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Pearl Fryar
After all the commotion Pearl received on the documentary shown on HGTV and the traffic this blog received when I promoted the documentary, some more news and a request came about.
Friends of Mr. Fryar wanted all of you to be aware of this website and the big news:
The Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden has been designated a Preservation Project of the Garden Conservancy.
The Garden Conservancy is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1989 to preserve exceptional gardens for public enjoyment and education. By facilitating access to diverse examples of our cultural heritage, the Conservancy encourages greater appreciation and stewardship of these fragile resources. Working in partnership with individual garden owners and public and private organizations, the Conservancy uses its legal, horticultural and financial resources to develop innovative methods of securing a garden’s future.
View the latest newsletter from the Garden Conservancy
To learn more about the Garden Conservancy and their preservation projects, visit www.gardenconservancy.org.
This is a big deal and major kudos to The group for getting Pearl this type of recognition and the forward thinking in saving a great garden.
More information can be found here about the gardens, the Conversancy, the DVD, and information about the plants in the garden. Good reading.
Ellen Louise Payson
I had read quite a bit about Gertrude Jekyll, and the American designer Beatrix Jones Farrand, but very little about Ms. Payson.
Like Farrand, Louise Payson was known for her complex and detailed use of plant materials and for her hardscapes of walls and terraces. And while male landscape designers often distinguished themselves more on the drawing board than in the garden, Payson, like many in the sorority of designers who flourished during the so-called golden age of female landscape architecture between 1890 and 1940, was also a gardener who enjoyed getting her hands dirty. Being a Maine woman with roots in a state beloved by well-heeled rusticators may have given her the earthiness that defined her reputation.
Read the full story about her career and her life. A very accomplished woman and designer in a tough time to be successful in any endeavor.
Composition and Harmony 101
Another of those design principles that seems easy enough to explain but always turns into a very drawn out, complicated, mis-understood series of principles. I know harmony, you know harmony when you see it, you know when something isn’t harmonious; but dang’it try and explain why that is.
Same thing for composition, how things are put together and the perfect lay out for the designed space:
Composition is basically the arrangement of shapes, colors and elements in order to guide the reader’s eye making him understand and remember it, also looking pleasant. As we always say, there are no real rules for design, but there are principles that fits for most works. Don’t be completely restricted to what we say here, but know how to use it in your projects.
A good definition for line:
This element is important to indicate movement and make the layout flow. Being straight, curved, horizontal, vertical or diagonal can mean different things. The important thing is know how to use it, being explicit or not. Take a look at the images and see how the lines create a nice flow in different designs.
Texture explained in a few sentences:
The texture refers to the feeling you have about a surface, like rough, smooth, etc. It’s also related to repeated pattern on a surface. Using a nice texture can make your work much more rich and interesting. The images show texture as a surface and as the whole image.
Also good definitions on Balance, Positive/negative, the Golden Ratio,Rule of Thirds, and a few more. The accompanying pictures help reinforce those definitions. The article is directed to graphic design but good design principle is good design principle.
Growing a garden in Washington D.C.
Reading Adrian Higgins letter to the 1st Lady Michelle Obama almost had me in tears . . . from laughing. Gardening in D.C. is no picnic, no picnic at all. Lots of hard work, and some good luck, with a huge dash of timing thrown in.
A well written piece and to top it off some good advice for those who think vegetable gardening is about a plot of land and throwing some seeds on the ground.
I sure hope the Secret Service doesn’t pull weeds.
I got 1st dibs!!!
Check it out and prepare to spend some time in exploration. The site is 1st Dibs and the intent is shopping, lots of shopping and exploring.
Flora’s blog
This was the 1st image I saw when I opened the blog, and it’s a good one.
Wow, a real work of living art. Clicking on the image will take you to Kevin Smiths blog and some more fascinating and creative work. Really great stuff.
Before you go scroll down through the work on Flora’s blog, more solid work, inspirational, and creative. Nicely done blog.
Final Thought(s)
My take on links is that a blogger should only link to thing/thoughts/ideas/works that appeal to the writer. Is a given that I must be writing something that appeals to you my readers; or heck .. . . . . you wouldn’t be here.
I like to add my take on the sites because I feel it’s a real honest way of linking to other sites. My who, what, where, and why, or how.
Bloggers who just throw up a laundry list of links with no thoughts/comments doesn’t appeal to me and I do not expect it to appeal to you.
I’m sure most of you are like me and are extremely busy right now. Blogging and the landscape business in seasonal climates just do no match, so little time and so many demands.
Plus I have got to get my garden in!
I’ll be leaving for the CENTS show on Sunday morning, I need to be there by 11:30am.
My stone workshop is SOLD OUT! A full class of 25 eager stone-niks. It should be a lot of fun.
I have not “planned the entire 3 hours, I am leaving some latitude for the students to take me off in any direction they want to go.
If they want to talk boulders and cranes I’ll pull up a job and we’ll go through it.
Water, same thing. I could ramble on and on about water all day, I mean all day.
I do plan to blog live through the entire conference.
My last commitment is the Monday morning lecture, after that it’s a commitment to attend a few events and all, but I’ll play it by ear, and take my time going through the trade show floor.
If you’re going and a reader here, grab me and let me know and tell me more of what you’d like to read about in our profession.
See you in Columbus!
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?
Anyone who had been looking for the website for the Whispering Crane Institute this last week may have had some problems.
Problems like finding it. It wasn’t there-it was gone. The data had vanished into the internet tubes out there in data space.
How’d it happen?
I got no idea.
Anyway without boring anyone who is actually reading this. I have been able to actually get something put back up there with the help(very slow help) of my hosting site Midphase.
Which is actually the point of this post.
I must say that I am not going to reccommend using Midphase as a hosting site.
My site was down for close to a week and they were very slow to restore my database and allow to “start over” in building the site from scratch. I did not want to start from scratch but that is the position I was put into.
I really doubt that I will re-up my agreement with Midphase, especially if certain admin. issues are not resolved.
The only reason I did not leave last week was my e-mail. I did not want an interruption of my e-mail so I felt I was held hostage to this host.
Something to think about if you decide to run your own site, and what importance you put on e-mail and how it looks, is it dedicated to your company name, etc.
For you small independent designers out there look around and be smart about your choice. How you brand yourself is very important.
The template
I also have decided to keep it blog-style and use the same template that I am using here at WordPress.com, it’s called Mistlook by Sadish. I like the style and the layout and will stay with it for awhile.
Anyway lots to do over at the website, lots of work to do.
Still getting plenty of comments on “Trees we do not Like”, over a hundred comments. So time for something different. Let’s go off in another direction.
Speaking of trees we like:
[Illustration by Matthews]
This anthropomorphic tree-figure reminded me of the forest coming alive, and how long ago the was respect, mystery, awe, and respect for the majestic tree. From Giornale Nuovo I found this interpretation of a tree that was alive:
[By Pietro Ciafferi (1600-54), also known as lo smargiasso (‘the braggart’)]
I’m not really sure if someone here is trying to pull our leg or not, but the guy operating the crane seems serious enough.
If true, then these guys are batshit crazy. I mean WTH?
I can only say I won’t be hiring these “dudes”.
The video is weird, then kind of boring . . . but it’s a head-scratcher.
So here is an earlier drawing where I was looking at the possibilities from head-on; that is, from a person looking from the lower level.
I liked this look . . . but wasn’t sure if it was working. Then after I was done scribbling this I noticed that the wall heights were really 3 levels!. Well if i were to have to patios at different levels for this plaza-it seemed to me this would not be the look.
Unless one of the lower walls was not a seat wall(wall on right?). That could account for the difference in height.
I had even looked at the possibility of splitting it up this way. With an upper plaza area, some steps, a large landing-like space and then more steps out onto the connecting walkway.
It was around this time I had got the word that two distinct levels would make people happier. Something along the line of “lets have plaza space for both sides of the apartment complex”.
All of this looks much different than the original proposal(s) part of which is the drawing on the right. this color rendering is showing a more benign set of steps and a long serpentine wall going the length of the landscape.
This wall could still be part of the final plan. Again; looking at this as I type, I am now not sure if I like the idea of a long serpentine/curvilinear wall with a couple of right angle terraces at different levels.
1st thing that comes to mind is easy . . . where does the wall tie into the terraces? Upper or lower? Does the wall stay with the curves as I had earlier shown? Maybe the new set up calls for an even kinder gentlier(sp?) flow to it.
Maybe the entire area would look much better if the budget was put into making the terraces the absolute best they could be, add some other detailing, or embellishment to the walls, or change the material for the plaza floors to something a little heftier in size, texture, and emotion.
Maybe I’m crazy . . . no comment John, we already know what you think about that.
One thing is for sure the previous post(drawing below) had something in that perspective drawing that I was looking for. I think I’ll go back to that(for my amusement) and try to add walls to that perspective. My guess is they will make no impact from the angle I was drawing at.
This drawing . . .seems to be the closest I’ve some yet to solving my problem. I’ll try and add a wall(s) and see what happens to the space.
If the wall doesn’t work then we would have a gentle slope run the entire length of the landscape. It wouldn’t be the end of the World as we know it.
Heck it might look just fine.
[ Does this remind anyone of someone? ]
That certainly sound like a cryptic question but if you’ve done it you’ll know right away-I think.
I had just received some COPIC sketch markers and wanted to give them a try. I really like their vividness and how the colors seem to jump from the page.
If you do use markers(I’m a Chartpak guy) and a blender COPIC’S do no play very well with others.That has been my experience so far. I am using them for highlights, and to make a pop where needed.
Looking at this I just decided those are really BIG trees on the left and right, they must be 80′-90′ foot tall-wow! I never noticed that before until right now. That’s funny. Well it’s funny to me anyway.
Enjoy the weekend.
[ Drawing shows a "new" patio on an English style Tudor house.]
This is an older plan view, from around 2002-early 2003. I just can’t remember the exact time. The idea was to match up some stone patio and columns to match up with one of those Tudor style houses.
An aside this landscape study and following plans fell through and this project was not installed. At least not to this plan.
I don’t know if another contractor came in and found another solution.
I would like to see this backyard, and see if anything came out of this. Considering the style and SIZE of this house I would think something would have had to happened here . . . but what?
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Addendum: Note the lazy lettering with this style of rough drawing. I would think that I still work with this lazy style in rough drawings except the mixing of upper and lower case lettering. Everything today is upper-case.
Even for landscape studies, and rough landscape conceptuals.
Great story in the NYTimes about Laura Spector who goes out into the woods alone and cuts down all the vine(s) she can pull out to make something great out of something very bad.
Apparently she targets Bitttersweet or Asiatic vine Celastrus orbiculata which has run amok in her part of the “woods”.
Her specialty, apparently a little of everything-sconces, mirrors, arches, furniture, etc. Good for her!
From the story:
“I go out into the woods alone, everywhere,” she said. “And I go deep,
a mile or two in from roads. The hardest part is schlepping the stuff
out alone. I have letters of permission from places like the Aspetuck
Land Trust and Aquarion, the water company. They’re happy to lead me to
the worst infestations, as long as I indemnify them in case I fall.”
Here’s another great piece from Laura’s website; which I am linking you to, the NYTimes does not.
[ One of Laura's benches, I love that Koa wood slab.]
Great stuff, really great imagination. In her own words:
My work is unique in that it is influenced by the rich
and decorative18th Century British Romantic tradition.
British rustic is unique from its more familiar American
cousin, in that its graceful lines follow nature’s
whimsy yet suggest the complexity of wrought ironwork.
Finally this piece of railing:
[Very nice, keep up the good work Laura. ]
Powered by ScribeFire.
Links, links, links . . . a few things I have run across the past week or so that may be of interest to someone in the field of landscape design. Or; heck, anyone who has interest in stuff outdoors.
Wittstock makes some changes.
Greg Wittstock the owner and visionary of Aquascapes has made a big change in the upper tier of his pond empire. He has added T. D. Decker into the fold. Mr. Decker will become the new president of Aquascapes-it appears this will mean he has been given control of the nuts and bolts operation(s) of the company.
Where does this leave Greg. Well according to Greg;
“I am going to continue to focus on casting the vision, sharing my passion for water gardens, developing relationships throughout the industry and evolving our unique culture,”
Well it is a unique culture, and Aquascapes is the big giant fish in the pond industry(more like the whale). and it appears Greg is not sitting still and continues to stay in the attack mode.
The other big change is in distribution, from the article;
Beginning in 2008, Aquascape will sell its products through a new Authorized AquascapePRO distributor, doing away with its traditional catalogue and Web-based business. In response to on how to service its clients best, Aquascape has established a nation-wide base of 348 dealer locations.
Many thanks to LawnandLandscape magazine for this article and info.
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Addendum: The press release about Mr. Decker from Aquascapes website.
Tropicals remain hot, hot, hot.
A good read by Carol Polsky on how hot the tropical trend is on Long Island, NY. Some good insight to what has happened and this newer aspect of companies finding space to house( or over-winter) clients larger tropical plants.
One of the contractors I work for here in Ohio provides this service also. The large potted tropicals are shipped off to a nice warm greenhouse to spend the winter in. Then come back in the Spring-ready to go.
From the article;
“That’s what a lot of people like: They’re a lot of fun,” says Dennis Schrader, co-owner of Landcraft Environments, a Mattituck wholesale nursery that offers more than 1,000 varieties of tropical and subtropical plants. “You look at them, and go, ‘Wow. They’re wild-looking plants.’”
I think this is something that is going to be around for a long time as more designers, clients, and retailers realize that foliage, texture, and presence have more to do with designed landscapes than bloom.
Extreme Outdoor Carpet;
Well I’m not really sure what to make of this urban landscape in St. Gallen, Switzerland but here it is.
[From a Swiss website.]
There are plenty of pictures here at the original site, and then a few more here at archipedia’ plus there is some explanation here at deputydog with some NSFW language.
My biggest questions are how do you clean it? and what about spills(oil)?
Gators gone Crazy, or have They?
No not the Florida Gators over my beloved Buckeyes(they did though, twice) but the other Gators . . . Alligators. This is maybe the best read about the present situation and history of the Alligators in Florida, take a look if this sort of thing interest you. And please, you lawn-maintenance guys stay out of the “drink”.
Outdoor Living is not Going Away;
Much ado was made about an article that surfaced several weeks ago concerning homeowners who were fed up with their expensive outdoor spaces. This article is a counter to that using information from a major research group.
The main reason for the overwhelming preference is simple – 84% of survey respondents said they enjoy entertaining outdoors. Three quarters of these consumers said, “It feels more laid back than formal entertaining.”
Research group aside I can also say their is no slowing down on the major push to large expensive outdoor spaces, that have very little or nothing to do with plants and gardening. People want that outdoor room to entertain in, not to garden, or pull weeds, or smell flowers.
Considering the technology and available money I do not see this aspect of outdoor spaces going away anytime in the near future.
Using a strain of rice called Kodaimai the farmers in the town of Inakadate in the prefecture of Aomori create some fascinating works of art. I would call it the Japanese version of crop circles that we see here in the corn fields of America. Except this looks more like art and less like geometry.
[Mona Lisa in rice. Site is all Japanese, more pics here.]
[Low angle of the field.]
[Other towns have joined in including, Yonezawa of the , Yamagata prefecture, from 2006.]
I have always been fascinated how some folks will take the time in there live(s) to create something really beautiful and/or interesting even when the work to do so makes a difficult task more difficult, in this case rice farming.
I found these images and story(in English) at Pink Tentacle(interesting name). Many thanks. Oh; check out the story about fragrant pencil lead-seriously.
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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