Not in Today’s Playground . . . too Bad.

Having designed a few Children’s Gardens and the things that go in them, and all the hand-wringing that went into those designs, this is something that was not considered:

Thrills is right . . . can you imagine the uproar over this one. It’s obvious that this would not fly in today’s environment. If you were actually crazy enough to install something like this the only question would be this . . . who’d show 1st? The PC crowd or the personal injury lawyers.

Playground thrills indeed, the image came from the Modern Mechanix site.

My Friend . . . Jim Underwood

[Jim on Pichu Pichu.]

I have always been very careful with the word friend. I think most throw around the word much too casually, much too casually. I know a lot of people, have a lot of acquaintance’s, but friends-very few.

My definition has, and always will be someone you can call at 3AM and they will bail you out-without question. They’re gonna give you a lot of shit, and ride your ass, but deservedly so. And they’re allowed because; after all, they are our friend.

Jim has left a wide path and has touched a lot of people’s lives. His is the kind of life led that should be on the news, it was a positive life, a productive life, a life lived well, lived always in search of the great wonders this World is capable of showing those that search. But Jim will not be on the 6:00 o’clock news, he wouldn’t want that. his was a life of substance-not perception.

Good bye Jim, all of us that you touched will have a space reserved for your memories, and the World is a lesser place without you.

Gonna’ need some New Paving

Look at this hole, not just the width, but it truly looks like a bottomless pit. Maybe it does go all the way to China. Somewhere in Guatemala City, Guatemala:

I always have a few questions about these sort of events. How they get started, why no warning noises, how quickly they happen. As I write this I understand some sort of slide and opening occurred today in San Francisco.

A little bit of thinking on how to re-landscape the former patio area:

In a downtown situation like this I wonder how the events will unfold. I mean how the heck can/do you fill something like this in. Especially where there is not going to be a lot of money available.

I had been reading that there has been a lot of draining of underground reservoirs/lakes in Central America. Is this another example of how we are sacrificing the future for the present? How can anyone say for sure?

We are most likely facing a dire situation in our time. I’ve never been one to think that we are killing the planet, and I still don’t now. Even if the evidence(it seems solid) for global warming is truly a man-made phenomenon; it’s not the planet we are killing, what we are killing is the habitat for man to exist on the planet.

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Addendum:

This is a shot from the landslide that happened earlier today in San Francisco, major cities on back-to-back days:

[courtesy CBS2(dot)com]

An Appreciation of Stone (22)

But . . . . butt, there sure is some junk in the trunk. A little different Appreciation of Stone this week.

[courtesy a chain e-mail]

Vote for the Worst of the Worst-Tree.

Well due to all the excitement I have posted a Trees we do Not Like page over at Squidoo. Right now there are fifteen trees on the list, and the possibility of more to come.

I have it set up so the list can be voted on, sort of the worst of the worst.

What does this list mean? Absolutely nothing, but it’s fun to talk about and look at, and just maybe it will save someone some time, trouble, and money someday.

So if you got a second take a look, click a arrow. Or add a tree.

In the mean time: here are some of the candidates . . .

[Monkey Puzzle tree]

[courtesy Hugh Robertson]

[Liquidambar styraciflua Sweetgum tree]

[courtesy Michigan State]

[Prunus cisterna Purpleleaf Sand Cherry]

 

 

[photo courtesy of Waynesboro Nurseries]

Trees We Do Not Like

There are trees we do not like.
These are trees to take a hike.
One is called the Bradford Pear.
Please don’t plant it anywhere. -RA

 

 

[sent via an e-mail, she's a real beauty!]

The other day I added some quotes from past lectures including a quote about the nasty Bradford Pear. I then received a comment from Bill over at the Giant Duck Institute, about the Bradford pear and one of Bill’s favorite’s the Norway Maple, which got me to thinking.

What are the nasty trees that no one wants or should have in the landscape? So far we got 3, because I’m adding the good ‘ole sugar maple. So, so far:

 

• Pyrus c. ‘Bradford’ the Bradford pear
• Acer saccharinum L. the Sugar Silver(0000ps! my bad) Maple-is my pick, though I also have no love for the B. pear.
• Acer platanoides L. the Norway maple-Bill from the Giant Duck Institute.

So let’s hear it! What are your picks and why. Just click on the comments link and add your choice. When we get up to 10 . . . if we get to 10 I’ll put up a page. That way they’ll be posted.

Here’s the Squidoo page where the list resides.

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Addendum on November 8th, 2007

This has become the number one post on this blog, my guess you are here because of a search engine hit on trees. here are a few more post that might interest you.

• This post talks about voting for the worst tree, and a link to the Squidoo page where the link is.
• “The Seven-Son Flower”(SSF), or Heptacodium miconiodes.
• Talking about the World of Arborculture.
• Looking to help an organization with reforestation, contact Trees for the Future, this post will fill you in on the organization.

A Humble Request

If you are one of my fellow Bloggers who was kind enough to link to my other site over at Blogger, I would greatly appreciate it if you would now correct that link to this site.

I like WordPress better, though I’m not sure if I’m smart enough to know why. It just feels better over here, and I really like this theme I’m using . . . it’s called Cutline. It works fast for me, allows me to resize pics the way I want to resize, and I like the flow. As for WordPress I think it’s cleaner over here. I was getting to much stuff on the front page (Blogger-the only page) and desired to move some stuff to other pages, again I’m thinking clean.

Quotes . . . from Long-Ago Lectures

[Ash Cave, I probably took this Summer of 2005.]

• “The Bradford Pear is the most over rated tree in the U.S”. -Dr. M. Cathey, 2/22/90
• “Everything moves in life-so gardens should have . . . movement/motion”. -Jim Chadwick 2/91
• “People will tell you what they want-but they don’t mean it”. -Jim Chadwick 2/91. Referring to Designer/Client interview.
• “As civilization advances we become less and less in tune with nature”. -Robert Berkibile 2/15/91(quoting?)
• “Knowledge is control over nature-old quote. Knowledge is empathy with nature-the new way”. Robert Berkibile 2/15/91

Finally Darrell Morrison from a lecture in ‘91 on Characteristics of Natural Design:

• Mystery
• Intricacy Detail
• Sense of Place
• Change over Time
• Sustainable Landscapes

Using the above 5 characteristics the Landscape Designer can create a Naturally Evolving Landscape.

An Appreciation of Stone (21)

[Ston Wurks by Rick Anderson]

To carry on the theme from earlier in the week of the Easter Island Moai. I have decided to sneak in one of my earlier stone head offerings. These early heads are scattered far and wide across the U.S. and who knows what has happened to most of these heads.

For awhile another stone head was in a bar in Columbia, SC and became something of a Beer God, the patrons would make offerings by rubbing a little of their 1st beer onto the top of the head. Sadly I have not been able to find any of those images from that time frame to scan in and share.

At any rate, it’s on(posted), and it sandstone. This one stands guard in my Sisters backyard overlooking the swimming pool.

A Cold Day in Suburbia

[from the NY Times]

Well here’s a new trend I didn’t see. Residential snow-making. That’s right guys are making their own snow piles, runs, hillsides, chutes, etc. I didn’t see it coming, I’ve been snowed under, this entire trend has blown right by me.

In what appears to be a blizzard of activity this hobby as taken on a life of it’s own. Creating an avalanche of new enthusiast. I mean c’mon are we serious here?!?

“Daddy I’m bored, there’s nothing to do, make me a snowhill”.

Not only that these guys have started their own forum; Snowguns.com, I read over 3,700 registered on-site. The site is new but the forum looks like it has been going strong for awhile.
After reading this article in the Times two, that’s right two things have occurred to me:

1. That there has to be an opportunity for the residential Landscape Designer here somewhere. I hope to be snowed under by the responses, and . . .
2. Americans have too much money.

Landscape Design in Artificial Gravity

[Stanford Torus by Don Davis]

It looks like there will be future generations designing landscapes. From the looks of thing they will be quite busy according to Don Davis who refers to his profession as a Space Artist and Animator.

Don’s web site is here and here is a link to a bigger version(a much bigger version) of the above illustration.

Some Quick Links

[photo courtesy Dr. Ellen Rudolph, Boab&Moon]

• Japanese Garden Design by Yotaro Ono. The mixing of martial arts and garden design. The book list at the end is not a good one because there is no mention of David Slawson’s Book. The Washington Post.