You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2008.
Okay here’s a collection of links that will keep you busy for awhile ranging from the theraputic to the ancient gardens of Pompeii.
- The Theraputic Landscape database seems to have a lot of good links and info. Might be a good place to start if you are looking for info on doing a garden for a Hospital, or a Elder Care type home.
- The 25th Davidson Horticultural Symposium will be held March 2nd and 3rd, 2009 at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina.
That’s from the website. The Symposium is held every year and the speaker line-up is a good one. When I lived in the Southeast I went just about every year. Focus is on the residential landscape and gardens. If you into that sort of focus try and go. - The Vocational Information Center has a list of links that would take you over a week to go through. If you are a beginning designer, a garden enthusiast, or looking for a very specific answer this might be your site!
- A blog called Defining your Home Garden, and a particular entry entitled: Garden Design Working with a Professional. A nice explanation by landscape designer Cathy Dickinson-Hearp, plus a good list of deer proof plants in her area of North Carolina.
- Ever heard of Tilt-Shift photography, well here’s a page full of completely awesome pics using the tilt-shift technique. It looks so incredible . . .”How could it be real“.
- A bunch of wacky illustrations that I enjoyed going through, they’ll put a smile on your face.
- Are you old enough to remember the drill to duck under your desk in case of Nuclear attack by the evil Roooskies? Then you’ll enjoy this article and accompanying illustrations(great illustrations). It now seems almost laughable, but that’s the way it was for a long time. The article was written February 1950 in Mechanix Illustrated . . . nothing like a stroll down memory lane.
- Back on November 13th, Adrian Higgins wrote a nice peice on the Gardes of Pompeii. Seems like those folks wanted the same things in their gardens that our clients want in their gardens. I am tempted to write an entire post about these findings.
That’s it. Have a happy Thanksgiving . . . if you celebrate Thanksgiving.
Being off-loaded as I type this:
more about "The Bricks for my Patio are Here", posted with vodpod
They flew in on their private jets with their hats in their hand. 
The Ford CEO made over 36 million last year and is supposed to make over 9 million bucks this year.
He was asked about restructing his salary . . . ” no comment”, replied the Ford CEO.
These 3 bums got 25 million coming and are asking for 25 million more. The GM CEO said he’d probably be back for more.
“How much more?” asked the politician, “I got no idea” answered the powerful exec.
I’m mad as hell
Aren’t all of you mad about this? My business is down, way down. I see no bailout for me. I would hazard to guess that no one reading this is in line for a bailout either.
U.S. Government
But these incompetent boobs who’ve been doing a lousy job for over 25 years are asking for billions as they fly around in private jets making millions of dollars and plenty of crummy cars no one wants.
Vote out all dem bums
If those morons in Washington give them the money, and you KNOW it won’t be enough money. . . we MUST vote them out of office.
I have written to both Senators and my Representative letting them know where I stand.
I know this doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Landscaping or Landscape Design.
But enough, is enough . . .
Something pretty from a nicer day:
Western Cedar, a nice large Pergola
Man I just had to get that out, I’m really steamed about this. When they were sitting at the table and accepting no real responsibility for where they had taken their companies. None . . . zero, zip, zilch.
What could they have been thinking?
Why did they just walk away?
Hmmm, what happened here?
So when they were laying up the forms for the section section this is what they came up with?
Dan Snow is one of those rare craftsmen with this awesome talent to create great work, and be able to talk and write quite eloquently about that great work.
I found this essay written by Dan on Boston.com about the life of stone as they go from one owner to another, from one purpose to another.
Here’s the photo from the essay. this kind of work takes some real experience, skill, patience and understanding of the stone you are working with.
Snow's Stone Bridge taken by Peter Mauss
Dan on the importance and history of the stone fence in New England
Stone fences were an important tool of order for early American farmers. They were the warp and weft of the cultural fabric. Rules for height, location, and maintenance of fences were strict. The laws of the day were truly written in stone. A town’s “fence viewer” held a powerful position in the community. Even now the office sometimes survives as an unpaid, symbolic appointment.
These original builders were not stone mason but farmers trying to find ways to use stones that were cluttering their fields. Tough, hard, underappreciated work.
Thankfully most folks look at stone work today and see/appreciate the beauty in the stone work whether it be walls, fences, out-buildings, bridges, etc. Even then, most miss how tough, how hard and how much skill is needed to work with the stone.
It’s tough work but when you find a pile of stone and are lucky enough to get into a rhythm with the stone as your placing/building it’s . . . it’s like a magical thing.
A derelict old wall can be restored to its original profile, but even when the same stones are used, it can never be the same wall twice. Every builder will handle the stones differently, resulting in a unique creation every time.
Man, how true is this. Spend some time with a collection of stone masons and whatever the number of guys is, is the number of opinions you will get on how to put a pile of stones together.
To get a true appreciation for Dan’s work read In the Company of STONE
Here’s some stove size and bigger boulders from a sand and gravel quarry.
Great color and character in some of these. The only drawback for this type of stone is the inability to grow moss.
Refridgerator Size
Okay just because I’m feeling generous here’s another:
More really big Stones
Some great character in those 3 foreground stones. Nice anchor for a wall or great wings on a waterfall.
Have we lost all optimism?
Maybe not all but there sure doesn’t seem to be a lot of peppy folks out there when it comes to where we are headed
The National Federation of Independent Business’ optimism index declined 5.4 points to 87.5, the lowest since 1980, the Washington-based group said Tuesday. The sales gauge dropped to the lowest level since records began 35 years ago and hiring plans were the weakest since the 1981-82 contraction.
“Case closed,” William Dunkelberg, the group’s chief economist, said in a statement. “The economy is solidly lodged in recessionary mire.”
Since 1980, 1980 when things were tough, inflation, gas, interest rates, Iran . . . not the best of times.
What will happen in our industry? I’m not sure. I would think they would be some real belt tightening in our immediate future.
As I was thinking about this I remember a lot of folks getting home equity loans and using this money to improve their home landscapes. I really doubt this will be happening anytime soon.
Add in dropping home prices and who knows how long we are going to have these problems in the housing market.
The positive spin would be that folks are going to stay in their homes longer and maybe they will be motivated to make positive changes to improve their way of life, and upgrade their surroundings . . hey, I can dream . . . can’t I?
I am really looking forward to going to the Conferences and Trade Shows this winter to hear what my friends and colleagues have to say about this falling economy and it’s effect on our industry.
I think I will come up with a set of questions or a simple form for folks to answer questions. Then put all that together and announce what I have gathered here on the blog. so when that happens I’ll be looking for some feedback from you.
The above quote comes from a Lawn and Landscape article on Small Business Optimism Falls, it’s short and sweet and worth the read.
Job Loss
Lawn and Landscape has another article about losing your job, if you are a Designer working for a company and you think your job is in trouble, or actually is in trouble check this out. And no matter what . . . be positive.
“Approach the time immediately after you’ve been laid off with the same sense of purpose you felt with your job,” Bayer says. “Resist the urge to think of unemployment as the end of the world, no matter how upsetting it may be. Think of it, instead, as an opportunity to improve yourself and to make a fresh start. You can end up better off than you were before you got the ax.”
The author goes on to talk about several options to take if the bad news gets to you.
Near the end he talks about working for yourself, it’s a tough way to go. So consider this carefully before you go down this road.
This type of commitment requires a completely different level of time, energy, and commitment. and determination, especially in a tough environment.
Keeping up my drawing theme this week.
Some really interesting pen and ink work, that is just fascinating. Just follow along and then be amazed . . . I was.
Wow! That is really great stuff.
Now I am just going to have to figure out how to take this great skill and apply it to rendering a landscape design.
A big thank you to Matt, over at Comictools.com
A little something from my looking at the color green.
A Study in Green
One of those days when I was just trying to get my mind right to start working on a drawing.
Foliage
Fooling around on something like this reminds me again, why more designers need to look at foliage and not just the color of the flowers.
To me this is one of the biggies that separate Landscape Designers from Garden Designers and especially from the Garden Enthusiast who spend so much time obsessing over the color of a certain flower as it survives for such a short life span.
Now looking at the shades of green in a large planting as the greens works against each other through the entire growing season seem more important.
Important to the overall harmony of the growing season.
Texture
Throw in the texture and form along with the foliage aspect and you can really have a dynamic garden even if it is all green. I realize that I am speaing to the choir(professionals) here. Though a friendly reminder never hurt.
I think all this talk anout texture and foliage has determined my next post. A look at fall, expecially grasses and how a bed loooks for several months.
To me this is a very neglected part of design. Fall the fall color, foliage, texture, and changes.
Exciting stuff.
The Landscape in Winter
A Painter
Yvette Molina mesmerizes me. She really does. I like the feeling her paintings evoke, the getting lost in the moment.
I really like these colors, "Last Night"
Take a few minutes to look at her work and go deep into her woods, her shadows, her mist.
The Architects
There is some truly dazzling work to be found at Mass Studies. A firm located in South Korea. Take a special look at the project entitled the Gourd Tower Matrix and the Honeycomb Matrix, all I can say is wow.
Work at entirely different level, I spent a long time here and still feel as though I had just started to look around.
Here’s a different project called Air Forest:
Air Forest
Alchemy
If you’re anything like me-an inquiring kind of Designer here’s another one of those sites where you can “waste” a lot of time. There is more here about Alchemy located in one pace than you could ever need.
Alchemy is a complex subject with many different interconnected aspects. Many people still only think of the quest of the philosophers’ stone to change base metals into gold. On this web site you will be able to explore the riches of alchemical texts, some of which are wonderful works of allegorical literature, delve into its amazing, beautiful and enigmatic symbolism, and ponder its underlying hermetic philosophy, which holds a picture of the interconnection of the Macrocosm and Microcosm.
Courses, texts, bibliographies, histories, imagery, etc., it’s all here:
An image of the astrologer consulting the heavens. From Robert Fludd's Utriusque cosmi historia, Vol II.
Digging through here I am sure you can find something even if it’s highly symbolic that will be appropriate to bring into a garden design somewhere down the road. I love the images though and it’s fun to look at that type of illustration.
We Doodlers
A fun site called Doodlers Anonymous where doodlers work from all over the world wide web is looked at and open to study.
What I liked is what a doodler considers what doodling is to them. Let’s just say for a lot of folks it’s more than drawing stickmen. Good fun!
The Designer
Mike Rhode is a sketcher of great excellence anyone who comes here to enjoy what I have been sketching will enjoy looking at Mikes work. He’s got some real talent.
Mike Rhode is thinking
Take a good look at this entry of one of his sketchbooks from a conference he recently attended. It’s a look into a designers mind as they think, through writing and imagery.
I really wish there was some more of this out there, it’s powerful stuff and i think it’s a great writing tool.
Sheds
Finally everything you ever wanted to know about sheds, from a website across the pond in England. Get to building!
Happy investigating!
Best explanation in the shortest amount of time about lettering your drawings.
Really good stuff Doug.
When we wake up today in America things will look a little different.
Whether you are a R or a D we will be entering a new age in America.
Personally I would have preferred a split gov’t., . . . America seems to work better when one party doesn’t have total control.
Congrats to Mr. Obama and I hope he remembers that small businesses and folks who are self-employed need a business friendly environment to help make America a great place to live, and work.
To keep the American dream alive.
Onward we go.
My hope is to use this site to spread some info about the art and practice of Landscape Design. It is a very misunderstood profession; I do not cut grass like the next door neighbor's cousin who carries 3 mowers and a blower in the back of his truck.
I will also pass along comments on industry happenings, events, etc., and any maybe a few other adventures going on in my world-after all this is "my" blog. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. Questions? Drop me an e-mail.
rick (at) whisperingcraneinstitute (dot) com
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