Beautiful and Affordable

Ken

DRUSE
scanography by
Ellen
HOVERHAMP

Who can bring a roomful of gardeners to tears?

KEN DRUSE.

I was sobbing silently as Druse described, with irony and humor, the destruction of his garden created over 30 years.  Hurricane Irene, Lee and the freak snow storm in October washed it all away.

You can't help but admire someone who can segue from disaster to beauty in a few sentences.  Ken Druse was at MetroHort to talk about his new book, Natural Companions.  In an interview on the blog site Garden Rant, Ken said:

I also wanted to make a gardening book that was beautiful and affordable,
something people would want to pick up physically in an electronic age. " 

Druse on Natural Companions:  "it's a "recipe book" or "a book of swatches".  For me, it's kind of  high end pinterest.  The book is organized around Seasons, Families, Textures, Color, Places, Themes, etc.  I understand the appeal.  It's accessible.  It's a way into a challenging subject.  Every chapter has a "photo" by Ellen Hoverkamp.  And these photos have a key that tell you what the flowers or plants are in the photos.  The photos are consciously and meticulously composed.   Natural Companions is an aid to the untrained eye. If you follow the combination you like best, you can achieve a beautiful garden.

Some of prints from the book are available from Ellen Hoverkamp.

 http://www.myneighborsgarden.com

I  go to work in jeans and a t-shirt.  It's serviceable, predictable and timeless, but it wasn't always this way.  Figuring out what outfit to wear...skirt, pants, sweater and most especially the shoes used to occupy a lot of my time.  I am a little jealous of Ken Druse.  He has put together so many permutations of plants; all I want to do is tear out a page from this book and do it!  Druse has figured out a way to make something very complicated fairly simple.  If garden making was only this easy.

Go FIGuerie!

I think we are all a little impatient these days; at least I am.  Tired of listening to the political discourse of the day;  I wish to surround myself with the compatriots of Madame de Sevigne just for a day or two.

"The craze for peas continues; the impatience waiting to eat them, to have eaten them, and the pleasure of eating them are the three subjects our princes have been discussing for the past four days now." 
 Madame de Sevigne

Jean de la Quintinie, head gardener to Louis XIV was

"so convinced of the innocent pleasure given by the sight of a handsome potager that in all large gardens I recommend building a pavilion, not merely to provide shelter in storms..but also for the pleasure derived from admiring in comfort land that is well used."

Jennifer Bartley has written another book, The Kitchen Gardener's Handbook.  Handbook is correct word.  The Chicago Tribune says, "It's a book you can't help but tuck with scraps of paper and turned down page corners as you harvest a bumper crop of fine ideas." Vegetable gardening is a craze.  It's de rigueur for city, suburban or rural dwellers to grow their own.  

We (and I include myself) are beginning to understand; what the french have long been proponents of:  a vegetable garden as an aesthetic endeavor.  When you investigate the origins of the potager; it is the monks of the Middle Ages that show us the way.  Providing nourishment for the inhabitants of the abbey and flowers for their altars were part of their daily routine.  It is the combination of ornamental and edibles that inspire people like Jennifer Bartley.   Her books and website (http://www.americanpotager.com)  are primers in what we have forgotten.  A vegetable garden is a GARDEN.

It was Jean de la Quintinie who created a figuerie for Louis XIV, which produced figs even in Winter.  He created his own microclimate by hollowing out a garden protected from the chilling winds. 

Sitting on an uncomfortable chaise lounge, decked out in pointy shoes, I contemplate a design for my vegetable garden...parterre, labyrinth or serpentine and wish that the only care in the world I had was  the latest infatuation with peas.

Transforming Yourself Cindy SHERMAN

at MoMA

I can be intractable when I think I know something.  I wasn't going to get off the escalator at MoMA to see the Cindy Sherman Retrospective.  My friend urged me to take a look.

"Suddenly the reflection I'm looking at is not at all me. Suddenly it's like a phantom that's just popped out of the mirror, and that's when I know the character is right on.  There have been moments where I remember this thing suddenly appearing and I can't believe that's me!" Cindy Sherman

This is a case where seeing a body of work created over thirty years, can change your mind about the artist and the work itself.  It's hard to imagine using your face and body as the subject of your work.  Cindy Sherman has used her persona over and over again; transforming it over and over again.  I can go to this show over and over again.

 

Building The Narrative THOMAS L. WOLTZ

Annual Burn at the Meadow - Seven Ponds Farm. Photo Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.

Restoration Ecology
in
Private Estate Gardens
Wave Hill Horticulture Lectures
March 21, 2012

THOMAS WOLTZ is one of the good guys and it doesn't hurt that he is good looking and has the manners of a Southern gentleman.  Woltz's first point was that the firm's projects are collaborative:  the result of everyone in the firm, plus the craftsmen, horticultrists, botanists, historians, scientists, and ecologists they work with.  It is a "rich web of partnerships". 

Cedars, Long Island, Photo Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.

How about this for an opening, "Landscape can do jobs... A garden can have meaning and perform ecological services."  Woltzs' ideas are powerful, but even more powerful is his rhetoric.  With modesty, charm and knowledge, Woltz built his own narrative around respect for the land.

Providence Road Garden. Photo Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.

It's hard to be sincere these days.  Especially difficult to talk about "listening to the land"  without being didactic or preachy. Woltz was neither.  Each project had a big IDEA.  In a small backyard in Manhattan, Woltz created a story for elements in the space around the idea of NEST.  From the furniture to the fountain to the living wall, the concept of nest was expressed as a place for familial gatherings and horticultural devices.

Selling an idea to a client is always crucial.  Woltz's storyline creates a script the client can embrace.  Perhaps, for the millionaires that own these estates, sustainability is a vision they want to own, both metaphorically and physically.

Words matter.  Woltz is absolute proof.  For a large estate in Long Island, Woltz created 3 bands.  The North American Band/Body (native plants), The Western European Band/Mind (formality and geometry) and the Asian Band/Spirit (wooded portion of the site)

Double Dune Garden, Long Island. Photo Nelson Bryd Woltz Landscape Architects.

 

In a winery in California, which is organic and biodynamic:  "We wanted the garden to reflect the values of the owners".  The wine tasting table which holds bottles of wine set in ice for tasting; Woltz freely admits is a rip off of the Villa Lante stone dining table.  Given the opportunity to riff on Cardinal Gambara, wouldn't you?

Photo of the Villa Lante table by Phyllis Odessey

Vegetable garden at the winery.  Photo Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.

"We need to forge a personal convenant
with the land we're responsible for."

I realize that this lecture was so packed with ideas, that trying to cover it would make this the longest blog in the world.  The take away:  the ability to tell a good story is essential.

"It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story."  Native American saying

Zone Denial

Thomas Christopher
The Backyard
REVOLUTION

NYBG

March 15, 2012

"What will convince gardeners that things have to change?"  
Thomas Christopher

For hard-core horticulturists... NOTHING.

For those of us who are not in denial, it doesn't take much: a few 60 degree days in February.

For myself, I  like being revolutionary.

WHATEVER it takes, Tom Christopher made a powerful case for gardening sustainably.  With not much foreplay, Christopher got right to it.  "We are the Saudi Arabia of fresh water."  The audience was filled with gardeners sitting in the auditorium of an institution that is known for its collections and traditional gardens.  Was this heresy?

In 1911, Bison grazed on grass outside the Smithsonian Institution before there was a Smithsonian National Zoo. 

Christopher spent most of time talking about grass and alternatives to it.  "What is a lawn, but a display of wealth and power? We all love Downton Abbey, but let's not get carried away by TV". 

Consider the amount of chemicals it takes to keep a lawn green and weed free.  Consider the amount of labor it takes to keep a lawn mowed.  Consider the alternatives?

A mowed labyrinth on Vashon Island

This isn't new stuff.  In a funny, conversational style, Christopher presented a number of alternatives, like the mowing a labyrinth into your lawn  my personal favorite).  Christopher advocated for giving up the lawn or at the very least reducing its size.  If you can't stand not having a green expanse,  plant one of the new eco-grasses that  grow 6 inches a season.  

Can we do it?  The Winter Lecture Series at NYBG (Larry Weaner, Doug Tallamy, Thomas Christopher) was packed with gardeners/horticulturists. They were unhappy.  Not adhering to English gardening tradition and the planting palette related to it, is just too TMC (too much change) for some people.  Looking for opportunities instead of seeing disaster is what Christopher advocated.

When I got home Fine Gardening was on my stoop.
The cover copy:
Spring Containers:  Fresh looks to start the season
Pruning Mysteries Solved
Peonies:  Pick the best one for your garden

Is it seductive?  Hell yes!   Snow Lotus, Canary Brillant or Julia Rose?  I closed the magazine. I am making a list of what will be coming out of my garden.  2012 is going to be different for me.