Monday, January 21, 2013

Garden Designers' Roundtable: Inspiration

Inspiration comes in many forms and guises.  Sometimes I have to seek it out, other times it hits me as a surprise observation or a flash of an idea from out of the blue when I'm busy at another task (Weeding, anyone?).  I've written about a number of my inspirational influences here, so today I'd like to focus on just one:  my colleagues.

Last week I attended ProGreen Expo, the annual, week-long conference and trade show for landscape professionals in the Rocky Mountain and High Plains regions.  With over 100 seminars to attend and 600 vendor booths to visit, it's the perfect opportunity to find inspiration.  If you didn't know it before, I'll tell you now:  people in the green industry — designers, contractors, irrigation specialists, arborists, etc. — are extremely open and sharing with their expertise and information. Regardless of what part of the country they work in or the size of their business, there is usually a new idea or fresh perspective that I can adapt.  Here are just a few of the ideas that I gleaned from my colleagues...

Inspiration:  tools and technology
Roundtable member Susan Cohan taught a couple of sessions on digital imagery as design tools. My aha! moment came with her tutorial on using "secret", or hidden, Pinterest boards to collaborate with clients.  Design styles, specific plants, hardscape products, colors, etc. can be reviewed and edited to help communicate and customize a landscape or garden design. Did I spend the weekend reorganizing and expanding my Pinterest site?  Yes. Yes I did!

Photographs are a key component of my business, so I'm always looking for good tips and examples to help me improve my landscape and plant photos.  Rich Pomerantz, a master photographer with a beautiful portfolio, had some solid reminders / ideas for me (which I ran right out and tried):

1.  Play with the depth of field.  Not everything has to be in focus all the time.


2.  Play with the light. Back-lit "rimmed" subjects can be lovely.

3.  Shadows can be your friends (they make the subject look more three dimensional).
4.  Sometimes you want to "sell the steak" with your photo, sometimes you want to "sell the sizzle."

Inspiration:  regionalism
Another Roundtable member, David Christiani, gave two presentations on using regional cues to create designs that have a visual "sense of place" and are sustainable.  David recommends not only knowing your climate (much more than the USDA Hardiness Zone), but also the plant patterns of your eco-zone.  Plants are going to form groups and colonies — patterns, if you will — differently in the high plains than they do in the desert or woodlands, for example.  Recreating those patterns in the built landscape will go a long way towards creating a regional design, even when different plants are substituted.
Here's an example of a built landscape in my neighborhood park that replicates that of the high plains region. Grasses are the dominant plant species with the occasional  shrub, thicket, or tree.  Woody plants have naturalized here more than the norm because of their proximity to a lake and drainage/irrigation ditch.

             (More of Rich's photo tips:
             5.  Use the line of a path, wall, planting bed, etc to take the viewer's eye from the corner of the    image into the center.
             6.  The foreground doesn't always have to be in focus.)

This look could be interpreted in a home landscape by emphasizing low profile plantings with the occasional tall accent plant, something like this:
Denver, Colorado, designer unknown

Inspiration:  Collaboration
As an independent landscape designer I sometimes get trapped into thinking that I have to know everything and do everything myself.  Helllooooo! A great presentation by Elizabeth Fain LaBombard on the design, installation (Elizabeth was the lead on Section 2), and maintenance of the fabulous High Line in New York reminded me that complex projects are often best tackled as team projects.  Professional collaborations and public sector+private sector collaborations are what made this project feasible from the very beginning.  Will I be working with my peers more often in 2013?  You can bet on it!

What has inspired you lately?  What ideas will you be incorporating into your garden for 2013?

We have a great program for you today.  Please visit my fellow members of The Garden Designers' Roundtable for more Inspiration!



Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Monday, January 14, 2013

Vines, the right way!


I recently visited the campus of Colorado State University and came across this relatively new hardscape/planting.  I was pleased to see the perfect pairing of support to plant.  This young wisteria vineWisteria sinensis, will continue to develop and form a massive, woody structure.  The arbor — although it looks like wood from a distance — is actually welded steel (with a powder-coat paint finish).  It will be a durable partner to this vine for years to come.  This type of heavy-duty construction would also be best for the ever popular trumpet vine, Campsis radicans, and even grapes.



A lighter weight vine gives you more options when you're selecting supports.  Here is Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle vine, Lonicera reticulata 'Kintzley's Ghost', three ways:

This is another example of a heavy-duty arbor (at Denver Botanic Gardens);  it's a bit more traditional/formal  in style, and higher maintenance, too.

Same plant, also at Denver Botanic Gardens, on a highly decorative and lighter weight metal structure created by Denver's 23rd Avenue Sculpture Studio.

A lath-type trellis is also an option for a light weight vine.

If you want to keep your wall or fence free of plant material, but still want a vertical accent, consider a pillar type of structure:




Matching the appropriate support — both in strength and style — to the vine you wish to grow, is just one of the many details that will make your garden function beautifully.

Friday, January 04, 2013

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Happy New Year 2013!


I always look forward to the New Year with anticipation.  It's time to renew and refresh, set goals and create action plans.

Here at The Art Garden I've changed things a bit with a new design template.  The look is still fairly clean and easy to read, but I've added a backdrop photo.  I'll change this out as the seasons progress (or on a whim, you never know).  Please let me know if you like it, or if it's a distraction from the "main event".  I've also added "share" buttons at the end of each post which I hope you'll enjoy using.

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One of my gardening goals for 2013 is to add more plants to my home's interior spaces. The amaryllis (Hippeastrum spp.) pictured here was a mere bulb in a pot when it was gifted to me at Thanksgiving (thanks, Mary!). I kept it on my desk and watched it grow very quickly — like time-lapse film in real time!
 

What a joy to watch the big buds unfurl and have these monster blooms keep me company as I worked.  Now I'm looking forward to finding more plants that will tolerate low light, cool temps, and a small space.  Any ideas?


What are your garden goals for 2013?  Now's the time to dream, study, and plan ... and I'm here to help!

Again, best wishes to you for a fantastic 2013, and thanks for visiting The Art Garden.