Garden Visit: The Getty Center

The third and final garden that I visited during my recent trip to California was the Central Garden at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Designed by artist Robert Irwin, the garden plays on the natural topography of the site. A path of switchbacks descends from the hill-top museum through a ravine, crisscrossing a conceptualized stream that pays homage to California's many canals. This "journey garden" (my term) is immediately engaging; the path is carved into the hillside bringing the plants up closer to the viewer. The craftsmanship of the sandstone paths and cor-ten steel walls is impeccable.

The path terminates at a plaza dominated by large, tree-like sculptures that serve as plant supports for brightly colored bougainvillea vines. The stream continues through the plaza before plunging down a  wall into a parterre filled pool. The pool itself is framed by paths and raised gardens that are both calming and intriguing to explore.

What did I like the most about this garden? Visitors from all over the world were engaged in moving through the garden, looking at the plants, oohing and aahing over the water features and enjoying the — spectacular! — vistas. (My daughter and I were sucked in, too. We only had 1 1/2 hours to visit the museum, and spent all but about 20 minutes outdoors.)

What didn't work? The planting design. With the exception of the excellent tree placement (and selections), the plant selection looked like an afterthought and did not contribute to a sense of place for the site. The plants were an odd hodgepodge of familiar (i.e. my zone 5 plant palette) and exotic. Mass plantings of single species were a more successful than cottage style plantings in complimenting the strong architectural features of the garden.

Would I return? Absolutely!

Conservatory Gardens at Castaic Lake

After my visit to the Santa Clarita Community Gardens, I headed over to the other side of Central Park to see the Conservatory Gardens and Learning Center at The Castaic Lake Water Agency. I have visited numerous xeriscape display gardens in Colorado's Front Range communities and was curious to see what this small, desert community had to offer.

this view greats you from the entry plaza; a classic California vista

Though not a true botanical garden — very few plants had identification labels — there is educational signage and welcoming pathways that lead you through both formal and informal gardens.

The emphasis is on water conservation, and the plantings are most heavily geared towards trees and shrubs. Native plants mingle with introduced favorites such as palms, cypress and especially, roses.

The palm trees, above, mark a cross-axis that follows a rill and then terminates with a grouping of cypress and a fountain, currently not running due to the drought.

The presence of water here would have been welcome on the hot day I visited, but I get it and applaud it; a good example being set for consumers during a prolonged drought.

A more informal path leading through fields of sage and gaura, 

A mass planting of Gaura with no explanation...?

up through terraces of roses and daylilies,

I was interested to see these retaining walls; adobe or rammed earth? Sadly, starting to deteriorate.

and finally back to the water agency offices and entry plaza.

It's a beautiful site for a garden and an asset to the community (as I was arriving, a school bus full of children who had been on a tour was just departing), but it looks like a victim of not only the drought, but a bad economy as well. More plant identification labels, some fresh designs with herbacious plants for infill, and more attention to general maintenance (pruning! fresh mulch!) would bring this garden up to its true potential.

Design Decoded 2.24.2014

sarah price landscapes via Pintrest

Why it works:
This modern take on a prairie or meadow garden is a brilliant combination of structure and softness.  The formal, clipped hedges of evergreen boxwood (Buxus spp.) add just the right amount of contrast and stability to a very loose and organic perennial planting.  Although shown flanking stairs on a moderate slope, this design style would be equally effective on a flat ground plane.  Many of these native plants would work well here but, for our dry, sunny climate I'd switch out the boxwood with green lavender-cotton (Santolina rosemarinifolia) or English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia).

Garden Designers' Roundtable: Principles of Design

The "principles of design" as applied to the landscape may mean different things to different people (behold the power of the Roundtable!); my take on this topic is informed by my professional training which was based  on a fine arts perspective. The artist's approach incorporates a vocabulary of elements and principles to be used as the building blocks for any type of design — landscape or otherwise.  Mastering these concepts is on-going, but they do provide an excellent rubric for both creativity and analysis/critique.

The elements of design:  line, direction, shape, form, size, texture, value and color. They're the features that are most typically referred to when landscapes and gardens are discussed.  The principles of design are a bit more abstract, and consist of:  repetition, pattern, harmony, gradation (which I wrote about here), contrast, dominance, unity, and balance.

For this discussion, I'll focus on contrast, because I think it's the most powerful and important principle as regards landscape design.  Why?  Most landscapes are comprised primarily of plants (repetition) and are, therefore, very harmonious (lots of similar items).  By placing plant materials with strongly contrasting characteristics next to one another, you bring their differences to the fore and strengthen them as individuals. The plant "characteristics" that I refer to are the elements of design that they present.  Here are a few examples:

This simple planting of yucca and nasturtium is visually arresting because of the strong contrast in foliage texture (size and shape) and plant form (upright and rounded vs. low and horizontal).

The high contrast in flower colors (yellow and purple are opposites on the color wheel) in this photo helps the eye distinguish between similar plant/flower forms.

Design by Denver Botanic Gardens

Contrast in foliage textures and colors are crucial to a garden's success.

Canna and kale design by Denver Parks and Recreation

In a mass planting like this monochromatic perennial garden, contrast in flower value, form, and size, as well as plant form and size, and foliage texture, make for a visual delight rather than a boring mess.

Design by Denver Botanic Gardens

The principle of contrasting elements should be applied to landscapes of any scale and design style, and should be applied to hardscape components as well.  I hope you'll join my fellow members of The Garden Designers' Roundtable for more insights into  the principles of design:

David Cristiani : It’s A Dry Heat : Albuquerque, NM

Mary Gallagher Gray : Black Walnut Dispatch : Washington, D.C.

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN

Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ

Garden Designers' Roundtable: Bold

Canna spp.

Has your garden become the only place where you feel safe to express yourself, to vent, to let go of social norms and do a bit of visual screaming?

I hear you.

Use your voice to create something powerful and beautiful — not just noise.  Create bold notes in the landscape to develop focal points that can lead the eye through the space and unify it, too.

Two simple ideas to employ when you want to be bold:  big and bright.

A big object is a bold presence that demands our attention, whether it's the overall plant size (relative to it's surroundings), flowers, foliage, or an in-organic item that's been introduced to the landscape:

Hibiscus spp.

plume grass, Erianthus ravennae

giant silver mullein, Verbascum bombyciferum

an eight foot tall bronze sculpture by Kevin Robb

A bright object catches the eye and is easy to see in a world of green.  Think red, yellow, and white — the colors most easily discerned by the human eye, even in low light:

Bold red tulips in Spring demand that we "Wake up, already!" and leave Winter blah behind.

Acid yellow flowers and foliage is are not to be ignored. Design by DBG.

white glows even on a cloudy day

This brilliant blue hue, unusual in nature, demands our attention. Design by Carol Hines.

Big AND bright?  Powerful stuff:

purple smoke tree, Cotinus coggygria and Achillea at Denver Botanic Gardens

Canna and kale

Hesperalo parviflora. at Kendrick Lakes. Design by Greg Foreman

Cranbe cordifolia

big swaths of bright perennial flowers in the trial gardens at Colorado State University

holiday light extravaganza at Denver Botanic Gardens

Dare to be bold — you may find a voice that you never knew you had.

For more inspiration on the bold landscape, click through the links below:
Garden Designers' Roundtable

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN

Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT

Jenny Peterson : J Petersen Garden Design : Austin, TX

David Cristiani : It’s A Dry Heat : Albuquerque, NM 

Landscape Design Focus: Low Maintenance

Busy, busy, busy.  We're all looking for ways to make out lives fulfilling while, at the same time, juggling work and family responsibilities, exercise, travel, and social activities.  How can a homeowner — even one who enjoys a bit of puttering around outdoors — create a landscape that is beautiful, eco-friendly, and engaging?

Here are 5 key ideas for designing low maintenance landscapes:

Reduce your lawn area to a size that can be mowed in 20 minutes or less.  Mowing a lawn that size is a quick bit of exercise rather than a weekend-draining chore. Other maintenance chores like watering, fertilizing and weeding — and the related expenses — will also be reduced. Once you've determined the size and shape of your 20 minute lawn, edge it with roll top steel set into the ground with only the top 1/2" protruding above the soil (the reason to use edging is to keep the grass roots out of the planting bed, not keep the mulch in it). Dedicate the rest of your yard to planting beds, native lawn to leave "rough", or hardscapes like paths, patios, decks, etc.

My back lawn takes 10 minutes to mow, the front about 8.

The anti-lawn.  Fescue grass in it's natural state.

Focus on woody plants.  Fill your planting beds with trees and shrubs, both evergreen and deciduous. These plants will give you structure and texture year-round, and require almost zero maintenance when the "right plant, right place" principal is followed.  Select from regional favorites with a good track record for hardiness. Choose an assortment to include colorful foliage, flowers, interesting bark, and small berry-like fruits. Avoid fast growing, weak wooded, messy species or those that can become invasive via root suckers or seedlings.   To lighten things up and add movement to the garden include ornamental grasses.  Most need a quick chop down to the ground once a year, and that's it.  If you want to include perennial flowers, keep them grouped together in areas of high visibility — near an entryway or patio, for example. Keep annuals and veggies in containers, exclusively. Here are some of my favorite, go-to plants.

A good assortment of shrubs, trees and a few perennials provide low care, multi-season interest to this sunny, corner property.

Different scale, different design style, same low maintenance concept.

Use weed barrier fabric and an inorganic mulch.  The monotony and glare of an entire landscape swathed in rock is not a pretty sight; it can also create a heat sink by absorbing the sun's warmth and radiating it long into the night (not what you want in the middle of summer, for sure!).  So I give this recommendation with the caveat that the landscape plantings are designed to cover at least 90% of it once they mature.  Keep these rock beds clean with a monthly rake/blow/vacuum to keep them free of debris and weed seeds.  The alternative, which can be very effective once established, is to plant perennial groundcovers to serve as a living mulch.

A clever design makes the most of an awkward space.  The unobtrusive texture of small scale pea gravel keeps the focus on the plants.

Buffalo grass as a groundcover / living mulch.   It's watered once a month in the summer and mowed once a year in early spring.

Use an automated irrigation system.  An investment, yes. But a truly effective way to save water and reduce hands-on time in the yard. Update your system to include a programmable clock for different types of sprinklers/plants/hydrozones (water delivery systems like pop-up spray heads for turf and low volume drip for shrubs), soil moisture sensors, and a rain shut off valve. Monitor your system on a regular basis to make sure that everything is running smoothly.

Use low maintenance hardscape materials.  Look for products that will age gracefully without the need to paint, spray, or power-wash.  Everything from fences, decks, and trellises to pathways, patios, and furnishings can be selected with low care as a priority. Natural stone, cedar, redwood,  and steel are just a few options.

This stylish metal gate by artist Dennis West will continue to age beautifully.

No maintenance necessary — this cedar trellis will age to a soft gray.  

Whether you're starting to build a new landscape from scratch or just tweaking an established garden, I hope these ideas will help stimulate your landscape plans for the coming season.  Thanks for visiting!

Landscape Design Focus: Modern

Last summer, when I attended the annual Wheat Ridge Garden Tour, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to explore a beautifully designed and built modernist landscape.  The site is challenging; a sloping corner lot with a "built-over/walk-out" garage.  The 1950's era home features classic mid-mod geometry and deep roof overhangs.   In a nod to our region, pink flagstone was used as a decorative accent on the facade.

The homeowners worked with Los Angeles based landscape architect, Charles Elliott, and Kevin Bound of the local landscape design-build firm, Artscapes, to get a simple, elegant, low maintenance design and high quality installation.

Slopes were terraced with flagstone retaining walls and filled with colorful plantings, making access to both the front entry and the backyard most welcoming:

The backyard features multiple play areas for the family's young children.

A concrete "sport court" (in the foreground), a play structure with soft landing (upper right), and just enough level lawn area means lots of play space for everyone.

Distinctive dining and lounging areas are joined by a "soft" patio.

A platform deck floats over the sloping grade and minimizes damage to tree roots.
Use a bunch grass (like turf-type tall fescue) for this type of planting rather than a sod forming grass (like Kentucky bluegrass) for lower maintenance (less trimming).

The original flagstone patio features vintage furniture, too!

The use of the cast concrete squares throughout the landscape is a nice unifying element — and a much more economical choice than cut flagstone.  They serve as a practical surface for stepping stones, and a decorative accent in larger areas of gravel mulch.

The limited plant palette and row plantings enhance the geometry of the house and make for lower maintenance, too.

Purple-blue is the key color for the entry garden, filled with xeric lavender, bluemist spirea, grasses, and mugo pine.

For those of you considering a minimalist, modern style, remember these key concepts:

• proper scale
• very limited palette of hardscape materials, harmonious to home
• geometric shapes for planting beds and hard surface areas
• limited palette of plant material

Thanks to the Mead family for sharing their beautiful, distinctive landscape with us!

Garden Designers' Roundtable: Art + Garden

Art may be the ultimate focal point in the garden.  Unlike plants, which are ephemeral throughout the seasons, art can be used as a permanent statement to express one's personal identity or enforce a sense of place.  The garden itself can be used to set the stage for the artwork and provide the backdrop, frame, and foreground.  Here are a few examples of art in the landscape, and why they work so well.

Representational artwork  may best represent / reenforce a specific place.  Nothing is left to the imagination; the association between object and place is clear, and the artwork contributes additional information about the space to the viewer.

This life size bear trio looms over the entry court of a private residence in Vail, Colorado.  They look like they've just emerged from their woodland home. Notice how the white trunks of the aspen trees create a nice contrast with the dark patina of the bronze.  The colorful flowers at the base of the sculpture catch the eye (as if the bears aren't enough!) and bring them into scale. The large size and prominent location make this a major focal point for this home.

A Japanese quince (Chaenomales japonica) paired with a Japanese lantern reinforces the identity of the Japanese Garden at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.  Again, a bright flower companion may initially catch the eye, but the dark, evergreen background in contrast to the pale stone sculpture is key.

This statue does not reinforce its urban Denver location but is, instead, a memento or symbol of a specific time or place that's important to the owner.  This small piece is part of a vignette within a garden — a treasure to be discovered. Here, the gardener has used a  Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) with dark foliage as a contrast and color echo to the clay.  I also like the way that the water's reflection has been used to magnify the presence of this little piece. 

Abstract artwork may be viewed as the self-expression of the owner. It represents an emotion or a memory — perhaps related to a specific person, place or time — that's meaningful to the owner.

This joyful sculpture of stainless steel by Denver artist Kevin Robb, is reaching up to the clear, blue sky. It's hard, shiny, geometric form is wonderfully contrasted by the organic, undulating forms (lavender? rosemary?) beneath it. Perfection is the color echo of matte gray foliage to the steel.

photo courtesy of Kevin Robb Studios

Another whimsical art piece is this sculptural gate by Denverite Dennis West.  The lively, nature-based forms bring a hard, impersonal entryway to life.

 Sinuous curves feature in the simple, repetitive design of this sculpture (perhaps originally part of an architectural detail), which is the perfect focal point of a small meditation garden. Note how the fine textures and limited selection of the companion plants create a calm and relaxed setting.

Last, but not least . . . my favorite art piece in my garden is this tile mosaic that hangs on our patio wall, adjacent to the place that inspired it.   It was made by our daughter when she was 10 or 11 years old (sadly, it's not dated) and is simple titled "Pond."  Erin went on to earn a degree in apparel design and production from Colorado State University and became a talented textile designer. She recently opened her own business and is the proud owner of Super Good Art Stuff in the Tennyson Art District of Denver.

Art is a wonderful investment (at any price) in improving one's quality of life.  Buy (or create) what you love, and integrate it into your garden.  Read more about art in the garden from my fellow members of The Garden Designers' Roundtable, or click on the direct links to their blogs here:
 
Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ
Mary Gallagher Gray : Black Walnut Dispatch : Washington, D.C.
Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK
Jenny Peterson : J Petersen Garden Design : Austin, TX
Deborah Silver : Dirt Simple : Detroit, MI
Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In The Garden : Los Altos, CA
Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX