Showhouse Season V, Issue 3, Early Decisions

As I said in Issue 2, this is going to be a formal garden. The garden's official name for the showhouse journal and website is 'A Formal Invitation'.

The 'invitations' are implied the the garden's design. Its layout allows views from the adjoining rooms--Invitation No. 1. Entrances to the garden from three other areas of the property--Invitation No. 2. A table for rest and relaxation or a place to enjoy a bottle of wine--Invitation No. 3. A sculpture or fountain as a focal point/feature of interest--Invitation No. 4. Beautiful containers filled with very detailed plantings--Invitation No. 5.

The choice of which style of containers (shown in burgundy on the plan to the left) to use is important in this garden because they will set the tone on the second layer of design ideas. If I choose to use black Medici urns, the garden will not have the modern welcoming feeling that I want it to have. For me, too much formality feels pretentious, rigid and stogy. Mixing it up will give this outdoor space a sense of being in the present rather than the past. I have a fondness for terra cotta planters. They're timeless, their matte finish contrasts and completments many type of foliage and flowers.

For a few years I have been using and recommending Seibert & Rice terra cotta. They are worth every penny. The quality is flawless. Seibert & Rice are local importers who have a keen eye for great design. Depending on the style, these pots can lend a formal or an informal feeling to the garden. Although I haven't made a final decision yet and I've previously used all of the ones pictured below. They could work again.

The Hartford Pot by Guy Wolff--a great simple pot

The Olive Oil Urn--I've filled this urn with Cannas--Wow!

Lemon Flower Box--Great for herbs near a kitchen door

All photos are used with the permission of Seibert & Rice.

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!

Inspiration and Influence -TV & Technicolor

A few weeks ago in a post titled Inspiration and Experience I wrote about my viewpoint as a designer as a unique culmination of life's experiences. Writing that post has made me--probably temporarily--more acutely aware of what I look for my daily inspirational 'feed'. In other words, I have become more self-aware of what I look at, talk about, read, experience and absorb for future reference. I know this will fade into the background again, but it's winter, I'm inside a lot and have the time to reflect.

I am first and foremost a designer. My current design discipline is landscape design. I have in the past worked in others. I didn't come to landscape design from a desire to create gardens, but from a desire to design three dimensional living spaces that compelled human interaction and enhanced and respected the environment. Sure, I've been a lifelong gardener and find incredible beauty in plants, but that has never been the departure point for my inspiration.

So, what do I look and where do I go to fuel the creative fire? It's a daily feast of input that swings wildly between subjects--some of which I'm going to explore here and in future posts. I try not to question the process too much and always try and stay open and observant. I am a voracious reader and looker. Even a few seconds spent looking is absorbed in some way. Years ago as a fashion jewelry designer, I found visual inspiration while driving to my studio in Brooklyn in a pattern of diagonal wires on a construction site--those patterns became the basis of a series of pieces while the time spent looking at the original wires was as fast as I was driving by them.

Some of the constant influences have been images from television and old movies - black and white and technicolor. Not just those with fabulous fantasy landscape images in them-like the Wizard of Oz, but others that jog my visual sensibility in some way. Just yesterday I watched an old (and awful) Doris Day move - 'Move Over Darling'. In one scene Day was wearing an acid green ensemble and running up the stairs against a grey background. Add that to Michelle Obama's choice of an acid green Isabel Toledo outfit for the inaugural, and the choice of Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' as the 2009 Perennial Plant of the year and pop goes the inspiration weasel.


Wow! Would I like to use that combo in a garden. In the movies it's retro, in a garden- modern, provocative and fresh.

Winter vs. Summer

Much has been said about the merits of the garden in winter. I agree that there is magic in the winter landscape--just not mine.

I leave the grasses and plants with interesting seed heads to winter over, I've added some evergreen structure, plants with interesting bark and other accessories. Unlike the highly considered and tightly designed gardens I provide for my clients, my garden is a constant experiment, it is a haven or death row for leftover plants, a tasting menu for deer, and generally organic in its upkeep and its lack of a plan. I think I still have to experiment some more with its winter interest...

Winter the morning after another inch of light snow

High Summer texture and color