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Gone Gardenin’ – Cacti and succulents spice up indoor, outdoor landscapes

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Let your young Wheat King fan spend the winter building this spiffy model.

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Let your young Wheat King fan spend the winter building this spiffy model.

The use of cacti and succulents in our outdoor gardens has become a common practice; more and more gardeners have fallen in love with these unique plants, which can add so much interest to the landscape.

This cactus produced exotic white blooms off and on again all summer.

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This cactus produced exotic white blooms off and on again all summer. (ALBERT PARSONS/BRANDON SUN)

Many succulents, such as this echeveria, can be overwintered indoors,

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Many succulents, such as this echeveria, can be overwintered indoors, (ALBERT PARSONS/BRANDON SUN)

Planting several cacti and succulents into a dish garden saves windowsill space.

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Planting several cacti and succulents into a dish garden saves windowsill space. (ALBERT PARSONS/BRANDON SUN)

Although most cacti do not bloom this time of year, many do retain their attractive, colourful fruits well into the winter.

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Although most cacti do not bloom this time of year, many do retain their attractive, colourful fruits well into the winter. (ALBERT PARSONS/BRANDON SUN)

Many people also grow cacti and succulents in their indoor gardens with the plants we move from the outdoors inside for the winter.

Over the years I have collected quite a few cacti and although I do not often put them outdoors for the summer, I do enjoy their unique beauty in the sunroom during the summer when they are virtually the only plants located in that space.

During the late spring and summer, many of my cacti will put forth bloom, and although the blooms are fleeting, they are exquisite.

This July, I was indeed lucky that one of my cacti produced a wonderful pink blossom — which lasted only two days — the very day of our local fair. Without any trouble it won a prize — although I am sure many visitors to the fair the second day, when the bloom had collapsed, wondered why the plant received a prize! (Luckily, the judging is done at the beginning of the fair, not on the second day.)

Cacti begin to bloom as the day length increases and the temperatures warm up in the spring. During the winter, however, the only cactus that I expect to bloom will be my Christmas cactus, which sets bud in response to a shortening of day length and cooler temperatures.

Most cacti go into a semi-dormant state during the winter, particularly if they are kept in a cool environment similar to my sunroom. Care of cacti during this time requires some special attention.

Firstly, it is important to realize that most of the plants will not be in active growth mode during this time so they require few nutrients or water. Never fertilize cacti during the winter.

Reduce the amount of water that the plants receive, just giving them enough so that they do not become desiccated. Of course, cacti have the ability to store water in their fleshy tissues, so they can endure prolonged periods without water at the best of times.

Not being watered for long periods of time during the winter will be no hardship as the plants will be using very little water in their semi-dormant state. I generally only water my cacti every month or so during the wintertime.

I also keep them quite cool by positioning them on windowsills in the sunroom where temperatures, while always above the freezing mark, are quite cool, especially on cold winter nights. Most of the cacti that we grow indoors will not survive sub-zero temperatures.

Any cacti that have been brought indoors after having been used in the outdoor garden are best potted into pots that are not overly large, since cacti do not perform well when they are over-potted.

If window space is at a premium, several smaller specimens can be combined and planted into a dish garden, which will take up less space than if all the plants were individually potted.

Cacti always should be planted in a very porous soil mix that contains course sand or fine gravel, with little peat in the mix. If cacti are potted in heavy clay soil that holds too much water and does not drain properly, the plants might very well rot during the winter when exposed to cool temperatures, particularly if they are given too much water.

Cacti are generally not subject to pest problems, so you do not have to be on guard for insect infestations. The plants may become dusty over time and it is a good idea to remove any accumulated dust, not only to keep the plants healthy, but also to keep them looking their best.

I simply bring a potted cactus close to my face and blow as mightily as I can on the top of the plant. A more dignified method might be to put your vacuum on the “blow” mode and use it instead of your lungs!

Caring for your cacti collection will give you some gardening pleasure during the winter months and will ensure that your cacti come through the winter in fine shape.

They will then be in good condition to provide enjoyment next summer, whether indoors on a windowill or in your outdoor garden.

Albert Parsons is a consultant for garden design and landscaping who lives in Minnedosa.

» communitynews@brandonsun.com

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition November 29, 2012

Neighbors spruce up fire station with community garden – Austin American

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The big red firetruck usually captures all the attention at Fire Station 16, but lately residents in this Central Austin neighborhood have noticed the firehouse’s lovely gardens, bursting with robust flowers and greenery.

Spiky rosemary stands waist high, and zealous passionflower vines encircle the stop sign. Colorful retro lawn chairs look inviting under a shade tree, and dotted along the sidewalk are vibrant sage, little yellow daisies and yaupon holly with red berries, among others.

“It’s a little oasis in the neighborhood,” says Elaine Dill, who along with other volunteers and firefighters helped to revitalize the triangular patch of land in the Crestview neighborhood. “It’s beautiful out here, isn’t it?”

The fire station has been located at this odd-shaped piece of land, bordered by Grover Avenue, Reese Lane and Cullen Avenue, since 1957, according to the Austin Fire Museum. Some firefighters refer to it as “the fishbowl,” because they can be seen from all sides.

“This was just a blank slate,” says Emily Wilson, who lives nearby and spearheaded the effort. Although the lawn was kept mowed, the landscaping was uninspired, and Bermuda grass had infiltrated, she says. “I realized that this place could use some TLC.”

She turned for help to neighborhood gardeners, such as Dill and Cheryl Goveia, who along with Wilson, are also an active force in sprucing up nearby Brentwood Park.

Goveia, a landscape design consultant, drew up a plan that called for themed areas using native and adapted plants. An area near the flagpole is planted with patriotic colors: red roses, white lantana, blue plumbago.

With input from firefighters, Goveia had multiple goals for the gardens, such as growing food, attracting pollinators, serving as a demonstration garden and spiffing up the place.

“I wanted it to be so outrageously quaint,” she says, “and fit the neighborhood.”

Starting in 2010, during a series of garden workdays that drew a variety of helpers, volunteers pulled weeds, trimmed, planted and mulched – all with the aid of some firefighters, says Wilson.

“We’re gardeners, and we appreciate good physical work,” says Wilson, 45, “but there’s nothing like having three firefighters show up.”

Fire specialist/driver Scott Van Horn, who has worked at the station for 21 years, collaborated on the project early on, taking part in workdays, helping with maintenance and doing other jobs when needed.

“I would go get dirt somewhere. Stuff like that,” he says.

In an area called the Firehouse Farm, they have grown okra and tomatoes, among other edibles. Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi and strawberry plants have recently been put into the raised beds. An herb garden has provided an abundance of basil, which some of the gardeners have used to make batches of pesto.

Getting rid of the Bermuda grass proved to be a huge job, requiring much patience as the ground was covered with plastic to kill it off – although some of the persistent grass has grown back.

The project gained help from many sources – with donations of money, time and materials. The gardeners made numerous trips to a cemetery to get free rocks to line the area between the sidewalk and the curbs. They raised about $100 for plants by setting up a table at the neighborhood grocery store and asking shoppers to donate their change, Wilson says.

A nearby arborist trimmed trees, and the nonprofit organization TreeFolks contributed nine trees, Wilson says.

“The firemen kept them alive and watered them, which was critical because we went through that drought,” Wilson says.

Firefighter Kacy Mustain, says colleagues at other stations have made favorable remarks that Fire Station 16 isn’t “a concrete jungle.”

“It’s nice driving up and seeing that,” says Lt. Bryan Kohler. “You don’t want to stand out for the wrong reasons.”

The fire station grounds also have become a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat, which requires the provision of water, food, cover and a place to raise wildlife young. To provide water, they created a birdbath from an old wok placed in a gnarled log on the ground.

“It’s like an art form,” Wilson says. “I think it looks dang attractive.”

Wilson also helped to acquire a grant from the City of Austin’s Neighborhood Partnering Program, which bought a composter as well as the fire-engine red and yellow chairs out front. Those replaced some rusted lawn furniture that “just needed to be put out at large trash day,” Wilson says.

Such community support is welcome, says Michelle DeCrane, spokeswoman for the Austin Fire Department. “The fire station is part of the neighborhood and part of the community, so we really encourage involvement,” she says.

Tweaking the plan as needed, the gardeners have put the last of the project in place, with firefighters watering and maintaining the gardens.

One side of the lot, facing Grover Avenue, with parking spaces, a ramp and a row of garbage cans, did not lend itself to much landscaping. Still, Wilson sees the chance for a possible new endeavor, such as a mural.

“It’s an opportunity for a project,” she says.

Cultivating a long-term relationship with your gardener

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The worksheet is two full pages of questions – about likes and dislikes, pets, dining habits and entertaining style, favorite seasons and vacation spots. There’s even this one: “Do you have any personality quirks we should know about?”

Sounds like an online dating service laying the groundwork for a possible relationship. And, in a very real sense, that’s true. This is about ground work – the making, and long-term maintenance, of a garden, something many of us spend less time thinking about than what to serve at a holiday dinner.

Craig Rybinski, owner of Creative Garden Solutions in Avondale, Chester County, uses the worksheet to learn about prospective clients so he can design a garden tailored to their tastes, habits, and lifestyle. He also uses it to let them know that hiring a professional gardener needs to be a thoughtful decision, not the horticultural equivalent of a one-night stand.





“It’s not about we show up on Tuesday, we’re done on Thursday, and have a nice life,” says Rybinski, a master gardener with a landscape architecture degree from Pennsylvania State University and a landscape design/horticulture degree from Temple University Ambler, who still has clients he started with in 1982.

“A good garden requires maintenance over time . . . and it’s really important that you have a relationship with your gardener. It makes all the difference in the world,” he says.

Important as it is, hiring a garden professional can be bewildering.

There are the “mow, blow, and go” guys. Also known as “lawn jockeys” and “grasshoppers,” they’re the least specialized and, because of the economy, more numerous and visible than ever. Armed with truck, lawn mower, and tools, they handle the basics.

Then there are people who have studied horticulture or ornamental design, maybe had some experience at a plant nursery, working in the field as landscapers, garden designers, and landscape designers. (Landscape architects, on the other hand, are registered and state-regulated, but a home garden rarely requires their expertise.)

To add to the confusion, there are folks out there with little training or education who also call themselves designers and landscapers.

What’s a homeowner to do?

In a word: homework.

Horticultural educator Rick Ray believes we need to take responsibility and educate ourselves so we can make intelligent choices about whom to hire and what to plant.

“If the homeowner doesn’t know his ash from his elbow, he’s lost. It’s like telling someone who knows nothing about brain surgery, ‘Sure, go ahead and do my craniotomy,’ ” says Ray, who taught at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown and Temple Ambler for many years and has been doing the same at the Barnes Foundation Arboretum School in Merion since 1986.

He suggests “getting at least a basic foundation” by studying up on plants, taking classes or workshops at the region’s many arboretums and public gardens, and thinking about what we want our garden to be.

“There are so many factors to consider,” Ray says, not just what plants we like, but whether they’re suited to our property and region, what their mature size will be, what their soil, light, and drainage requirements are, and many other issues.

“Most people have no concept of these things . . . they don’t know which side of the sod to put up or down,” Ray says. “That’s why they hire someone.”

Linda Hosier definitely knows how to lay sod. She and her husband, John, put down a full acre of it after buying a three-story Victorian on two acres in Middletown Township in 1992. The original part of the house dates to 1747, and both house and grounds had long been neglected.

Hosier, a biology major in college and a longtime gardener, was faced with a “garden” of poison ivy, weeds, junk trees, brambles, and wisteria. “It was backbreaking,” she recalls.

So Hosier hired Bill Kirkpatrick of Kirkpatrick Nurseries in Glen Mills, whose work – and wife – she knew. “Bill was a known commodity,” she says.

In stages over the years, Hosier and Kirkpatrick, a graduate of Penn State’s ornamental horticulture program, have collaborated to redo the front, sides, and back of the property. They’ve installed native swamp maples along the 150-foot driveway, built and landscaped three berms out front to block the view of traffic, and added roses, viburnums, hollies, and other plantings.

The communication between the two has been frequent and productive. “Bill’s good at listening. We’ve stayed with him. It’s an ongoing relationship. Why mess with success?” Hosier says.

She likes how Kirkpatrick is often on site to supervise, and how he drops in to check on how things are growing. “The trees in front are prone to bagworms, and Bill actually stops by and pulls them off,” says Hosier, who couldn’t be happier with her garden professional.

As for that worksheet with the question about personality “quirks,” Rybinski reports that most prospective clients leave it blank. Some offer up things like “If I call you at 8 a.m., I want a response by 9.” Others insist, “I don’t have any quirks, but my spouse has plenty.”

And once in a while, pay dirt.

“I want privacy at the pool,” one client wrote. “I like to swim in the nude.”

“OK,” Rybinski says, “we need to know that.”

 

Thinking About Your Garden

Elizabeth Alakszay, coordinator of the Chester County master gardeners, looks at planting or redoing a garden this way: “It’s no different than when you redo the kitchen or living room. Think of the thought you put into that.”

What better time to think about next year’s garden than over the fall and winter?

Here are some thoughts from the experts:

Stop and ask. If you see a landscape in the neighborhood you like, find out who did it. Ask friends who are good gardeners. Do not just pick someone from the phone book or online.

Think big picture and long-term. If you can afford it, look for someone to draw up a master plan that can be implemented in stages.

Check education, experience, credentials. Academic degrees aren’t the be-all and end-all, but they can make a big difference in outcome. “Cutting the grass is not ‘designing a garden,’ ” says Peter Landrum, who earned a degree in ornamental horticulture and environmental design at Delaware Valley College and owns Landrum Landscaping in Havertown.

Ask for references, then go see the landscapes. Nobody’s going to refer you to unhappy clients.

Ask for a written contract and a one-year guarantee on plants. Fortunately, this is pretty standard now. But how many contracts guarantee start and finish dates? “A lot of contractors won’t agree to a final date because they’re doing two to three jobs in addition to yours,” Alakszay says. “I’d weed them out.”

Also, include in the contract that you must approve changes in design, plant material, or cost.

Ask about insurance. Not just whether a contractor has a policy, but what it does and doesn’t cover – light tree work, for example, or fertilizer and pesticide applications. It’s a bit indelicate, but ask about criminal background checks on workers, too.

Insist on an itemized list of tasks and plants, rather than one big bottom line.

Make sure there’s an actual business address. Says Bill Kirkpatrick of Kirkpatrick Nurseries in Glen Mills: “Some of these guys don’t have one. Should you be suspicious? I would be.”

Once a plant list is drawn up, check them out on science-based academic websites such as Rutgers and Penn State Cooperative Extensions.

Be realistic about cost. “Gardening is not inexpensive – $40, $50, $60 is not unreasonable for a decent-size shrub, given what went into growing it,” Alakszay says. (And cheap job bids often result in cheap work.) Labor costs can run around $30 an hour or more.

Decide what level of maintenance you’re willing to assume and, if you can afford it, what you’ll want someone else to do. Understand that, as Landrum says, “there’s really no such thing as a low-maintenance landscape unless it’s all rocks.”

Heed these words from Craig Rybinski, the Chester County master gardener and garden designer: “The fact is, no matter how good I am, no matter how good the crew is, when we leave if there’s no plan for maintenance to some degree, everybody wasted their time.”

And factor into your maintenance budget the idea that not every professional does it all. You may need an arborist for tree care, for example.

If all this sounds like a lot of work, it is. And even if you do it, there’s no guarantee of absolute success.

But if you’re smart about planning and hiring for your garden, you should be well-rewarded – at least for a few years.

Because once you’ve got things just the way you want them, the garden will change. And you’ll have to deal with it.

But this time around, if you’ve paid attention, you’ll at least know what you’re doing.

– Virginia A. Smith

Contact Virginia A. Smith at 215-854-5720 or vsmith@phillynews.com.

Garden tips: Keeping the holiday plants alive takes a little care

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The aroma of a cut Christmas tree certainly adds to the holiday season. But if safety is not a part of decorating and maintaining your tree, the outcome could be deadly.

Here are a few ideas to help prevent fires:

Always keep water around the trunk of the tree.

Keep the tree away from sources of heat, such as fireplaces and wood heaters.

Do not use candles near the tree.

Turn Christmas lights off when you are not at home and at night before you go to bed.

Do not put the tree directly under a heating vent.

Keep the area around the base of the tree clean. Remove any dead needles that are a fire hazard.

Poinsettia pointers

Chances are you have at least one poinsettia decorating your house right now. Here’s how to keep it looking fresh the whole season:

When you are bringing your plant home, keep it well protected in its wrapping.

Remove that wrapping as soon as you get it home.

Place the plant near the window, for good light, but do not let the plant touch window panes. As with any holiday plant, keep it out of drafts.

Daytime temperatures should be maintained between 60 and 70 degrees. If the temperature is too high, the life of the colorful leaves will be shorter and they will fade.

To keep the poinsettia in bloom, place it in a cooler room at night. Temperatures between 55 and 60 degrees are ideal. Water the plant when the soil is dry to the touch.

Booker T. Leigh is director at the Tipton County Extension office. E-mail your gardening questions to bleigh1@utk.edu. Include your name and area where you live. For more gardening information, call the Tipton County Extension office at (901) 476-0231 or the Shelby County Extension office at (901) 752-1207.

Saturday Greens Sales

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By Carol Stocker
This is the big weekend for garden club greens sales, which often feature decorated bargain wreaths, swags and bagged greens for do-it-yourself decorating, freshly cut from members’ gardens. Many items and arrangements are hand made by members with an artistic flair. These non-profit events are often major fundraisers for local beautification projects.

The Milton Garden Club hosts its annual Greens Sale Saturday, Dec. 1, 9 a.m.-11 a.m. Known for its one of a kind fresh decorated evergreen wreaths, diverse arrangements starting at $2, and giant bags of fresh cut holly and mixed greens, this is a longstanding traditional event. This sale often sells out quickly so arrive before the doors open for the best selection. Location: Cunningham Hall, 75 Edge Hill Road, Milton.

Danvers Garden Club “Greens Sale,” Saturday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is another great offering of holiday wreaths, kissing balls, swags, boxwood trees, baskets, and centerpieces designed and crafted by members of the Danvers Garden Club. Location: Endicott Park Carriage House, Forest St., Danvers.

Groveland Garden Club “Annual Greens Sale,” Saturday. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Unique hand made Wreaths, Swags, Kissing Balls, Boxwood Trees. Holiday Arrangements, Homemade Baked Goods…Location: Little Red Schoolhouse at the corner of Main Street (Rt. 113) and Broad Street.

Wollaston Garden Club “Greens Sale” Saturday 9 a.m. to noon. The sale will feature hand-made wreaths and swags, as well as large outdoor arrangements, indoor table arrangements, holiday plants and other unique gift items and our signature bagged greens. Location: Wollaston Congregational Church Social Hall 48 Winthrop Ave Wollaston, Quincy.

Bridgewater GC, “Annual Greens Sale” Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Location: Bridgewater Cole-Yeaton Senior Center, 10 Walley Krueger Way, Bridgewater, MA

Berkshire Botanical Garden Annual Holiday Marketplace is Dec 1 2 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and admission is free. As is tradition, regional designers and friends of the Garden have created a Gallery of Wreaths available for purchase. Visitors can expect an array of decorative styles, from traditional evergreen wreaths adorned with berries and bows to elaborate pieces featuring found natural materials like seed pods and magnolia leaves. Preserved boxwood topiaries, boxwood kits, and festive tabletop decor will be for sale, as will amaryllis, paper whites and hyacinths, all beautifully potted and ready for holiday bloom.Garden-lovers will enjoy unusual ornaments, reference and coffee table books, gift-wrapped membership packages and baskets filled with herb products made by the Garden’s Herb Associates for sale at the BBG Gift Shop.The annual Holiday Marketplace Cocktail Party will be held on Friday, November 30 from 5:00 to 8:00pm. Guests can enjoy cocktails and early buying privileges with the purchase of a $75 ticket, available through the Garden’s website or by phone at (413) 298-3926.

Tower Hill’s annual “HOLLY DAYS is a horticultural celebration of the winter holidays. It will highlight a gastronomic
theme with hand-crafted ornaments, November 23rd through December 30th. Tower Hill’s Stoddard Education Visitors
Center is magnificently decorated with trees, wreaths, and swags adorned with gleaming
lights and exquisite ornaments, making use of natural materials such as dried flowers,
leaves, seeds, seed-heads, cones, branches, and fruits.
Admission: The HOLLY DAYS exhibit and entertainment is included with garden admission;
$12 Adults, $9 Seniors (65+) and $7 Youth (6-18), children under 6 and Members admitted
FREE. Discounted group rates are available. NEW this year: In keeping with the food
theme, canned goods will be collected for Rachel’s Table Food Pantry; visitors can
deduct $1 from their admission for each can donated, limited to 6 cans per person,
per visit; no other discounts apply.
Hours: Daily from Nov. 23-Dec. 30, 9 A.M. to 5 P.M., Wednesdays until 8 P.M., closed
December 24, 25, 31, and January 1. Tower Hill is located at 11 French Drive in
Boylston, Massachusetts, three miles north of exit 24 off Route 290. For more information,
contact Tower Hill Botanic Garden at 508-869-6111, or visit the website at www.towerhillbg.org

Home and Garden Calendar

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EVENTS

Rain gardens and floral design: The Oak Harbor Garden Club program, from 9 a.m. to noon, Dec. 11, features natural resource planner Rob Hallbauer on installing a rain garden, and florist Audrey Butler on arranging holiday centerpieces. The meeting is at First United Methodist Church, 1050 Ireland St., Oak Harbor. Call Helene Valdez at 360-675-0392.

Festival of Poinsettias: Molbak’s holiday tradition runs now through Dec. 24 and features more than 25 varieties of Molbak’s grown poinsettias. The 14-foot-high poinsettia tree is a great place for family Christmas card photos. On weekends, through Dec. 23, there will be live music, free slices of Danish kringle and hot beverages, and Santa will be there for photo ops from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Check out molbaks.com for details on dates, times and a full list of holiday performers. Molbak’s is at 13625 NE 175th St., Woodinville.

Growing Groceries training: The WSU Extension classes teach mentors how to grow productive food gardens in an an environmentally friendly way. The trained volunteers then share their knowledge. The application deadline is Jan. 18. Classes start Feb. 9 and continue for four Saturdays at the Snohomish County Extension building at 600 128th St., McCollum Park, Everett. Tuition is $135 for those who volunteer 35 hours as mentors after certification, or $185 for nonvolunteers. Contact: Karie Christensen, 425-357-6039, or Christensen4@wsu.edu for more information.

Evergreen Arboretum and Gardens 2012 lectures: Noon to 1 p.m. select Saturdays, at the arboretum, 145 Alverson Blvd., Everett, either in the indoor classroom or, when appropriate, outside on the arboretum grounds. All the classes are free. Seating is limited. Call 425-257-8597 for reservations. See www.evergreenarboretum.com for more about the arboretum.

Dec. 8: “Winter Blooming Plants” with Trevor Cameron of Sunnyside Nursery, Marysville.

Interior design classes: Kelly DuByne of Distinctive Interior Designs and Monika Krisofferson of Efficient Oranization NW offer the following classes. Check www.distinctiveinteriordesigns.net, 425-238-3678, or www.EfficientOrganizationNW.com, 425-220-8905.

Free community events:

First Saturday of each month: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Ask a Designer color consultations at Lynnwood Miller Paint, 18021 Alderwood Mall Parkway, Ste. 103. Register at 425-248-4950.

Everett Parks Recreation: Register at 425-257-8300, ext. 2, or www.everettwa.org. Classes taught at VanValey house, 2130 Colby Ave., Everett; 6 to 7:30 p.m., $25 (unless otherwise noted):

Dec. 13: Furniture University: Quality, Placement and Styles to Make Your Home Wow.

Marysville Parks Recreation: register 360-363-8400, www.marysvillewa.gov. Classes taught at Marysville Library, 6120 Grove St. Classes from 6 to 7:30pm, $22 (unless otherwise noted):

Dec. 20: The Significance of Color.

NURSERY CLASSES

These local nurseries feature gardening classes, guest speakers and special events throughout the year, often for no charge. Check their websites or call for details.

Christianson’s Nursery and Greenhouse: 15806 Best Road, Mount Vernon; 360-466-3821; www.christiansonsnursery.com.

McAuliffe’s Valley Nursery: 11910 Springhetti Road, Snohomish; 360-862-1323; www.mcauliffesvalleynursery.com.

Molbak’s Garden Home: 13625 NE 175th St., Woodinville; 425-483-5000; www.molbaks.com.

My Garden: 17414 Bothell-Everett Highway, Mill Creek; 425-402-1842; www.mygardennursery.com.

Pine Creek Nursery: 23225 Sofie Road, Monroe; 360-863-8866; pinecreeknursery.com.

Sky Nursery: 18528 Aurora Ave. N., Shoreline; 206-546-4851; www.skynursery.com.

Sunnyside Nursery: 3915 Sunnyside Blvd., Marysville; 425-334-2002; www.sunnysidenursery.net.

The Plant Farm at Smokey Point: 15022 Twin Lakes Ave., Marysville; 360-652-3351; www.theplantfarm.com.

Wight’s Home Garden: 5026 196th St. SW, Lynnwood; 425-775-3636; www.wights.com.

PLANT CLINICS

Got a gardening question? You can call the master gardener hotline from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 425-357-6010 or visit the Home Garden section at snohomish.wsu.edu.

To submit an item for the Home Garden calendar, e-mail features@heraldnet.com.

Winter gardens don’t have to mean a frosty reception

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November 29, 2012

A well-designed space should be able to tempt clients out even on days like this, says landscaping guru and new PrimeResi columnist Barry Burrows.

The fashion for high specification garden design is growing as informed clients begin to understand the importance of the exterior space to their wellbeing and to the value of their property. With space for living at a premium in the city, the advent of new technologies and innovative design solutions are making a huge impact on the higher end of the housing market.

The prime requirement is the desire for space that can be utilised across the whole year, with the added benefits of all the amenities that exist inside the house. A well designed garden should be able to tempt you outside on any day of the year, protect you from the elements and excite and stimulate the senses to give the ‘feel good factor’.

In small spaces, the illusion of depth can be created by artificially extending the focal point of a view, either by use of clever proportions, mirrors, or by colour theory, whilst in the larger gardens subtle design variations will allow the perception of greater width and complexity.

Sensitive lighting will enhance the experience, with different lighting settings created to produce changeable ‘moods’, as lighting requirements vary between seasons. Summer lighting may be focused on a seating area for evening entertainment, whilst winter lighting will create a tableau of textures to be viewed from the house.

Roof terraces provide the most striking opportunities to make a difference to a lifestyle

Within the external space, there is often a desire for all requirements to be met, and to this end we have installed kitchens, wine storage units, heating, television, multimedia, remote operated sliding roofs and any number of seats, sculptures and lights. Roof terraces provide the most striking opportunities to make a difference to a lifestyle as the roof is nearly always unused prior to conversion. The ultimate benefit is that the space opens up a huge number of possibilities that provide so much in space, light, privacy and the mental well being of simply having an area that provides escape from the indoors. When creating a roof garden several factors need to be kept in mind and planning can be an issue, but once that bridge has been crossed, the possibilities can be endless. We find many clients wishing for their transformation to be complete and mature from the start; so the ability to source and install mature plants in all sorts of locations, from roof tops to rolling acres is a great resource. In these technically advanced days the repositioning of even quite large trees is feasible, which is a huge advantage with the current concern for space.

In Knightsbridge, we created a sumptuous external entertainment space from very inauspicious beginnings. The refurbishment of small house in an exclusive gated mews gave us the opportunity to add layers of light and planting as the addition of a basement provided light wells which accentuated the three dimensional aspects of the garden. The garden doubled the area available for entertainment in the main reception room in all weathers as a sliding roof and concealed heaters extended the living space outdoors. The wall treatments of climbers and water features, combined with the awning, provided perfect privacy on every day of the year. The use of mirror surfaces and lighting also doubled and redoubled the space, making the garden feel much larger than reality. This garden has won two national awards, one for design and one for the innovative use of technology.

the necessity to have the quality of finish in the external space reflecting that of indoors

A grey and uninspiring terrace in Chelsea was transformed from a cold, windblown tunnel into a lavish green space, with the planting of mature shrubs to protect from the wind, heaters, a wine fridge and serving area. A perfect example of the necessity to have the quality of finish in the external space reflecting that of indoors. Crisp edges, high end material and plant specification combined with beautifully placed lighting make this an award winning green room that would enhance any property.

bartholomewlandscaping.com


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The Most Important Garden Designer You’ve Never Heard Of

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By MARIAN MCEVOY

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Photograph by Oberto Gili

A cedar and terra-cotta pavilion alongside the square pond at Marella Agnelli’s property in Marrakech exemplifies Cox’s simultaneously grand and plain gardens. The late Bill Willis designed the structure on a newly created pond filled with several varieties of papyrus and water lilies and lined with crinum, polyanthus, jasmine, amaryllis, agapanthus, liane de floride, climbing roses and pomegranate trees.

FOR THE PAST 25 YEARS, he has created hundreds of acres of enchanting gardens for dozens of clients in 10 countries, but his public profile is next to zero: no Google

trove of press mentions; no Wikipedia entry; no Twitter trail; no Facebook

friends. On the Madison Cox Design Web site, you’ll find a street address, an e-mail address and a single image of an understated formal garden. No bio, no client list, no florid prose.

This 54-year-old American garden designer is a legend in the making—often compared to the late, great British landscapist Russell Page—but you won’t hear that from him. Unlike most high-end architects, decorators and garden designers, Cox would rather be shipwrecked than become a household name. He is known for creating rarely seen, never-photographed landscapes for some of the most publicity-averse clients in the world. (Convincing Cox to participate in this article took three years of persistent persuasion on the part of this magazine—and by me, a close friend for more than 30 years.)

Photos: The Green Party

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Photography by Oberto Gili

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What differentiates Cox within the highly competitive world of landscaping is his individual approach to individual sites. He does not apply a single theme or a homogeneous look to his various projects. From rigorously sculpted grounds to profusely flowering rustic settings, he bends his personal tastes to those of his clients. He might not choose flamboyant roses or cube-shaped metal pots for his own gardens, but if a client has a strong preference for such embellishments, he’ll find a graceful way to make them work. “I’m in the service industry,” he says. “People come to me for a whole slew of reasons— they all have a goal in mind; my goal is help them achieve it.”

Cox is discreet and modest, and he’s also extremely disciplined and nonconformist: He owns 5,000 books but no TV; orders the same Anderson Sheppard jacket every year; prefers living in small houses and apartments; and he’s never in the same city or countryside for more than five consecutive days. The man whom Marella Agnelli and Henry and Marie-Josée Kravis have chosen to design their outdoor spaces is a gifted maverick who spent his formative years engaged in unorthodox pursuits until he found his calling.

“Cox dislikes plantings that are too clever or too obvious—elements that call attention to a style rather than a place. He believes that gardens should look “inevitable.””

Cox grew up in San Francisco and Marin County, nurtured by what he calls a “bohemian patrician” family, surrounded by the redwood forest, the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay. His father was a sea captain, an imposing character who had, according to Cox, “an enormous influence on me. He is responsible for my travel-lust—for my desire to explore and discover the world.” Various other culturally curious family members steered the young Cox toward literature and art. When he was 12, a godmother introduced him to some of the cultural wonders of Southern California, like the Getty Museum, the Huntington Library and the jewelry and set designer Tony Duquette.

In 1976, Cox’s uncle, the late artist David Ireland, mentioned a job was available helping Christo install the 24-mile-long Running Fence across the hills of Sonoma and Marin Counties. Christo wrote Cox a letter of recommendation to the Parsons School of Design in New York, where he enrolled in 1977. A year later, he transferred to Parsons’s Paris branch and met one of the most celebrated fashion designers of the time, Yves Saint Laurent, and his business partner, Pierre Bergé (who eventually became Cox’s lover). The two introduced Cox to their circle of worldly, creative friends, including Loulou and Maxime de la Falaise, Gabrielle Van Zuylen, Paloma Picasso, Catherine Deneuve, the Lalannes and Andy Warhol. The charming, handsome design student from California made a sparkling first impression; his proclivities for art, classical music and French cuisine endeared him further to this multi-cultured jet set.

During the 12 years he lived in Paris, he accompanied the peripatetic YSL clan—and the likes of Betty and Francois Catroux, Jacques Grange, Robert Wilson and Mattia Bonetti—to the finest museums, auction houses, private islands, villas, gardens and costume balls, a lifestyle that helped shape Cox’s burgeoning aesthetic. His was the ultimate postgraduate experience, with a startlingly diverse, privi- leged curriculum.

In 1984, armed with a BFA in environmental design and some hands-on experience assisting a French gardener, Cox was asked to create a spring garden for the Franco-American Museum at the 17th-century Château de Blérancourt. (The institution celebrates and promotes Franco-American arts collaborations.) During his Paris years, he also designed sets and costumes for a production of Rigoletto in Spoleto, in Italy, and was the first American to design a garden for the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in London.

In 1989, Cox moved back to New York to work on his first major private commission in the U.S.: artist Jennifer Bartlett’s three-level roof garden in Greenwich Village. Forty-two tons of soil were carried up three flights of stairs to create Bartlett’s 2,500-square-foot “country in the city,” planted with a lawn, an evergreen maze, a grape arbor, an apple orchard and a rose garden. The project seemed impossibly complicated on paper, but it evolved into a peaceful roof-scape that looked as though it had been there for decades. Like many of Cox’s exteriors—even the newest ones—the space was laboriously planned but looked seasoned and natural.

““Good gardens demand a lot of research and patience. Along the way there will be amendments, detours and, sometimes, reversals. There’s no such thing as a beautiful ‘instant’ garden.””

Today, as he works across continents, with offices in New York and Morocco, his clients include arts patrons, industrialists and philanthropists, including Sting and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. More than half of Cox’s clients are knowledgeable, confident gardeners themselves, who understand that high-end garden design entails a lifetime commitment. They don’t want a landscape that looks anything like anyone else’s. Cox maintains that each fine garden “involves a particular point of view. All good gardens demand a lot of research and patience. Along the way, there will be amendments, detours and, sometimes, reversals. There is no such thing as a beautiful ‘instant’ garden. The best ones come together when there is real communication between a designer and a client. It’s about trust, and it builds over time. I’ve collaborated with many of my clients for more than 15 years: One can develop a wonderful complicity getting to know each other season after season after season.”

Marella Agnelli, the widow of former Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli, is one of the complicit. Some consider her Marrakech property, Ain Kassimou, the world’s finest private garden of recent vintage. The nearly 30-acre property was formerly a horse farm and polo grounds belonging to the Hermès family. When Agnelli bought it in 2007, it was in shambles, an underwhelming expanse of parched grass and tattered palm and olive trees. Now, her poetic grounds are geometrically organized. The two devised a logical, fluid network of trellised paths, lawns, flower and vegetable beds, allées, pools, ponds and cutting gardens. There’s not a false or out-of-place note in this symphony of climbing vines, gurgling rills, fragrant blossoms and swirling, chirping birds.

On a grander scale, Anne Bass’s compound in Connecticut is an example of what Cox can do with a thousand-acre property. Bass is an accomplished gardener herself who can identify all 140 varieties in the rose garden Cox created for her by their Latin names, along with every other plant in her gardens. She had previously worked with two icons of the gardening world—Russell Page on her Texas property and the late modernist Dan Kiley on the initial layout of her Connecticut property—before turning to Cox. “Madison and I traveled together looking at gardens in Provence and Normandy,” Bass says. “We were on the same page almost always. Madison is a plants- man as well as a designer—something rather rare. We spent hours going over plant catalogs.”

The philanthropist Kravis has worked with Cox for more than 10 years on gardens in New York and Europe. “Madison has exquisite taste,” she says. “But it’s not just his sense of aesthetics that I appreciate. He knows about botany. He knows about the life of plants. He does research. He’s practical and open to ideas. I have never once seen him flustered or panicked. Beyond this, he’s a delightful person to be with. He has a good sense of humor.”

““I’ve learned many things from my friends and clients,” says Cox. “But the most important is to slow down, watch and wait.””

Majestic gardens that embrace inventive simplicity are rare in America—the land of trophy lawns, gargantuan swimming pools and paths and beds crammed with easy-care shrubs and flowers. Because Cox favors techniques and plantings gleaned from many epochs, cultures and movements, he has a bigger, more flexible design vocabulary than garden designers known specifically for their modernist, French-formal or romantic English leanings—Cox likes it all. But he dislikes plans and plantings that, he says, “are too clever or too obvious”—elements that call attention to a style, rather than a place. Like Page, he believes a garden should look “inevitable.”

Cox prefers generous stone platforms and terraces loaded with lushly planted, overscaled pots in traditional shapes and materials. He chooses plants and trees that are appropriate to their regions, but sites and groups them in surprising, abundant patterns. For a small project in New York’s Hudson Valley, he camouflaged a house’s exterior by installing a grove of 32 quaking aspen trees in a sort of random, scattered pattern—a few here, a few more there, five or six on either side of the structure. At his bungalow in Marrakech, Cox interspersed a thicket of spiky bamboo with a big curvy-leafed fig tree. He loves plain, natural elements, and he doesn’t do the manicured-to-death look. He likes neat but not tortured clip jobs. He’s fond of square pools and ponds and trellised walkways leading from one garden area to another. He goes for color, but not a riot of color all at once.

Even the green spaces he’s designed for leading boutique hoteliers—Ian Schrager’s Delano in Miami, Gramercy Park in New York, the Mondrian in Los Angeles and London’s St. Martins Lane and the Sanderson; and André Balazs’s Standard in Miami—emphasize rigorous, graceful scale, precise color schemes and edited plantings over flash-in-the-pan effects.

There’s no truer evidence of talent and style than a designer’s own residence. It’s where designers get to experiment and do exactly as they please. Cox’s Moroccan cliff-top house and garden, located in a quiet rural area of Tangier, is a surprising combination of modest and spectacular. The two-bedroom house is small, but the garden unfurls like an endless, meandering ribbon. A half-mile in length, it follows the rocky, deserted cliffs that descend dramatically to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. Like most of his commissioned landscapes, his own garden reveals itself in stages, and on many elevations. It’s not a plant collector’s paradise, but a place of simple lines and generous plantings. It’s simultaneously disciplined and romantic.

Sited precariously on the edge of a 650-foot vertical drop, some of the property’s retaining walls, which were installed when Cox bought the house nine years ago, are crumbling. He loses a big, old eucalyptus or pine tree every couple of years, and the library—which looks ancient but was built from scratch five years ago—has a long crack down the middle of the floor. Paradise has its price.

As you descend the stone paths and steps that lead down from a wide stone terrace, you discover hundreds of large, plain terra-cotta pots packed with acanthus, fuchsia and scented geraniums; a small lawn wreathed in agapanthus, Echium and wild delphinium; an allée of ancient cyprus, plateaus with fig and apricot trees, rose and hydrangea; several levels of vegetables; irrigation ponds; a tiny guest house; and, at the farthest end, a mini farm with chickens and turkeys. From every angle the Strait is in full view—nothing but turquoise and navy-blue water and raw cliffs. On a clear day, you can see the coast of Spain.

Cliff House has been Cox’s primary residence and refuge for the last eight years—a quiet place to sleep, read, draw, listen to music and watch nature. Over the course of 20 years of biweekly trips to Morocco, he has embraced the country’s natural beauty, turbulent history and rich, sensual culture. He first came to North Africa with Saint Laurent and Bergé in the 1979 and has worked for more than 15 years restoring and maintaining their public and private gardens.

Cox settled on Tangier as his home base because he loves the city’s jagged coastline; the rolling hills that remind him of San Francisco; the medieval medina; and the mix of eccentric, international residents, including antiques expert Christopher Gibbs, artist Yto Barrada and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, who owns a huge spread across the street. However stunning and gracious the setting, Cliff House is more suited to long, intimate lunches than to dinners for a dozen guests. “I dislike outdoor lighting,” Cox says, “and you can’t have people outside stumbling around in the dark.”

Three years ago, Cox became the vice president of the nonprofit Foundation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, and its subsidiary, the Fondation Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech; it oversees the six-acre public and private Majorelle compound, where Bergé still resides. Cox directs 75 employees who work in the gardens, a café, a wonderfully stocked gift boutique, a bookshop and, as of last year, Morocco’s first Berber Museum. Cox also serves on the board of the American School in Marrakech and started a program for the Aangan Trust in Mumbai, India, that teaches at-risk children how to garden. Because of his whiplash schedule, with regular meetings in Paris, Marrakech, New York and Mumbai, Tangier is, alas, the place he spends the least amount of time.

“I’m fine with that for now,” he says. “Cliff House has grounded me; it’s given me a spiritual base, even if I am only here for just a day or a weekend. I’ve learned many things from my friends and clients, but the most important is to slow down, watch and wait. This is the place for the rest of my life. It’s my forever house that won’t last forever.”

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Giving Thanks or Why Can’t I Write?

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At Thanksgiving, I got to see an uncle with whom my family had a schism years ago and whom I don’t know so well. He’s the youngest of my dad’s brothers, the father of five children, and owns his own landscaping business. Recently, he and his wife filed for divorce, and the proceedings are in a holding pattern as far as I can tell. From my early memories of he and his wife, I can make out more animosity towards her from my parents than him, and I am subconsciously aligned with him without really knowing why.
After a few games of ping pong as a digestive stratagem, I rode back with him to the house where we were both staying. This was the first time I could remember ever being alone with him, I noted as I stepped up into his giant SUV. He’s got a funny kind of wit, one that works best playing off somebody else, and therefore I started the talking. I asked him about his two eldest daughters, the two of his children I’m closest to, and he told me about one’s first semester of college and the other’s semester abroad in Italy. That out of the way, I asked him about his college experience, about which I knew next to nothing.
He told me that he studied finance and got his master’s degree in tax. He could have been an accountant, really wanted to be one, in fact, but had two kids by the time he finished school, and they needed to be fed. So he went into landscaping, and made a nice life out of it. He told me he makes more money through that business than he would have being a CPA, but he still has the desire to make use of his education.
Here I chimed in, putting two and two together, and pointed out the possibility that now might be a perfect time to make a life change, what with the divorce and two kids already in college. I didn’t mean to ignore the risks and moxie necessary for that kind of change, but it seemed like his life had reached as neat a turning point as lives do. I said as much, and he agreed without the slightest hesitation or quaver, with the resolve of a man with decades of hard years behind him and vibrant, novel ones ahead. He did not look like a man decelerating through his fifties in that moment, but rather like a man reborn, his eyes wet again with purpose and drive.
Though I’m still thirty years behind him in life like everybody else around me, I saw something of myself in him. Think of graduation like a divorce, full of financial difficulty, life choices that will determine our course for the next batch of years, and general sadness with the world and its cruel ways. Come May, I will be tapping my reserves of fortitude to find my way in the world, just as my uncle does ahead of me.
This could easily be my excuse for not writing last time, namely that I was anguishing under the building weight of my impending graduation and release into the real world and thus had little time to think of, let alone write about, the beauty of daily life at Swarthmore.
There you have it. Blame it on a faltering in the face of the blank page, on the increasing pressure of Swarthmore’s difficulty, or the looming guillotine that will cut off my time here at the neck. I did not write last week, and do not write most days, but now I feel much better and give thanks for the opportunity to write.

Could amphibious homes prove a solution to floods? Floating houses among …

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  • House is fixed in a dock and designed to rise as waters fill the foundations
  • It is just one of a range of solutions being investigated by authorities
  • In the recent days more then 900 homes have been flooded in the UK

By
Damien Gayle


PUBLISHED:

08:18 EST, 29 November 2012


|

UPDATED:

08:34 EST, 29 November 2012

Houses that rise and fall with the level of groundwater have been touted as the latest solution to the now seemingly annual floods inundating portions of the UK every autumn.

Over the past week, days of torrential rain have flooded roads and more than 900 homes across the UK, leaving hundreds unable to return to their homes.

The Environment Agency has warned that the flood risk remains high across the country, with 277 alerts and 204 warnings in place in England and Wales.

Amphibious living: This floating home, currently under construction on the banks of the Thames in Buckinghamshire, raises to safety when the river bursts its banks

Amphibious living: This floating home, currently under construction on the banks of the Thames in Buckinghamshire, raises to safety when the river bursts its banks

Now authorities are looking at a range of solutions for dealing with ever more frequent floods, including homes which float as waters rise.

Baca Architects were earlier this year granted permission to build Britain’s first amphibious house along the banks of the Thames in Buckinghamshire.

The house, which is a replacement for another property, rests on land, but in the event of the river bursting its banks, it is able to rise with the water to keep its inhabitants dry.

The floating house is just one idea being looked at by the Environment Agency as it investigates new technologies for dealing with floods, the BBC reported.

Flood risk engineer Tony Andryszewski said the agency is keen to look at how other countries deal with repeat flooding, particularly the Netherlands which is seen as a world leader in flood management technologies.

Homes are frequently built on stilts in countries like Thailand, Burma, India and Bangladesh, which all have regions notoriously susceptible to catastrophic flooding.

But the more elegant solution of homes that float is more rare, although examples of different designs exist in Germany, Canada, the U.S. and even Taggs Island in the UK.

Rustic look: How the finished house will look in the leafy environs of Buckinghamshire. Amphibious houses are just one of a range of solutions being looked at by the Environment Agency

Rustic look: How the finished house will look in the leafy environs of Buckinghamshire. Amphibious houses are just one of a range of solutions being looked at by the Environment Agency

All mod cons: How the house will look inside, with its panoramic views across the Thames

All mod cons: How the house will look inside, with its panoramic views across the Thames

The Baca project currently under construction in Bucks will however be the UK’s first fully amphibious house.

Part of the award-winning LifE (Long-term Initiatives for Flood-risk Environments) project, of which Baca is a partner, the house is designed as a free-floating pontoon resting in fixed foundations.

‘The floating house is secured by four dolphins (permanent vertical posts) arranged close up to the sidewalls,’ Baca explains.

‘The assembly is sited within a wet dock comprising retaining walls and base slab. When flooding occurs the dock fills with water and the house rises accordingly.’

Every aspect is designed to stop any water penetrating inside so if  a flood strikes the owners can  stay put.

A carefully laid out garden will act as a natural early warning flood system, with terraces set at different levels designed to flood incrementally and alert the occupants well before the water reaches a threatening level.

The lowest terrace will be planted with reeds, another with shrubs and plants, another will be lawn and the highest step will be a patio with access into the dining room.

Floating mechanism: The house is sited within a wet dock comprising retaining walls and base slab. When flooding occurs the dock fills with water and the house rises accordingly

Floating mechanism: The house is sited within a wet dock comprising retaining walls and base slab. When flooding occurs the dock fills with water and the house rises accordingly

All the pipes, ducts and wires for water, gas, electricity and sewage disposal in such amphibious homes are flexible, designed to remain functional even when the house rises several metres from its usual position.

HOW DO THE DUTCH DO IT?

With most of the land mass of the Netherlands lying below sea level, it is perhaps no surprise that the Dutch have developed the world’s best flood management technologies.

The inhabitants of the region of since the 12th century been draining delta swamps to create artificial dry land – areas known as polders – at first using pumps powered by their famous windmills, like those pictured below.

A set of windmills in the Netherlands

There are now about 3,500 low-lying polders in the Netherlands. Although enclosed by dykes, they easily collect water from rain, rivers and the sea so must be constantly pumped to keep waters at bay.

Dutch flood agency spokesman Jos Maccabiani told the BBC: ‘Since the last major flood in 1953, in which more than 1,800 people died, this system has been upgraded to very high standards.’

Computer simulations have been used to demonstrate that the Netherlands’ modern flood defences should be able to withstand an inundation so severe it would be expected only once every 10,000 years, he added.

‘Nevertheless, with the ever-increasing urbanisation of our polders and flood plains, spatial planning is increasingly combined with flood resilience,’ Mr Maccabiani said.

‘There are projects under way where urban revitalisation of a city is combined with the widening of the river bed, lowering the peak water levels, and others that look into flood-proofing the country’s highway infrastructure.’

With an estimated value of
£1.5million, it will cost around  20 per cent more than building a
conventional similar-sized home – but there should be major savings on
insurance costs.

There will be no communities built
using Baca’s floating homes, since regulations restrict new homes being
built so close to the river (the Bucks house is a replacement for
another which will be torn down), however the Environment agency and its
partners are also looking at other solutions to rising water levels.

The LifE Project envisages a new approach to development that embraces water and allows for the increased risks posed by flooding as climate change raises water levels across the world.

With the UK currently in the grip of a housing crisis, it is hoped the project will unlock sites that are currently not considered suitable for development by managing and reducing flood risk overall.

By building in features to developments that can both help prevent flooding, and lessen its impact when it is unavoidable, the project focuses on managing risk that can help homeowners, and insurers, plan for the future.

A spokesman for Baca said: ‘Amphibious houses or sometimes known as ‘can-float’ homes are a new phenomenon in the UK.

‘As the cost of flood events start to have a more significant bearing on the public purse and the insurance secure demand higher levels of protection from the individual, flood resilient homes will become more common place.

‘In the future communities that are holistically planned – that is to consider landscaping, urban design, energy and architecture simultaneously will be better prepared for flood events and climate change.

‘Dwellings will be low carbon, and organized around multifunctional landscapes that will help control surface water flooding or act a large flood storage areas.

‘New communities will be made up of streets of flood resilient dwellings located on the highest ground with amphibious homes located in the transitional zones between development and the natural environment.

‘The long-term goal is to design communities that function as normal, preserving continuity of daily life during droughts and floods. Our intention, through our research and built work is that we can demonstrate that the future is not far away.’