Is Horticulture Over? Stephen Orr answers

Top: The MODERN Rock Garden designed by Tomoko Osonoe, 2009

Bottom:  The Planter by Ludwig Ernst Kirchner, 1911

STEPHEN ORR

Tomorrow's Garden: 
Design and Inspiration for a New Age of Sustainable Gardening

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Horticultural Lecture Series

Wave Hill

  
"The heady days of high horticulture, when gardeners would kill for the newest and coolest perennial, are well and truly over..."

from Valerie Easton's article for the Seattle Times,
"In Uncertain Times, Growing Your Food is Fashionable Again, 1/30/2010

Is horticulture over?  On Wednesday night, Stephen Orr answered, YES, kind of.  Tomorrow's Gardens: Design and Inspiration for a New Age of  Sustainable Gardening (Fall 2010/ Rodale) is the subject of Stephen Orr's upcoming book.

I decided to take it from the top.  I googled sustainable.  According to Wikipedia, the word sustainable is derived from the Latin sustinere (tenere, to hold; sus, up).  In a lengthy explanation of all the possible uses for the word sustainable, Wikipedia has this to say, "For all these reasons sustainability is perceived, at one extreme, as nothing more  than a feel-good buzzword with little meaning or substance, but, at the other, as an important but unfocused concept like "liberty" or "justice".

Orr's book comes at an interesting moment in the debate over what kind of gardens we should make.    Choosing locations around the country, Orr's book illustrates what gardeners, garden designers and home owners are doing in small spaces to minimize consumption of natural resources. To summarize: more gravel, more permeability, storm water management, rainwater recovery, edible lawns, shared plots, urban farming, median gardening...and even plants, but plants that can adapt to the climate conditions of the local environment.

One of those must-have features for the eco-conscious is the lawn reduced: from wall to wall carpeting to a rug. The lawn (front or back) has become a design object.  By reducing its size, this American icon becomes just a shape among other shapes.  A rectangle set against squares of box or succulents. 

For those of us who have been around for a while, we know that gardeners like Piet Oudolf have been making sustainable gardens for years, before this buzzword entered the horticultural lexicon.  Orr began his talk on Wednesday by qualifying who the book was for.  He said it was aimed at people in the middle of the country, where the jargon wasn't bandied about so much and actual sustainable gardening practices hadn't become chic yet.

Orr ended his talk with his own property in upstate New York.  Small house, shaded piece of property, a few ferns, surrounded by woods:  a piece of land hard to garden on.  To paraphrase Orr "I am training my eye to notice the ordinary... mushrooms, a native orchid, small surprises."

I am in training to.  I made a resolution this year, not to buy anymore books, especially gardening books.  I don't have any more shelf space, I haven't read a lot of the books I bought last year and I keep going back to the gardening books I have been dog-earing for years.  But I might have to change my mind and pick up a copy of Stephen Orr's upcoming book.

*Not to confuse the subject.  Stephen Orr's talk Wednesday night, was the subject of his book. The book has not been published yet.  The photos above are not from his book.  I put the two pictures together to illustrate two different ideas of planters that have involved over time.

The VOID is not DEVOID

 

Contemplating the Void

Guggenheim Museum, New York

February 12 - April 28

I don't listen to or watch the news anymore; it's too depressing.  An upbeat story:  scientists have discovered that lisping is genetic, not psychological.  If you lisp, this is definitely good news, but I get my kicks in other ways.

Going to museums and galleries is my pick-me-up of choice.  The current show at the Guggenheim Museum, "Contemplating The Void," is a buoyant moment.  Unlike most museum shows, which we think of as rarefied events, this show is hung unframed, each work just pinned to the walls (with a few fragile exceptions).

"For the building's 50th anniversary, the Guggenheim Museum invited nearly two hundred artists, architects, and designers to imagine their dream interventions in the space...

Organized by Nancy Spector, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, and David van der Leer, Assistant Curator for Architecture and Design, the exhibition will feature renderings of these visionary projects in a salon-style installation that will emphasize the rich and diverse range of the proposals received."

- from the Guggenheim webiste

Most of the proposals brought a smile to my face

and some even a little laughter.

 

Imagine clothes lines criss-crossing the ramps at the Gugg

OR 

Floating rope bridges connecting the ramps.

Others thought about decoration:

Taking that pristine white interior

and attaching red and gold decals to all the surfaces.

How about thousands of balls bouncing down the ramp?
 

On the extreme front, hot air balloons originating on the ground floor
of the atrium and exiting through the glass roof,
with of course Frank Lloyd Wright lifting the glass dome off the roof,
like a pot on a saucepan.
 

OR turning the entire building into a giant camera obscura?
 

And for a real pick-me-up: The Gugg as a container: a cup of macchiato.

If you are feeling a little down, and find yourself in New York City, visit "Contemplating The Void," I believe you will find it has restorative powers.

NOTE:  

For those with some bucks,

The Guggenheim will be conducting a live auction of work in the show on March 4.

http://www.guggenheim.org

Curator David van der Leer led a small group of us on a private tour of the show.  He is Dutch, which I only mention, because in my limited experience, Dutch people seem to be very open and extremely engaging.  Maybe that comes from living in a small, crowded country.  Most importantly, he brings a much needed new perspective to the Guggenheim.  I look forward to seasons of interesting shows at the museum.

*Photocollage at the top by Phyllis Odessey

urbanSHED

 

 

Instead of those dark holes filled with graffitti, we are forced to walk under in New York City, we may soon be able to enjoy UrbanUmbrella designed by Young-Hwan Choi, a first year architecture student at Penn.
He is the winner of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's  competition to design an urbanSHED to protect pedestrians from construction debris.

24 Tons of Steel

Memory by Anish Kapoor

Guggenheim Museum

New York City

Commissioned by the Solmon R. Guggenheim Foundation
and Deutsche Bank

A blimp-like shape wedged in a small room at the Guggenheim Museum is unsettling.  24 tons of Cor-Ten steel constructed from 156 parts.  Anish Kapoor's sculpture, Memory sits there, waiting for the viewer.

Memory is an accurate name for this piece.  You have access to the piece from three different vantage points, but at no time can you see the entire piece.  You have to complete the sculpture in your mind and that is the interesting part.

Kapoor has described Memory as a "mental sculpture."  For the viewer, the only way to understand the entire piece is to navigate it in your mind.  The whole is only visible in your imagination.

Whereas in a Richard Serra piece (and it's impossible not to compare the two, both are large and both are made with Cor-Ten steel), you walk not only around the outside of the entire piece, but in most cases, you can walk inside the sculpture.  A Serra piece is the ultimate in feeling connected to the artwork.

And yet I felt, the Kapoor piece left a very strong memory: a memory perhaps more heady, than visceral, but extremely powerful nevertheless.

Miner's Gold

Barbara Damrosch

From The Ground Up:  Gardens Re-Imagined

February 18, 2010

New York Botanical Garden

Part II

Barbara Damrosch was asked at the end of her talk at NYBG, why she revised her classic book,  
The Garden Primer?  

Her answer:  I've managed to learn a few things in 20 years.  The new book is 100% organic, includes new varieties, talks about invasive plants, and 
how to extend the season.
 

One of the new varieties Damrosch introduced me to was Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata).  Also known as Winter purslane, Spring Beauty, Cuban Spinach, Cuban Lettuce, Spanish Lettuce and Indian Lettuce.

A native plant from California, many people believe that it is one of few American plants to travel to Europe, where it was introduced in 1749 and widely naturalized.  It can still be found under the name Winter purslane.

Called Indian lettuce by some, the American Indians ate it raw, cooked and made a tea from the plant.

The term "miner's," comes from the gold-rush era when this green was served to miner's:  it was inexpensive and readily available, but also a good source of Vitamin C.   

 

Barbara suggested using it in salads.  It is best picked when budded or blooming before seeds form. 

The temperature is rising, so my spirits are soaring. I intend to reap what I sow:  miner's lettuce.

Barbara mentioned Johnny's seeds often as a good source for seeds and tools.  A small disclaimer, her husband, Eliot Coleman sells many of the tools he has invented through Johnny's seeds.  However,
I think I will switch to Johnny's for the following reason, it is a worker owned business with good prices.
http://www.johnnyseeds.com
http://www.fourseasonfarm.com is Barbara and Eliot's farm in Maine.