Two ax heads a string of beads and a handful of nails

Was this a fair price in 1637 for Governors Island? Who knows.  It is what Wouter Van Twiller, representative of Holland, paid the Native Americans of Manhatas for the island.  Van Twiller was no fool, he purchased the island for this private use and Governors Island became known as Nutten Island until the Dutch got hip and confiscated the island in 1638.

On Wednesday, I took a private tour of West 8's vision for Governor's Island.

Adriaan Geuze of West 8, is supposed to have remarked on viewing Governors Island for first time "It's as flat as a pancake." And so is Holland.

Painters, like Jacob Van Rusidael captured this perfectly in the 17th century.  To addrerss the issue of topographical boringness, West 8 has designed a series of hills, the highest one is to rise 80 ft.

There is nothing like seeing the BEFORE.  A project this big is overwhelming.  Landscape architects from Mathews Nielsen guided us through the site.  

Think of the responsibility of keeping thousands of trees alive in 100 degree weather.  It's a daunting task.  Of course, like all construction projects, this one is a little off schedule.  The trees came, but the areas weren't ready for installation, so the architects  constructed a "nursery" for bare root trees, potted, mulched and added irrigation.  In addition to tagging the trees, they had the nursery label the trees according to their location called petals.  The rows are all colored coded, which correspond to their petal. 

We were able to ask a lot of questions.  For me the practical often surfaces before the aesthetic.  "What is the maintenance plan?" 
"That is a good question.  We don't know yet."

Having learned the hard way.  Maintenance is just as important as design.  Build it and they will come, but if you don't figure before you build it, how to take care of, you find yourself in a real mess.

Governors Island is an amazing addition to New York.  It's a world away from the city, but within spitting distance.  The same can be said of Randall's Island, but with one big difference.  Governors Island has no cars.  And although the expected quiet is disrupted by the helicopter pad close by, it's still unlike any other green space available to New Yorkers.  

The West 8 vision may not be bucolic, but it has a pastoral charm.

The Wild One MARGIE RUDDICK

Margie Ruddick

Designers Gone Wild:

Letting Things Happen in the Parks and Gardens

October 11, 2011
Metro Hort

Going
GREEN
or
Going
WILD

"From skeptical to appalled to angry" is how Margie Ruddick describes her neighbors reaction to her front lawn. Going WILD;  letting trees, shrubs and plants seed in isn't a new idea, but coming from a prominent landscape architect it's heresy.

For me, this was possibly the most important lecture of the year.  I've been studying how to create plant communities, how to let them go, but not too much. Ruddick came to the attention of a lot of people after an article about her front yard appeared in The New York Times. Ann Raver wrote Ruddick   receiving a summons from her town for her messy patch of non-grass. 

According to Ruddick her 15 minutes of fame has lasted a lot longer.  Her email box was clogged after the NYT article appeared.  Ruddick has been working her way down a WILD  path for a long time. 

The mistake most people make when they hear you have a garden that you let go; think you actually let it go.  This is totally untrue.  Ruddick made the distinction between tending her garden, not nurturing it, because it doesn't need nurturing.  When you create habitat, birds and butterflies come, species spread.  "It feels good."

"Almost every residential client I have worked with at some point wants a weeping cherry.  My horticulture karma was good. God sent one over to my yard."  And this is the part of fun of managing this kind of garden:  you are surprised by what seeds in.  It's still work, make no mistake about it.  Even Ruddick weeds out invasive species and prunes her trees to keep the yard manageable.

Ruddick's title for her presentation was Going Green or Going Wild.  In the horticultural world, many people might think these are the same thing.  Ruddick makes a distinction.  Green is product driven.  It's really about shopping.  I had not made the connection, but when a slide came up with logos for almost every Green business and product you can think of, I was convinced she had a point.

WHAT IS A WILD LANDSCAPE?
Wild disappears, it's layered and rich in wildlife. 
       Wild uses what's there.  Accept some invasive, see what they can do for you.
                 Wild minimizes impact. 
Working with the conditions that are there and figuring out strategies to keep the landscape as you find out.
                                  Wild amplifies a sense of place. 
It grows organically out of the place.  If you are making a landscape that impacts a people, a culture.... integrate those people....see what their culture has to offer.  For the design of an eco-resort in India, Ruddick realized that the people that live in this valley, know more about propagating plants than anyone else.  They run the nursery at the resort.

HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED?
As a landscape designer, Ruddick designs landscapes.  She calls into questions the reason for her entire profession.  Look at the plants that grow in place you are designing; what are they telling you?  How much do you design and how much do you leave natural?

MAKING NATURE VISIBLE
This is what we are all trying to do.

I walked down East 64 Street on my way home, past the Wildenstein Gallery.  In the window was a beautiful Bonnard.  This was a serendipitous moment. Bonnard was always merging interior and exterior worlds in his paintings.  As one reviewer said of Bonnard, "he makes us see."  So does Margie Ruddick.

3 IS A CROWD PLEASER

Photos from top to bottomt: Conservatory Garden, Central Park designed by Lynden Miller, Emory Knoll Farm owned by Ed Snodgrass, Margaret Roach's hideway in Columbia County, New York.

1/26/2010

Plant-o-rama (Horticultural Trade Show & Symposium)

presented by Metro Hort and The Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Plant-o-rama, the annual meeting of the garden mafia of the Metropolitan area gathered together several Godfathers of the gardening world, their respective "families" and a few interlopers (of which, I consider myself one).  And like all families, rivalries, jealousies, and love co-exist.

For the event, an all-star line-up was assembled.

Lynden Miller was up first.  An irrepressible cheerleader for public parks, Lynden "threw out the first pitch."  She is a doer, not just a talker.  "Make something beautiful and they will come.  Make it interesting all year round and they will come back."  Miller believes in the power of gardens to transform the city.  And over the course of a long career, she has designed great public spaces, cajoled wealthy individuals to support public parks and maintained them in pristine order.  All of this stems from a conviction, that creating beauty in a public setting telegraphs a message to people:  you are worth it.  And for Miller, we are worth it!

Ed Snodgrass was up mext.  Ed is a doyen of the green roof world.  Growing up on a farm may not make you a straight-talking realist, but Ed certainly is.  He stayed away from all the cliches associated with green roofs.  The word sustainable was never mentioned.  Instead, Snodgrass focused his attention on an analysis of what plants worked where, and under what conditions.  What the pay back was for a functional green roof vs. a designed green roof.  The take away:  Be careful what you wish for, OR if you create a green roof, know what you want.

Margaret Roach, spoke last and possibly the best was saved for last.  Self-taught (and boy, has she done a good job), Margaret concentrated on the piece of property she has gardened on since leaving Martha Steward Living.

Roach was the leader of the plant pack.  My attention was drawn to the species peony, "Molly The Witch" (P.mlokosewitschii).  The minute I got home, I googled and found a nursery that sells "Molly The Witch", for a very princely sum.  Celandine poppy, (Stylophorum diphyllum) made Lynden Miller wince.  Margaret admitted it was a thug, but... a beautiful thug.  Blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), Japanese Poppy (Hylomecon japonicum) and interestingly, Red Lungwort (Pulmonaria rubra), with its coral-red flowers in early Spring.  As Margaret pointed out, when do you see red in Spring?

Humility, with a touch of the evangelical, Roach's talk had an overarching message:  L O O K...

look at what's under your feet

look up at the sky

look out the window

just keep looking and observing the natural world.

A day spent with a "family" of gardeners is a day well spent.  It reinforces my belief that gardeners are most generous people in the world.