It's right there in Black & White...

I have the opportunity to design a small black and white pocket garden. Tucked into a corner with between a screen porch and the house, the area is also home to multi-utility boxes including a low voltage transformer smack dab in the middle of one wall that has no wriggle room.

My client's request other than a fountain which is a blue glazed olive jar, is that I put Colicassia esculenta 'Black Magic' somewhere in the garden.

A quick color study for the garden

I still render presentation drawings for clients by hand but I use a color add on for my CAD program because it's fast for down and dirty color studies. At the point I'm using it I don't pay much (read some) attention to texture because the choices the program offers are limited--hence the Heuchera x 'Obsidian' in the drawing really looks more like stone than a plant! These quick visual thoughts are working drawings and I know what the plants look like, so the color studies are more for the ratio of one color/texture to the adjacent ones and the rhythmic flow of the planting design. I change my mind often when designing planting plans--it's not always intuitive for me. Spatial relationships and human interation with and through space are much easier.

The very simple plant list includes:

Buxus sempervirens 'Elegantisima' Colocasia esculenta 'Black Magic' Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Nana Gracillis' Hydrangea arborecens 'Annabelle' Heuchera x 'Obsidian' Iberis sempervirens Lamium maculatum 'White Nancy' Odhiopogon planiscapus 'Ebony Knight'

Showhouse Season V, Issue 4, The State of Things

There was a big pow-wow between all of the landscape designers, contractors, and showhouse committee members today. I made some short videos of the garden space to share here. I have to make some design changes to create appropriate transitions from my space to the two adjacent ones...they aren't making the changes...I am. I try to be a team player. Enjoy my bad videography.

Notice the portapotty, cherry picker and gravel that have been stored in the space. Hmmmm. Maybe I'll re-name it the Johnny on the Spot garden!



The view out shows the new poolhouse and greenhouse which are still under construction. Major money is being spent to make sure it all looks as if it's always been there. I'll get some better images later.



This last one is really short and a bit mysterious because I could discuss the issues and film at the same time! We were trying to figure out how to make the new transitions work.

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.

Gardens & Couture..Kindred Spirits?

This week's couture shows in Paris reminded me how much I love fashion. Specifically, I have long been an admirer of the creative tour de force that is the Paris haute couture. Experimental, hand made by highly skilled artisans, and fitted specifically to each client, these one-off creations are not dissimilar to fine garden design.

Like custom-made Parisian garments, a well designed landscape is created specifically for one client, space and time. A haute couture garment is made from the best materials available in the world and is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. With the same underlying philosophy, a well designed and constructed garden depends on what the onlooker can't see -thoughtful use of the highest quality plants and materials, healthy soil, and skilled planting and hand crafted construction.

Each made-to-order couture garment is fitted specifically to its owner just as a custom garden is designed in response to specific site conditions and is unique to that piece of land and its owner.

With the right client, as with those who buy couture, a designed garden is celebrated for its intrinsic seasonal beauty, creative use of materials and artisinal craftsmanship.

Since it is the middle of winter and the couture has just shown in Paris, these images celebrate the couture's creativity and craftsmanship--hopefully couture designers' unyielding dedication to quality and craftsmanship will inspire new gardens for spring!

My Friend Flickr

I’ve been updating and redesigning the 2009 edition of my design portfolio. I needed to edit some images beyond the abilities of my very basic photo editor and I have absolutely no patience when it comes to photo programs. I wanted something simple, free and immediate, so I Googled ‘free photo editing program’ to see what was available and was directed to Picnik, which in turn lead me to Flickr. It was serendipity--I was able to continue with my Web 2.0 adventures and organize, edit, upload and share my images as another arm of my social media experience.

I’m not be the most organized when it comes to cataloging my images and I have amassed hundreds of photos over the years. Like many other landscape designers, the beauty shots of my work have to be taken during the height of the design/build season when gardens look their best. I usually don’t have the time or energy to catalog them immediately—I’m too busy running around hither and yon in May and June to do that too!

Now five years old and owned by Yahoo, Flickr can make a single image or group viewable by the entire web, to a pre-designated group(s) of viewers or to no one else but me. I am in the process of cataloging all of my images and uploading them in groups. It's a great project for the winter and will make it easy to direct a potential client to more than is presented in my portfolio CD.

Even though, Flickr makes image organization and editing a snap, what I think is really useful is the other ways I've started to use it. Right now all of my photos are available to everyone, but there are times when I want to make individual images available to specific people for a purpose. I can notate a photo explaining to the viewer what it is I want them to see. Here’s an example--the photo is unremarkable in every way and not something I would use for a portfolio piece; but when the notes are added it becomes a valuable tool for communicating with a client.
Click here.



Flicker enables me to create of sets of photos which I stream or upload to other websites, communities and within my own social media pages. Play with Flickr and see what it can do. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Flickr makes them worth even more.

Postcard Power!

Several days ago, two boxes, weighing 78 lbs were delivered to my studio doorstep. They weren’t holiday gifts--next spring’s postcards had arrived!

The 2009 Postcard is a departure w/a white background and new tag line

I have produced a postcard for all but one of the past six years. 2008 was the only year I didn’t use one because I flirted (erroneously) with glossy magazine advertising instead. It was not as successful as my previous postcard campaigns. Expensive lesson learned.

There are marketing specialists out there who say that postcard mailings don't yield enough results. I think it depends on the postcard. If it looks like just another advertising gimmick filled with too much information on too small a space--I agree with the marketers. Whenever I visit someplace new, I buy a postcard. When I visit a museum, I buy a postcard. People collect postcards. I try and make a postcard that people will keep.

Every year the choice of photograph is the most wrenching task. That photo will become the ‘face’ of my studio and the one I use on all promo pieces for that year. The 2008 postcard’s layout and graphics have been changed to be in visual sync with that on the website. Some of you may have noticed that all of my on line avatars are similar to the photo of the garden you see above. That isn’t an accident or me being lazy. Image/brand recognition is the goal.

I use postcards in a variety of ways—as direct mail pieces, as promotional pieces at events, as informational pieces at other businesses, as client leave-behinds, and as alternative business cards. Each of those functions is described below along with a gallery of prior cards.

This year I printed 6000 cards and will mail out 5000 of them in early April—hopefully to arrive on the first warm Thursday. Why a Thursday? I want potential clients to look at the card right before they start to think about using their properties over the beautiful spring weekend. This is late in my design cycle for the season, but I found that mailing any earlier in my zone 6 climate just doesn't do the trick. I invest in a well vetted demographic mailing list in addition to my own that will yield 50 phone calls that in turn will yield 4-5 projects. These projects help to fill up my summer and fall design calendar.

The 2005 postcard--this one generated some great projects

Now before you say, “That’s all?” I will also get calls next spring from people who have received previous year’s postcards and had saved them. People toss business cards and mailers, as I said previously--they save pretty postcards. I actually walked into two new clients' kitchens last year and each had multiple cards tacked up over a workspace or posted on the fridge. Next thing I know they’ll be selling them on Ebay.

At the special events I participate in, from flower shows to show houses to charity auctions, the postcards become a promotional piece. They are the souvenir visitors pick up when they tour through a show house garden. When tied to a trowel, the postcards become a gift certificate for a charity to be auctioned or raffled. Every time I’ve donated my services for a cause the purchaser of the item has become a client.

2006 Postcard--not as successful because it did really show a 'garden'--just plants. Did get a good project though...

I’m very lucky to have a local upscale garden center that doesn't provide design services as a source of referrals. I give them postcards each year in February—they in turn give them out to clientele who ask them for design service recommendations. I have through the years received more referrals from this than any other single source other than my website.

2007 Postcard--My least favorite because I succumbed to a cliched image--shame on me!

Not every new client has received a postcard, so when I meet with someone new, I hand them a postcard instead of a standard business card. The image on the postcard helps to clarify what they can have on their own property and they usually turn it over and read the laundry list of services. This simple process often that adds to their mental list of what they’d like me to do but maybe hadn’t considered.

2004 Postcard--the first one

So here's to postcard power--another useful landscape design studio tool.

A Short Story...very short.

Last night is snowed a bit. This morning it misted. Before 6, it was warm when I went out to walk the dog. N0w, at almost 9, it's colder. Here's what happened.

Lacecap on Ice

Further Adventures with Web 2.0 Marketing

As those who read my introduction to this subject on November 23rd already know, I am attempting to use Web 2.0 and social marketing sites as part of the marketing mix my landscape design studio uses.

The rest of the mix includes the website I've had since day one that has been updated every year with one major overhaul last year, participation in the regional show house circuit, past participation in the state Flower & Garden Show (too expensive), direct mailing of picture postcards, a CD portfolio given to every perspective client, and referrals from clients, local garden centers and contractors.

Boy oh boy, I didn't know what I was getting into with the cyber stuff. Not only does it take time, there's a plethora of options out there.

Firstly, I started writing regularly here again. I love to write so I don't count it as work.

I already had a Facebook profile, now I have a company page as well with 4 fans! I managed to create a live feed from this blog to my profile, but I haven't figured out how to get the feed to work on the company page. I posted some portfolio photos in both places and I joined the APLD group on Facebook, since I'm an active member of the association.

I now have a LinkedIn profile with 115 contacts, belong to several landscape design oriented groups including two additional APLD groups on that site. There's a live blog feed from here there also.

Landscapedia has been incredible. They listed this blog, making me a featured designer as well as having one of the funkiest forums around. My profile there has gotten over 450 views in the past week alone. Now you might say that's chicken feed, but its 900+ more eyes who've seen my name and work.

Now to support all of that, I've been working on updating my PowerPoint portfolio to upload to Slide Share and will make a PDF CD version to hand out to potential clients. I created a Flickr account to organize and share my images and registered with Twitter.

If you look a bit down and to the right you'll see links to my LinkedIn profile, Technorati favorite options for this blog, and an option to bookmark it on delicous.com. Do it all to help the cause! It's a good thing it's slowing down because all of this takes time, time, time.

Design with Discipline, Plant with Abandon

I have always had a fondness for the clean lines of formalism. To my eye its geo-organization looks contemporary and fresh. I know there are a many designers who would rather die than design something with a formally organized space--they think it's rigid, unnatural and outdated. Worst of all, they think it's easy--just make a geometric shape, fill it with some flowers, and presto, it's a formal garden. That way of thinking gives these highly considered garden spaces a bad rap.

Clean lines and unexpected formalism out side of the education building
at the New York Botanical Garden

Formal gardens can be current, relevant and engaging. There are two schools of thought on traditional formality. One is an adherence to a classical garden style updated with a scale suitable to today's architecture and lower maitenance requirements and the other juxtaposes the reverse formalism of today's naturalistic planting style with formal structure to create something altogether different. Parterres can be filled with blowzy perennials which soften the hard lines of these gardens.

The second idea will be demonstrated in the design plan to the left. This garden will be installed as part of the VNA showhouse at Sheep's Run in Rumson, NJ in spring 2009, and has been developed as part of a much larger formal estate plan. This small niche garden will be viewed from a screen porch on the short side, a library and an expansive terrace on the long side. The other two sides open to adjacent the landscape. The axial pathways, circular resting places and focal points are extremely formal and geometric. The four enclosed evergreen parterres will be planted with very loosely structured perennials or annuals.

This type of garden doesn't work for every site, nor does it work for every garden owner. Depending on the plants used, formal gardens can be sustainable. For example, I have used low growing native evergreen grasses and other plants with a compact growth habits as a substitute for the ubiquitous clipped hedging plant. With careful planning, the maintenance of the geometric structure becomes less cumbersome, the garden's need for water can be significantly lowered, and native plants can be incorporated.

Following the same design idea, below is a different plan for an entry to a classic residence in Short Hills, NJ. The owner wanted something that would work with the traditional lines of the home yet echo her inclination to blend contemporary ideas within the traditional framework. The garden also had to be appropriate for a very conservative neighborhood.

The resulting garden (sorry no good pix yet) is deceptively simple. Rectilinear boxwood groups are staggered to provide planting pockets for naturalistic perennials. These informal cottage style perennials are planted in complete symmetry on either side of the entrance underscoring the geometry of the design. The Pennstemon digitalis 'Husker Red', Lirope muscari 'Pee dee Ingot', Veronica spicata 'Sunny Border Blue' and Alchemilla mollis are usually associated with more informal gardens and they worked to meld the two styles together.

This isn't to say that a more controlled formal style isn't also clean and modern. The photo to the right shows an extremely classical entry. The architecture and details are remarkably similar to the residence in the project above and both gardens have different takes on formality. The photo was graciously provided by Chris Heiler at Fountainhead Gardens in Michigan.

A Very Cool Web Honor!

Landscapedia has been cool enough to make me their featured designer for December. When fellow APLD member, Michael Franklin, first asked me, I told him I was honored that he even asked me.

I first learned about this online community for gardeners and landscape professionals in summer issue of the 'The Designer', Association of Professional Landscape Designer's quarterly journal.

So, check it out let me know what you think!