Miss R's Facelift

As of 3:00 pm EST on June 18, 2009

Miss R has moved to a new location

Please join me there

Mired In Tradition

Last Sunday, in Bucks County, PA, I went on my second Open Days garden crawl of the season. These visits recharge my creative juices and offer me a first hand opportunity to see what other landscape designers and talented amateurs have created. I look carefully, take photographs and experience the gardens in three dimensions. Being in a garden is so much different than looking at pictures of one especially for a designer as interested in creating spatial relationships as I am.

What I already knew, and what three of the gardens I visited confirmed, is that on the east coast, those with the means to build a landscape of substance opt to emulate traditional English gardens. The old stone houses and barns that give Buck's County its lure form the backdrop for the gardens. Although one garden had a beautifully enhanced woodland, there was not one meadow in the acres and acres of mixed borders and mowed turfgrass that I saw. Planting styles differed within these gardens but the traditional garden design paradigm did not.

A rustic twig bridge in the woodland at Hortulus Farm Garden & Nursery

There were some beautiful vignettes and ideas within these classic schemes. One, at Willow Farm, had a grey/blue and burgundy palette juxtaposed with honey hued native stone that I particularly liked.

Blue/grey and burgundy plants with native honey colored stone

Another, at Hortulus, had a bold yellow planting scheme punctuated by a large terra cotta urn that was dramatic and interesting.

Yellow and terra cotta in combination at Hortulus

A third really great idea was again, at Hortulus. The formal fountain at the far end of a double mixed border was actually a swimming pool. It read as a fountain until you noticed the steps. This idea could be adapted for many different situations both grand and intimate.

The swimming pool fountain

This contrast between classic and contemporary design was magnified by the last stop of the day, an interior designer's shop in Lambertville, NJ, Reinboth & Company. I try to check this small shop out each time I'm in the area since it is really well edited. The garden accessories in their courtyard were clean, crisp and modern. It seemed restful and welcome after a day of observing such traditional points of view.

Contemporary garden accessories at Reinboth & Co.

Field Trip--Chester and Far Hills

I really do what I say I do.

Find Gardens to visit on Open Days

Even though I design gardens and landscapes every day for a living, I still love to discover other people's gardens. Today, despite the gloomy forecast, I'm going to take advantage of the Garden Conservancy's Open Days in Morris and Somerset counties. I never know what discovery I'll make or if I'll even like the gardens I visit...usually there's some tidbit that I find interesting or worthy of a quick sketch or photo, but sometimes the gardens are absolutely breathtaking.

The remnants of an Ellen Biddle Shipman garden in Lamington from a previous year's visit

My Studio

This photo was taken last fall. My converted sunporch studio is unheated but full of light and looks out to the neighborhood. At one end my drafting table spans its width, at the other books, catalogs, plans and client files. In the winter or when it's cold--like today--I work on a large round oak table in the dining room that was my mother's--but this is where I work during late spring, summer and most of fall.

My drafting table is at the other end of the narrow sun porch that serves as a three season studio

Above the desk, along with a black clay cherub collected in Mexico, hang two quotes. One from Raymond Jungles, 'let what it wants to be, become what it is' and the other from Marcel Proust...'Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom...'

Trash or Treasure?

19th Century iron fence remnant for a project

I met a welder at a project today to show him how I wanted the reclaimed 19th century ironwork I specified installed. I bought the pieces last fall in Scranton at Olde Good Thing's incredible salvage yard specifically for this project.

They were leaning against a tree outside of the garage and the crew thought they were garbage and hauled them away. I freaked out when I couldn't find them! There's 2 more pieces beyond these and I will post some photos when the installation is done. I called the contractor and he found them--one piece is now bent and a small piece broke off but can be repaired.

The old cliche is true...one person's junk is another person's treasure.

Showhouse Season V, Issue 7, Rain

Here's a laundry list (with today's progress) of most of what has to be done this week and it's going to rain until Thursday. ARGH!

• Irrigation intstallation
  
• Lighting installation (outlet installed today via electrician)
• Pick up and deliver containers (done today I think, one is in my garage so I can stage it here)
• Choose container plants and purchase (some was done today)
• Turf delivery and installation (delivery Wednesday)
  
• Mulch garden beds
• Plant 300 annuals and 1000 groundcover plants
  
• Prune boxwoods into hedges
• Pick up and deliver sculpture from PA
• Install sculpture
  
• Pick up and deliver table and chairs from Western NJ
  
• Install stanchion for info
• Work with graphic designer to make stanchion insert
• Deliver business cards and postcards to site
• Stage table & primp garden
• Photograph garden when finished
  

The majority of this will have to happen Thursday and Friday. Like I've said elsewhere, my head might explode.

Why I Write This.

Yesterday I recorded a podcast about blogging with landscape designers and bloggers Chris Heiler and Rochelle Greayer who writes the wonderful landscape design blog StudioG.

Image via stock.xchng

That discussion made me think again about why I write this blog. I don't follow the rules that most bloggers tell you to follow--I don't write for an audience. Yes, Miss R does fit into a larger grand plan, but it's not a commercial one. I write for me--Miss R is a way for me to quietly explore thoughts and ideas via the written word. I don't interact with others as I do on Twitter or Facebook or even via email--I just write about whatever I'm thinking about--or that interests me at the moment--but always as it relates to my life and work as a designer.

There is a long and varied tradition of artists and designers who write. I've always read artist's words in letters, journals, on canvases in or in books. I look at Miss R as a companion piece to the rest of my life as a designer--another form of expression. I'm honored that anyone wants to read what I write and that these words have value to others--but I'm not trying to create value or give advice. So, I'll continue to selfishly explore my own thoughts here, but I also want thank you for reading and secretly hope that you'll continue to do so.

Inspiration and Influence - Garden Visits

An old gate at Greenwood Gardens, Short Hills, NJ on its first Open Days day several years ago.
The gate is no longer there.

Today it's grey and rainy. I'm dreaming of gardens. Yesterday, my 2009 edition of the Garden Conservancy's Open Days Directory came in the mail. Its arrival made me think about how much I have been inspired by seeing gardens. Not only do I visit on Open Days, but the APLD annual design conference also incorporates amazing garden visits. There are some random photos of gardens which I've visited over the years included here. I appologize if some aren't credited to their sources and owners as I rarely write down what I'm photographing as I go along.

The Grotto under the pool at the White Garden in Lewisboro NY, designed by Patrick Chasse

Observing someone else's point of view, details, and planting styles have had a profound effect on my growth as a landscape designer.Over the years I've visited gardens large and small, good and not so good in many countries. All have had some type of impact on my design aesthetic--either as something to aspire to or something to avoid.

Michael Trapp's Garden in Connecticut

When I was first starting out, I focused on all of the amazing plants that I didn't know and dutifully wrote them all down. Now I walk with camera and sketchbook in hand--taking pictures and drawing small details as they strike me. Mostly I snap--sketching takes me too much time!

Robert Irwin's Garden at the Getty Center, Malibu, California

I actually try not to analyze it too much when I'm there--I try to experience the gardens while I'm in them. Sometimes I'll see something that I don't like and that's just as galvanizing as what I do.

Shape and texture on the California coast near Santa Barbara

Spring's Slow March

No pun intended in the title although after another dose of winter weather this week, those of us on the eastern seaboard might believe it.

Photo by Johann Dreo,via Wikipedia Commons

The coming of this spring's season seems to be interminable. For a landscape designer in a four season climate, the approach of the 'season' is always a crazy mix of anticipation, relief and angst. This year, there is more of each since the economic climate chilled at the same time our traditional outdoor project work season was winding down so there's no real gauge of what might or might not happen.

Just how different will this coming season be? In many ways, winter has been typical. Here and throughout much of the country, it has been a slower time, spent on design and planning, participation in workshops and seminars, and taking a much needed break. It has also been a time to wonder, just how will my design practice be affected by the current 'no spend' consumer climate?

Like each spring before now, I have decided to embrace whatever happens. I will work as hard as I normally do getting ready for the busy, busy, busy time. I will continue to try to improve my client realtions and give them an exceptional experience with their projects. They are the core of my business. That might take a little bit longer, but thankfully, the clock springs ahead a month earlier than it has in the past so I have more daylight to burn. On Sunday I'll have more hours in each day as Spring finally ends its slow march and arrives just as it should.

A Trip without a Map

As many of you already know, I am very involved with the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD), as its International Membership chair, and this past weekend I was in Chicago for their 2nd annual Chapter Symposium. At that meeting I was responsible for presenting state and regional chapter leaders with ideas to retain and recruit chapter members.

Things got really interesting when I presented Social Media opportunities. Energy, confusion, disbelief and social media evangelism mingled together in the room. I realized that I had with a simple PowerPoint presentation taken the group into unknown and virtually unexplored territory. I had, along with my own experiments in the past several months, established, managed or embellished APLD's social media presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Land8lounge, Landscapedia, and Twitter. Just like starting a new landscape design, these savvy design professionals needed a 'site' map to follow to achieve their goals.

I contacted social media PR professional, Jessie Newburn, from Nemetschek North America to see if we could use social media jointly to promote an event that APLDNJ had planned to demonstrate their Vectorworks Landmark CAD program to New Jersey chapter members.

We established an extremely fluid and organic (read highly experimental) social media marketing plan which will unfold during the next week prior to the March 3rd event which is currently full with a waiting list. Hopefully, in addition to creating a format for sharing the event, the end game will be a base map that others can use and build on--we're navigating new territory and exploring the possibilities. You can follow the progress and see it unfold over the next week here.

Miss R. is Angry

Do people refer to their interior designers as their cleaning services or maids? No. Do people refer to fashion designers as seamstresses? No, again.

Then why do people insist on calling a landscape designer, a landscaper? Not just in conversation, but also in print and on the web. I am not the one who mows your lawn, or blows your leaves, or mulches your garden beds. I am not a landscaper.

I design thoughtful outdoor spaces that compel you to spend more time outside and enrich your lives. I design gardens that delight your senses and bring you joy. I design. I don't mow, blow or mulch. I am not a landscaper, I am a landscape designer.