GARDEN CONSERVANCY'S OPEN DAYS

OPEN DAYS ARE HERE

The Garden Conservancy open days directory is out and the open days start April 3 & 4 in Pennsylvania and April 26 is the first showing in our area.

If you aren't familiar with the program " OPEN DAYS" is the brain child of the Garden conservancy, who headquarters is located in my back yard, Cold Springs, New York.

Started in 1995 the Open Days program unlocks private garden gates across the country, working with volunteers and garden owners to coordinate schedules. Many of the gardens are rarely, if ever open to the public. All the money goes to support the Garden conservancy efforts to preserve exceptional American gardens for public education and enjoyment.

Visit the website: www.gardenconservancy.org

I love there easy going, user friendly organization as you can choose just to visit one garden and pay at the door, you can become a member and pre-buy tickets, you can purchase a directory which I love, or just visit the website.

RECYCLED READING

I have to admit I'm a gardening book fanatic, having hundreds of garden books on ever topic from design to pruning. With all the talk of being green, I thought one of the ways to recycle is to re-read a gardening book that has been on your shelf for a while.

I brought down from a shelf one of my favorites, Garden Style by Penelope Hobhouse. There was a piece about her in my latest edition of GARDEN'S ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE (the Vogue of all garden magazines) and it reminded me of her great contributions and the many books I have written by her.

Reading her book again, after many years reminded my of why I love all things garden related, and she has a terrific way of outlining garden style history and people that really have made a major contribution. It's also interesting because since my first read, I have traveled and seen some of the gardens she speaks about which really makes it all more relevant.

So try recycled your reading, its free...and it might just spark a new fire..!

Here are some of my old favorites, not sure if they all are still in print. Try the public library if your old books can't get your going.

Gardens of Persia

Author Penelope Hobhouse

Penelope Hobhouses, Gardening though the Ages

Author Penelope Hobhouse

David Hicks My Kind of Garden

Author Ashley Hicks

Garden and Climate

Author Chip Sullivan

Color by design

Author Nori and Sandra Pope

FUN IN THE GARDEN

"I HATE...FUN...IN THE GARDEN"

.........a phrase that rolled off my tongue during a weekend with great friends that I think I will never live down. Well, they new what I meant...we were discussing the overused term FUN by many gardening TV shows to describe something that is utterly tacky, cheap, and usually crafted by the enthusiastic home owner.

JUST STOP IT ALREADY!

Of course, great friends, ever ready to point out the total hypocrisy and ridiculousness of my statement took it to new levels and proceeding to regurgitate (I hate fun in the garden) ever time it seemed appropriate! I'm glad they are all getting a good giggle out of it.

Lets be honest, our gardening culture in the USA was mostly for the wealthy in the past, great estates and some amazing gardens where created and some great work is still going on today. Gardening has caught on as a national past time in recent years and I'm thrilled to see interest in all things design, gardening and horticulture. But we have the classic USA side effect. Our culture tries and break down the components that make up a great garden into the cheapest, fastest, McGarden...way and feed it to the masses. I have no data tis true, but I'm thinking the majority of people in this country think that a weekend makeover team could create their garden on a 2,000 budget.

Great gardeners that didn't have money in the past used, time, hard work, persistence, and creative thought to create there gardens. Even the gardens I work on today that have budgets larger than the cost of most peoples houses takes years to create and many seasons of hard work.

What I really dislike is that because we are all supposed to be so warm and fuzzy, nice and politically correct, we no longer call a spade a spade. Instead we have cheery, usually pretty hosts telling us to glue gun a Mosaic top on 5 dollar table for outdoors or paint some colorful blobs on the side of a garage and call it art. Its not art...its crap...okay...its cheap tacky crap...hey I'm all for cheap tacky crap....if its is properly identified as such...but what burns my butt is that its passed off as real design or a cheap way to get a high end look. That's a huge insult to true craftsman and artists everywhere that spend years honing there craft.

I'm pro democracy and power of the people and all that stuff....but many people have little background, history or even a vocabulary to discuss garden design ideas and concepts. I would like to champion greater and deeper understanding of garden design. Some history of gardens and a deeper appreciation for the stone mason, the carpenters, the metal smiths and designers and architects that work tireless sometimes for years to create something magical. I don't mean to get off on a rant here.....
So here goes another lists of things that are really no fun in the garden.

1. little statues...lions, birds, frogs, cranes, cherubs....AND YES including gnomes
2. The word "cute"
3. Garland of flowers motif on anything
4. gazing balls (Bad Victorian idea....they had many)
5. multi colored bird houses
6. Decorative items on garden stakes: Like dragonflies or butterflies
7. Decorative concrete step stones with impressions of leaves or flowers on them
8. Plaques & signs with warm greetings or statements of love....what...ever!
9. Junk masquerading as eccentric collections strewn throughout the garden


What to do instead?

I'm going to try my best with every entry to offer some alternative ideas. It really isn't good enough just to tell you what I don't like, so in that spirit I offer the following.


THINGS THAT ARE REALLY BEAUTIFUL IN A GARDEN

1. Classic dry stacked stone walls

2. Good terracotta containers especially large scale ones

3. High quality cast stone/concrete containers

4. Garden antiques (if your budget allows)

5. Wood Versailles boxes

6. Obelisks and tuteurs of good scale 6' H made of wood or metal

7. Tanks: metal or stone

8. Formal water features made of stone built into walls or ground.
9. Pea gravel paths
10. Local natural materials in your area: stone, brick, and plants
11. Beautifully crafted pergolas and arbors in wood, stone or metal

FEAR, LOATHING AND PASSION

Post 1 of many

Before all you literary OCD annoying people out there bash me for stealing a concept out of David Hicks book....your right...David Hicks is genius and I am proud to say I stole the idea right off of page 224 of his book. This blog's name is a reference to his book and style after all. If any of you don't know who he is, I recommend his book: DAVID HICKS, my kind of garden.

I fear the tacky people will take over the world and spread horrible red mulch and garish colored annuals around so yes, I'm fearful, but confident the real world of great gardeners can overtake this immoral majority of tackiness and take back the country.

I also Loath the weekend makeover mentality that has nothing to do with gardening or good design at any level....so just stop it....already! If your in this group, read this!

Things I love to loath

1. RED MULCH:
Horrible misguided tacky stuff that should be banned.

2. MULCH VOLCANOES:
Volcanoes around trees and shrubs..not only is it bad for your plants. (IT'S UGLY)

3. LITTLE CUTE CONCRETE STATUES:
Bunny's, frogs, mother Teresa, all on my hit lists of never do under any circumstance. Plastic versions even worse.

4. PLASTIC POND LINERS:
Prefab, biomorph shaped plastic pond liners...fake looking, stupid contraptions that should all be recycled for some good use.

5. WATERFALLS/NATURAL PONDS:
Not all but most. Especially those kind the build on the home and garden network. If you have a flat property, don't build a fake berm and stick a waterfall on it. Unless your going for horrifying theme park concept!

You can be successful with this feature but it will take a lot of effort and usually money to make it look natural. I much prefer formal or modern water features that are constructed of concrete, stone, glass or other permanent materials and are designed as art.

6. CONCRETE PAVERS:
Not all, but most especially the ones that come with that no fade surface, so It can look perfectly tacky for years to come. (Try real brick or granite cobble) I also love concrete surfaces used in modern ways. Let the material be what it is. If a product is trying to look like something else, its almost always a bad idea.

7. BIRD FEEDERS, HUMMINGBIRD FEEDS:
Plastic, wood or metal monstrosities that are the equivalent of putting an old sofa on the front porch...YUCH

8. PLASTIC OUTDOOR FURNITURE:
Read blog entry sit on it.

9. ASPHALT DRIVES:
I know this will be a controversial one! There ugly and like big black mark leading up to your house. If you must have kids give them a little patch with one of those dreadful basketball hopes hidden by hedges or other planting somewhere. Or try the PARK, that's what there for.

Alternatives:
Oil and stone top for your asphalt drive is a nice finish. Pea gravel is a nice option and other native materials depending on your area like in Nantucket they used crushed shells, very beautiful option. Stone is one of my favorites, but of course that can really be a formidable cost in a long driveway. I love grass strip in the center of a concrete drive...I have seen this work great with a mid century modern house for a small drive. It allows a little more green and is better for environment.

In a few western states they have developed a soil stabilization product that is made from Pine sap and other organic materials. These have a natural color to them and look much more at home with the land. This process has not come to the Northeast yet. I tried to find an installer for a project I worked on in Darien CT but none could be found. Still a specialty.

BATHERINGS OF A GARDENER

Spring 2008

I can hardly stand up, my back hurts...my hands are full of cuts and bruises, I'm sunburnt, I think my body is frozen in a weeding position....but hey, the garden looks marvelous! Now I need to go away to a beauty spa for a month.

Gary & I participated in the benefit garden tour for PARC again this year and we....or correctly...I have been busy making sure the tour goers get their money's worth. It was Saturday June 14th and we had a terrific turn out.

We added a fairly large new garden this season. (The West Shrubbery) Its not completely finished but below is a picture of the rustic daybed feature set in the center of the garden.

While the garden was still in a still state of fleeting perfection, I shot these photos.

Front courtyard roses & clematis

Entrance to Peony garden

Peonies in full bloom

Overlooking rear north garden and lawn

Re-designed porch furnishings

Breakfast terrace

Blue garden

Entrance to west (Chanel) garden with a site line to potager gate

Shade garden

Potager

Upper cutting garden

Vizcaya Miami Florida

I returned from a week on terrific weather in Miami and I had an afternoon to visit Vizcaya. The gardens that were designed by Colombian landscape architect Diego Suarez and Paul Chaflin are amazing and the siting of the villa and various garden features is thoughtufl and beautiful. The construction started in 1910 and was the winter home of industrialist James Deering, American harvester company. Who new---tractors could pay off so well...maybe I need to rethink my financial plan.

If you go, take in all the complex arrangement of walks, terraces, and garden areas. Alot of inspiration from classic Italian gardens (but of course with Zone 10 tropicalplanting) gives the place a soul and beauty that I think we all are looking for in our own garden and life.

The layout and connectivity of the spaces and its relationshiop to the water was the most magical thing for me. There are several areas under restoration, but you can view them and get a whif of what the creator was thinking. The planting itself is not a highlight but the strong concepts behind placement and selection.

For more information visit the website: www.miamidade.gov/vizcaya

WINTER INTEREST (So bored I'm thinking burlap is interesting)

January in the northeast is pretty bleak in my book: cold, rainy, mixed with some snow. I was away for over a week and when I returned home most of our December snow cover had melted, leaving twigs, leathery oak leafs and cones thrown across the gardens from all the wind and rain. Sure it looks fine from the road, but don't look to close. I keep thinking, I should go out and pick that stuff up, sort of pretend I'm gardening. Then I start thinking of how tidy and neat all the burlap wrapped hedges look and how they emphasis the layout......Okay I'm officially winter bored with the garden and my normal testy nature transforms temporary hatred.

I'm not going to bore you with a bunch of winter interest bull. I would rather be in the tropics. My idea of a great winter garden is lounging next to a pool working on my third glass of wine for the day. During these three months a year I plan to split my time between New York City and any place warm...or at least, that's the goal.

Since I'm not someplace warm I must admit a light coating of snow outlines the garden beds does highlight the architecture of the garden. Judge for yourself.

We cling to what me must..see photos