote in the Amazon book review, "a coffee table book, a piece of art and a conversation piece all in one."

Here is an excerpt from the book that exemplifies Wharton's skillful prose and eye:

“The inherent beauty of the garden lies in the grouping of its parts - in the converging lines of its long ilex-walks, the alteration of sunny open spaces with cool woodland shade, the proportion between terrace and bowling green, or between the height of a wall and width of a path.

None of these details was negligible to the landscape architect of the Renaissance: he considered the distribution of shade and sunlight, of straight lines of masonry and rippled lines of foliage, as carefully as he weighed the relation of his whole composition to the scene about it.”

(Edith Wharton, Italian Villas and Their Gardens, 1904

Wow - I couldn't have it better myself....(smile)...The Original 1904 edition has been reprinted by Rizzoli Publishers (May, 2008). John Dixon Hunt (Introduction) ....It is a must for any garden writer/designer/aficionado...