Dead Stuff Catches On

September 20 /10 am /Lurie Garden/ Chicago

Walking around The Lurie Garden, with a bunch of landscape architects, in town for the ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) Conference, was what you would expect, when garden gurus get together.

We look at landscapes and gardens differently. The conversation ranges from soil composition to questions about specific cultivars to design of hardscape and to the inevitable discussion of maintenance issues.

Some of us love the counterpoint between Piet Oudolf’s free flowing planting style and Kathryn Gustafson’s hardscape. Here is a garden evocative of the prairie and landscape design that encloses it with 14 ft. armature (see photo). To me the two ideas are at odds. Gustafson creates a garden room, harking back to traditional English gardens of all sizes and at the same time plays off the architecture of Frank Gehry and Renzo Piano. Piet embraces the contemporary, but in a different way. He designs a garden based on an American Midwestern idiom. He seeks to remind of us our roots, but at the same time creates a new kind of planting style...a style that suits our desire for sustainability and modernity.

At this time of year, The Lurie Garden is mostly a garden of seedheads.

Agastache rupestris,

Aster ‘October Skies,'

Helenium ‘Rubinzwerg’

and grasses like Eragrostis spectabilis and Chastmanthium latifolum still bloom.

But mostly the garden is a mixture of seedheads. Some stems are still erect, others lean over each other and onto pathways.

I was interested if anyone besides gardeners would see the exquisiteness of this autumnal scene. Walking around the garden on several occasions, I noticed people of all ages engaged in what they were seeing, noticing how plants “age” and understanding the natural progression of a garden.

Unexpectedly you find that beauty takes hold of people in unexpected ways and reminding us that everything is "a work in progress."

Sedum's Tears

Some people suck the air out of a room. A few people breathe oxygen into a room. Paula Panich, the well-known garden writer and friend, is one of those people who enliven the space she inhabits.

Paula recently visited my garden. This was cause for a little anxiety. Being a person, who is usually dissatisfied, I worried the garden would be a let down. My garden is just a little bit of heaven to me and only me.

I’ve studied the rules for garden making. I’ve read countless books and articles by designers and landscapes architects. I’ve thought about what a garden can be and what my garden might be. Created over many years without a plan, the one constant has been my never-ending ability to change my mind and rip out what I don’t like. For an anarchist at heart, plans are difficult to adhere to. In my garden, I decided not to pay attention to any gardening conventions.

Paula knows this about me. She is able to perceive intention and ideas over skill and horticultural mastery. As Diane Keaton says to Jack Nicholson in Something’s Got A Give, “Either you hate me or you are the only person that ever really got me.” Paula is one of the few people, who has come to the garden and understood what I am trying to do, successfully or unsuccessfully.

Early evening, Paula leaves to return home. It rained that night. The next morning, I took my usual stroll around the garden. I planted some Sedum Prairie Fire right before Paula arrived. Being a sedum novice, I noticed something I hadn’t really thought about before. Sedum leaves catch water (see photo above). To me, these little droplets of rain mimicked my mood, I was missing Paula. Understanding another person is rare and it’s even rarer to find someone who gets it!

The Walmart of Gardens

If you want to test your limitations, head up to the heather garden at Fort Tryon Park.

Designed by the Olmsted Brothers in 1935, you can still perceive the bones of a great public park. Sitting at an elevation of 150 feet above Broadway, the heather garden bears little resemblance to its original design. 19th century photos, show the garden entirely made up great mounds of heaths and heathers. It looks like a modernist masterpiece. Uncomplicated in concept, clean lines, a study in texture, unified by its simplicity.

Time has not been kind to this garden. The heaths and heathers have mostly died, a few remain to remind us of what was once there. Neglect and restoration are in evidence. Gardeners with every imaginable taste, limited resources and access to every variety of perennial on the market have gardened here. The result is a plant flea market.

I guessed at the kind of gardener who planted sedums and roses,
the gardener who adored, the heuchera and ornamental grasses,
the gardener who couldnt resist the foxgloves and poppies,
the gardener who had to have anemones and eryngium,
the gardener who preferred the geraniums and the helenium.
I sympathized with all of them.

It's a huge space. Plenty of room. But is there?

And that's what started me thinking. A large space is far more challenging then that small intimate garden room - where throwing everything you like into it, makes it charming. The same cannot be said for a large garden where its all a jumble. It's a good garden for a plant id class. It's not a pleasing aesthetic experience.

Just for comparison wander over the three gardens inside the Cloisters. Small, intimate, restful, idealized spaces from another time. See the power of a square garden contained within walls.

Then head back to the heather garden and challenge yourself to redesign it. What would you save and what would go to the tag sale?

Purple Sidewalks

The Garden Museum in Lambeth is full of surprises.

Housed in St. Mary-at-Lambeth Church, the museum preserves the interior of the original with the addition of an architectural "insert" designed in 2007, which provides the structure for the museum. In order to enter the museum, you walk through "The Wild Garden" created in 2007. This garden was originally the graveyard associated with the Church. Unlike everything we love about English gardens, this garden is really wild and tries to promote the new natural style or no style. The garden is a combination of perennials, grasses and bulbs surrounded by the odd burial vault. It presents itself as unkempt and unfettered.

The Knot Garden is entered by walking through the museum, by the potting shed and past the theatrical tableau (see photo above) of small primroses. 17th century or knot, the garden is wonderful. Coincidentally the tomb of John Tradescants, one of the early British plant hunters, was rediscovered when the church became a museum. I believe John T. would be proud - the garden is a plant hunters paradise. Its full of old style plants and peonies you don't see much anymore. It's a good reminder that the new hybrids are great - disease resistant, bigger, flasher, but perhaps not better. The 17th century style tulips, including 'Val Tol' were just over; Rosa x alba 'Maxima' was blooming by columns Myrtus communis; big balloons of Rosmarinus officinalis decorated the borders; a good cup of tea is available in the little cafe. Who wanted to leave?

Worth a detour ------ walking to the museum you pass the purple sidewalks of Lambeth.

How Do The English Do It

unexpected trip to london.
rented great flat
secured ticket to chelsea flower show online
watched bbc hour long Chelsea segment every night on tv
anxiety rising
how to see everything
not taking advice of salesman in the V&A
arrive half early for show
buy program
yikes!
confused about where to go and what to do first
elbow my way to front of a garden - any garden
try to take in what's going on IN the garden, not around me
overwhelmed
crowded
press forward
do people think i am the ugly american
heard on tv, designer saying the "earth moved under his feet" upon seeing "x" garden by "x"
the earth definitely did not moved under my feet
it was all too perfect
everything blooming on cue
saw one of the designers with a watering can
relieved
a bit of reality
loved one garden by japanese designer
the modern rock garden.
very simple
good play on traditional rock garden (see photo above of squares of sedum)

worried
i
am not in love

head to the tent
delphiniums reaching for the sky
displays of carrots looking arranged like monarda
olive trees grown in England
a tasting menu of tulips
on verge of breakdown

what to do
go directly to the champagne bar
two overpriced glasses of bubbly later
feeling relaxed.
it's over.

preferred
the little street gardens,
container plantings,
wild garden in front of museum of garden history
window boxes around the city.
maybe not earth shattering, but definitely real.