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The Gardener Within: Make a dazzling winter garden

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When it comes to garden design, the vibrant colors of spring and summer are the first things we consider. After all, that’s when we use our gardens the most. But with just a bit of planning and effort, the winter landscape can be unique and interesting, too. The key is diversity. A variety of textures, colors and forms will take a winter landscape from dull to dazzling.   

Start by choosing plants that don’t all look the same after their leaves drop in fall. Contrast shapes (round vs. triangular, weeping vs. upright), textures (coarse vs. fine) and colors (intense vs. pale, dark vs. bright, warm vs. cool). Set up a strong contrast between elements, such as red berries against the white snow; or thin, feathery grasses in front of stiff, upright evergreens. Balance these strong elements with more subtle colors and textures.

If hungry birds and animals don’t get them, many fruits ripen in late summer and fall. They hang on through the winter, making bright punctuation marks on the landscape. Deciduous hollies, chokeberry, coralberry, heavenly bamboo and hawthorn all feature colorful fruits.

After trees and shrubs drop their leaves, their inner beauty comes through in brightly colored stems that grow richer in hue as the temperature drops. Dogwoods, Japanese kerria and many willows offer bright green, yellow and red accents to the winter garden.

Witchhazel and Christmas rose really command attention because their flowers are so unexpected. Most evergreens feature some varieties that burst with color. Try a golden or bluish conifer or a variegated broadleaf like euonymus. There are endless sizes, shapes and textures to work in any landscape.

The scaffold, the trees’ and shrubs’ bare bones, really put on a show in the winter when the foliage is out of the way. The wings on the stems of a burning bush or the spidery traces of Boston ivy snaking along a wall are wonderful surprises. Harry Lauder’s walking stick and corkscrew willow have tremendously twisted branches.

Herbaceous perennials that die back in the winter also add structure. Golden brown and tan grasses look great popping out of the snow, adding a lazy movement that only shows up at this time of year. Purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan and other stiff-stemmed flowers stand up to winter winds and provide a little food for wild birds. Pigsqueak turns a vibrant, golden orange while keeping its ground hugging form. Yucca shoots blossoms to the sky like winter fireworks.

In winter, bark becomes a powerful landscape element. Stewartia and river birch have exfoliating bark that peels off in distinctive shapes. Silver green honey locust and smooth, bronze cherry are also effective players.

Select just a few places to highlight: the front door, views from a favorite room, and the most visible front corner of the lot are good places to feature. Draw a rough plan of the design, first concentrating on shapes, textures and colors. Then select favorite plants that work in your USDA zone and in the various exposures and microclimates in your unique location.

Remember colorful twigs will fade and scaffold shapes change as the plant matures. Keep everything trimmed in a pruning routine that will encourage a fresh crop of striking new growth year after year. And make a habit to tidy up the garden in the fall so it will start winter off looking fit.

Joe Lamp’l, host of  “Growing a Greener World” on PBS, is a Master Gardener and author. Visit www.joegardener.com.

Gardens: the healing garden

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Designing a garden for people who are unable to walk, move or, in some cases, breathe unaided takes some thinking about. Patients at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury used to face months confined indoors during their recovery, undergoing physiotherapy and repetitive exercises. But a newly-opened garden carved from a blank patch of grass by garden designer Cleve West provides an outdoor space for patients that transcends their physical impairment and provides a respite for family and friends.

The garden was the brainchild of teenager Horatio Chapple, who volunteered at the centre. His research showed patients asking for a beautiful escape, away from the clinical environment, to spend time with family and friends. Horatio never saw his vision materialise: he was killed by a polar bear in 2011, aged 17, while on an adventure holiday on a remote island in the Arctic Circle. The garden, which cost £300,000, was created in Horatio’s memory through charitable donations and fundraising by his parents and friends.

There are curved borders filled with textured, cheerful planting. Seats are surrounded by a froth of erigeron daisies, scented herbs and stands of Verbena bonariensis, full of butterflies. Multi-stem birch trees form tall, fluid pillars. A water feature runs the length of a metal arch that will one day soon be covered in trained apple trees and trailing wisteria. “It is about creating a positive mental space,” West says. “The view is brought into the garden and the repetition of the lines echoes the landscape beyond. The apples have significance, too, as they were a favourite of Horatio’s.”

Central to the design are three representations of spines. At the far side is a long, flowing stone wall in the shape of a healthy spine; its sweeping curves are topped with smooth stones, so it doubles as a seat. To reach it, one crosses the garden via a path that cuts through two other undulating but incomplete “spines”. Their construction is similar to the healthy one, but uncapped and surrounded by foliage, they are rougher. In a situation where patients and their families have to come to terms with what has happened, the journey to healing is a powerful metaphor.

West, who has won best in show at the Chelsea Flower Show for two years running, went to great lengths to understand how patients would experience the garden, by being wheeled around the space in a wheelchair and flat on his back on a hospital bed. The wide, smooth paths made of resin-bonded gravel provide a bump-free passage for patients. David Joliffe arrived at the unit after a paragliding accident. “I went outside for the garden opening – it was the first time in 14 weeks. It was wonderful, feeling the wind on my face, despite being still in bed,” he says.

Intended as an antidote to institution, the design is anything but utilitarian; while there are areas that can be used for therapy, the smooth curves and soft planting would grace any garden. It caters for all tastes, with raised beds and a potting area that would not look out of place in an urban garden, while rough walls and relaxed planting invoke something closer to a country wilderness.

Mike Payne, a 32-year-old electronic engineer, arrives in the greenhouse under his own steam. On a night out last summer, he fell from a bridge, breaking every rib, puncturing a lung and damaging his back so badly that he will never walk again. But he seems extraordinarily cheerful. “I came out last night and it is just so quiet,” he says. “I’m looking forward to reading my book here – before, I would sit in the doorway nearest the car park. But when you have been stuck inside on bed rest for six weeks and can’t even look out of the window, and then you can go anywhere outside… it was the best thing ever!”

The garden offers sensory stimulation and invites interaction – downy leaves of lambs’ ears (Stachys byzantina) and feathery fennel beg to be touched; dense, solid blocks of box anchor the waving grasses in a pleasing contrast of form and colour. Scented herbs, veg and alpine strawberries in raised beds demand to be tasted. There is the sound of moving water, wind in the trees and insects feasting on the nectar-rich planting.

Ian Nixon has been at the hospital for four months. “Mental stimulation makes a world of difference,” he says. “I have only been out twice, and this place will make a big difference because it’s so accessible. I just like being outdoors. It is a freedom that you take for granted when you are able-bodied, but in hospital all you can do is look out of the window.”

SENSORY PLANTS

Touch Common fennel (Foeniculum vulgare); lambs’ ears (Stachys byzantina); giant feather grass (Stipa gigantea); Sedum spectabile ‘José Aubergine’; stars of Persia (Allium christophii).

Sight Eryngium giganteum ‘Silver Ghost’; buckler fern (Dryopteris erythrosora); box (buxus); coneflower (Rudbeckia occidentalis ‘Green Wizard’); black birch (Betula nigra); ornamental onion (Allium schubertii).

Scent Thyme (Thymus vulgaris ‘Compactus’); sweet box (Sarcococca confusa); oregano (Origanum laevigatum ‘Herrenhausen’); rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis).

Taste Alpine strawberry (Fragaria vesca); apples ‘Rosemary Russet’ and ‘Laxton’s Superb’; vegetables including pak choi and ‘Lollo Rosso’ lettuce.

• For more information, visit the Southern Spinal Injuries Trust.

Make a dazzling winter garden

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When it comes to garden design, the vibrant colors of spring and summer are the first things we consider. After all, that’s when we use our gardens the most. But with just a bit of planning and effort, the winter landscape can be unique and interesting, too. The key is diversity. A variety of textures, colors and forms will take a winter landscape from dull to dazzling.

Start by choosing plants that don’t all look the same after their leaves drop in fall. Contrast shapes (round vs. triangular, weeping vs. upright), textures (coarse vs. fine) and colors (intense vs. pale, dark vs. bright, warm vs. cool). Set up a strong contrast between elements, such as red berries against the white snow; or thin, feathery grasses in front of stiff, upright evergreens. Balance these strong elements with more subtle colors and textures.

If hungry birds and animals don’t get them, many fruits ripen in late summer and fall. They hang on through the winter, making bright punctuation marks on the landscape. Deciduous hollies, chokeberry, coralberry, heavenly bamboo and hawthorn all feature colorful fruits.

After trees and shrubs drop their leaves, their inner beauty comes through in brightly colored stems that grow richer in hue as the temperature drops. Dogwoods, Japanese kerria and many willows offer bright green, yellow and red accents to the winter garden.

Witchhazel and Christmas rose really command attention because their flowers are so unexpected. Most evergreens feature some varieties that burst with color. Try a golden or bluish conifer or a variegated broadleaf like euonymus. There are endless sizes, shapes and textures to work in any landscape.

The scaffold, the trees’ and shrubs’ bare bones, really put on a show in the winter when the foliage is out of the way. The wings on the stems of a burning bush or the spidery traces of Boston ivy snaking along a wall are wonderful surprises. Harry Lauder’s walking stick and corkscrew willow have tremendously twisted branches.

Herbaceous perennials that die back in the winter also add structure. Golden brown and tan grasses look great popping out of the snow, adding a lazy movement that only shows up at this time of year. Purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan and other stiff-stemmed flowers stand up to winter winds and provide a little food for wild birds. Pigsqueak turns a vibrant, golden orange while keeping its ground hugging form. Yucca shoots blossoms to the sky like winter fireworks.

In winter, bark becomes a powerful landscape element. Stewartia and river birch have exfoliating bark that peels off in distinctive shapes. Silver green honey locust and smooth, bronze cherry are also effective players.

Select just a few places to highlight: the front door, views from a favorite room, and the most visible front corner of the lot are good places to feature. Draw a rough plan of the design, first concentrating on shapes, textures and colors. Then select favorite plants that work in your USDA zone and in the various exposures and microclimates in your unique location.

Remember colorful twigs will fade and scaffold shapes change as the plant matures. Keep everything trimmed in a pruning routine that will encourage a fresh crop of striking new growth year after year. And make a habit to tidy up the garden in the fall so it will start winter off looking fit.

Possible Lenox Road changes worry residents

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While few new details emerged during a recent meeting of about 100 residents with consultants on proposed renovations to historic Lake Ellyn Park, serious concerns were raised about a possible reconfiguration to Lenox Road and adding parking.

The Glen Ellyn Park District has been working with Conservation Design Forum, an ecological design company, and landscape architects Farr Associates since early June to create a master plan for the park at a cost of about $56,000.

The popular 27-acre park includes the 10-acre Lake Ellyn where there is boating and ice skating, a boat house built in 1937, hiking trails, a nature preserve, a playground, and tennis courts maintained by a private club. Proposed renovations would affect the landscaping, the playground, the lake and shore line, and the boat house.

  • Maps

  • Lake Ellyn Park, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137, USA

“We’ve heard loud and clear your desire for restraint and control,” said David Yocca, director of landscape architecture for CDF, referring to comments at a public meeting in August and a survey completed by the park district. “We have also learned that additional on-site parking is not desired.”

Several residents questioned the need for changes on Lenox Road, which borders the park on the west, when Yocca reported on an idea for angled parking and 50 new spaces.

“Angled parking would make the street safer and calm traffic,” Yocca said. But he emphasized that the village of Glen Ellyn will ultimately determine if Lenox Road is reconfigured next year.

“The village is simultaneously discussing possible changes on Lenox,” Yocca said. “We’re trying to reach a plan that would create a shared benefit for the village and park district.”

Residents voiced concern about reducing green space, as reconfiguring Lenox Road could involve 25 feet of right of way now part of Lake Ellyn Park. Some residents voiced concern that the additional parking would be used by students at nearby Glenbard West High School.

“We’re against any changes to Lenox,” said Donna Jennings, who has lived on the street for 45 years with her husband Al.. “The street is wide enough now. We would lose trees and the street would lose its character. If these changes are made, we would leave the area.”

Other proposals would move the boat house’s garbage area from the side of the building and tearing down the mechanical room to expose the back of the original limestone chimney. Also suggested is raising the ceiling of the main hall to expose the original beams, and replacing the metal doors with wooden doors.

Other ideas include building a combination eight-foot observation tower and restrooms for public use south of the boat house. This would prevent the public from having to enter the boat house to use the restrooms when private events are in progress.

Landscape proposals include removing invasive species and restoring woodlands with young oak trees from existing plants and seed banks.

For details on the proposals, and to comment, visit the park district web site at gepark.org.

At Home With… Wendy Varick and Dave DeSmidt Light-filled home open to …

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A skeleton strapped to the light post. Several large dogs running enthusiastically about. A lifelike deer that has served an archer faithfully for target practice.

At any other place or time, any of these could prove a distraction. But when approaching the home of Wendy Varick and Dave DeSmidt for the first time, it’s hard to have eyes for anything but the charming, gray-peaked beauty ahead.

Surround such a house with a dozen garden beds and throw in a multistory, windowed barn with a gambrel roof, and you have a country-perfect picture that’s hard to beat.

Newlyweds Varick andDeSmidt have called this 2,800-square-foot original their home for the last eight years. Featuring weathered-looking board and batten siding and a large porch, the house in the Town of Erin appears substantial and cozy.

Inside the front door, a wide foyer with a low ceiling leads to a living room that rises to a height of 24 feet. A stone fireplace built at an angle, an abundance of wood trim, overstuffed furniture positioned just so, casually placed pillows, throws and accessories, and a rail-fronted loft perched above the room all conspire to provide an intimate feeling; the towering walls are practically invisible.

The couple designed the three-bedroom, three-bath house together, and DeSmidt, a carpenter by trade, spent nine months of nights and weekends building it. Varick, who works for Froedtert Hospital, did her part, too, including staining the cedar siding before it went up.

Flowing together

Special touches throughout the house include soft edges on the drywall, farmhouse casings around the windows and deep windowsills. The first floor flows from space to space.

The second floor is anchored by the loft in the center. A master bedroom suite is filled with light; lush chocolate-brown drapes barely skim the edges of the window. A bedroom for Varick’s college-age daughter, Jaimee, comes with a bath and its own loft.

The home’s third bedroom serves as the first-floor den. But when they designed the house, Varick said, “We knew it would be our one and only and we’d be here until we couldn’t anymore.” So, with its own bath, the den will become their master bedroom suite down the road, allowing the couple to stay in the house well into retirement.

DeSmidt built the barn four years ago. It houses a woodshop, greenhouse and a loft for storage. The majority of space on the second floor is used for entertaining, especially for their annual “Pumpkin Party.”

Varick and DeSmidt sat down to talk about their home on a gray fall morning, with dogs Cody, Jackson, Murphy and Cheyenne settled at their feet.

Q. Why did you decide to live here?

Varick: We were dating, and Dave was looking to move from his apartment. It was a nice piece of land, and we liked that it was in the Town of Erin. The way they parcel things out, you don’t have crowded subdivisions. It was in the country but close to work.

Q. Tell me about the design process.

Varick: It was pencils and erasers and looking through a lot of magazines. Dave would have liked to build a log home. but I wanted more wall space. We found a lot of different aspects of what we liked and put them into a home that worked for us. When we moved in, it was immediately comfortable. We knew every nook and cranny.

DeSmidt: Being in construction, I took a lot of ideas from homes I had worked on and made them ours. When I was building the house, I barely had to look at the plans.

Q. Did anything not work out for you?

DeSmidt: I would have liked stairs from the garage to the basement to keep the dust and stuff out of the house. A masonry arched fireplace instead of an insert. The countertops are laminate instead of stone. We just ran out of money.

Q. Describe your decorating style.

Varick: I just buy what I like and I try to fit it in somewhere. I like the rustic but comfortable feel. The woodwork was very important to Dave. He wanted different, more intricate woodwork.

DeSmidt: We incorporated the loft with the living area and the high ceilings of a log home. I didn’t want Wendy to put curtains on the windows. I liked the casing, the woodwork. (Looking at the curtains) But I’ve come around – a little.

Q. What kind of wood did you use?

DeSmidt: The floors are hickory, and all the trim and cabinets are ash. I like hickory for the color and the grain. The ash is a little like oak, but the grain and texture are a little different. It’s unique. Very few homes use ash. I do like painted woodwork, but not for my house.

Q. What decorating elements make a house a home for you?

Varick: Placement. I place furniture on an angle because it makes it cozier. And the biggest thing is accessories: lots of candles, pillows, colors. . . . I change things for the season. I have a closet where I keep all the seasonal decorations or items I’m not using at the time, and then I just switch them out throughout the year. I go shopping in my closet.

DeSmidt: I call it her Pier 1 closet. It’s all the different colors for the seasons.

Q. Where do you spend most of your time?

Varick: In the summer, most of my time is outside until it’s dark. In the winter, it’s the den. The dogs come in and take over the couch. That’s where we relax and watch TV and read gardening magazines.

DeSmidt: I’m in the barn working on things for the house. I don’t have a favorite space in the house. The kitchen is a nice spot. As we come home from work, we meet in the kitchen. It’s where we greet each other.

Q. Tell me about the kitchen.

Varick: The kitchen was designed for how I cook and for the dogs, so they could lie down and not be in the way. I designed the kitchen as an open concept to allow for easy entertaining. We originally thought it would be open with an island in the middle, but that didn’t seem cozy enough. We went with a peninsula instead, which provides a little privacy when cooking.

Q. What space most reflects you?

Varick: The flower gardens, the vegetable gardens. Inside, it would be the living room.

DeSmidt: The barn. I always wanted a workshop, something unique. I’d look at woodworking magazines, and I’d see the nice woodshops in those magazines, and I thought it would be nice to have one.

Q. What projects do you have planned in the future?

Varick: Finishing the basement, putting in an additional bathroom downstairs, redoing the kitchen counters and the backsplash. More trees outside, more landscaping.

DeSmidt: I planted a hundred trees this year, and they all died from the drought.

Q. What kind of gardening do you do?

Varick: Definitely, I like flower gardens. I do a lot of potted plants. We’ve got grapes growing, apple trees; we’re trying to grow an asparagus patch. I think I have the most fun with our pumpkin patch. We do it all by seed. You could go down every day and see a new one growing: how it changes, when it turns orange, how it fits into the landscape – and then using them for the party.

Q. Tell me about your Halloween party.

Varick: It started when we moved out here. We grew a small pumpkin patch for fun. We decided to have a party to pick pumpkins. That’s why we call it a pumpkin party and not a Halloween party. Then it got bigger, and we moved it to the barn. Now it’s just a good chance to get friends and their kids together and have a party – and I get to decorate with skulls and bats!

 

WANTED: YOUR SEASONAL STYLE

Do you, or does someone you know, have a distinctive way of decorating for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa or another occasion? Let us know for a possible feature in At Home.

Contact Entrée home and garden editor Tina Maples at:

Phone: (414) 223-5500

Email: tmaples@journalsentinel.com. Please put “Seasonal At Home” in the subject line.

The Queen opens garden landscaped by Milton Keynes company

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HM the Queen met members of Milton Keynes-based Frosts Landscape Construction Ltd after they played a leading role in creating a new green landmark for London by re-landscaping the Jubilee Gardens on London’s South Bank.

The gardens re-opened on Thursday, May 31 in time for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, but they were officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen on yesterday (Thursday).

The South Bank Gardens have already been visited by thousands of people since the Diamond Jubilee and are expected to become one of the most visited green spaces in the country.

Frosts were appointed as main contractor against major competition from several national construction companies.

Ken White, managing director of Frosts Landscape Construction Ltd, and his team met the Queen in an official presentation line where she was also presented with a posey, created by the company’s florists in Woburn Sands.

Ken talked about how important this has been for the family-run business. He said: “It has been an honour and a privilege for Frosts to have been tasked with the re-development of the Jubilee Gardens, which our group won after a long bidding process. With all eyes on London in this iconic year, we knew that we had to create something very special and we are extremely pleased with the end result”.

For more details about Frosts Landscape Construction Ltd visit www.frostslandscapes.co.uk.

Garden Tips: Prepare now to enjoy the fruits of your labor

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Growing fruit in the home garden can be interesting, fun and a rewarding hobby. Many homeowners dream of going outside and picking perfect fruit off trees in their yard. A few chores done now will help your fruit trees get through the winter, lighten your workload next spring and help you pick those wonderful fruits next summer.

Raking up leaves around your fruit trees will help prevent many diseases. Also, removing leaf debris can reduce insect population.

Remove all fruit that remains on the tree or has fallen to the ground. This also helps prevent insects and diseases from spreading.

Make sure the grass is cut around the base of your tree; this will prevent mice and voles from making a nest around your fruit trees. These pests chew on the bark of the trunk and cause severe damage that can kill the tree.

Fall is the best time to add lime to your fruit trees. Rain will work the lime into the soil all winter long. Most fruit trees need a pH between 6.0-6.5. A soil test is the only way to tell your soil pH. Your local Agriculture Extension Service has soil boxes and information sheets for taking a soil sample.

The best time to prune fruit trees is in late winter or early spring, before new growth begins. You can prune them as long as the branches are not frozen and a freeze is not predicted within 24 hours of pruning. Use sharp, well-maintained tools. A smooth cut heals faster and provides a less favorable site for disease. Make cuts near the supporting limb; stubs do not heal quickly and result in decay that may enter the main trunk and weaken it.

E-mail your gardening questions to bleigh1@utk.edu. Include your name and the 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. Booker T. Leigh is Tipton extension director.

Festival of Trees event tickets on sale

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Tickets for the 2012 Festival of Trees events are currently on sale at several locations in Spencer: Del’s Garden Center, Design Masters, The Hen House and Spencer Hospital Gift Shop.

There is no charge to tour the numerous festively decorated trees displayed throughout the community, and is encouraged for all residents and visitors during the Festival of Trees, Nov. 15-17.

During that time frame, several ticketed events are also planned to offer fun, festive activities as well as to raise dollars to support the Spencer Regional Healthcare Foundation, with funds specially designated for Women’s Health Services.

Ticketed events include two Holiday Design Shows, Morning with Santa, and the Holiday Tour of Homes.

Two Holiday Design Shows will be offered Thursday, Nov. 15, both at Del’s Garden Center in the presentation building located south of their main facilities. An early show is scheduled from 4:30-6:30 p.m. and a late show from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Both shows will include a social time with complimentary appetizers and cash bar, and each show will feature designer presentations on topics including wine selection and entertaining tips, festive dcor, fashions that work from day to evening events, and fabulous gift ideas that can be found locally. Design Show tickets are $15 each. Advanced purchase is recommended.

The Holiday Tour of Homes will be conducted from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, giving people the opportunity to tour five festive homes in sunshine or later on in the evening, best for viewing festive lighting. Tour tickets are $15 each in advance and are $20 if purchased at a home the day of the tour.

Morning with Santa will occur from 9-11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, at Southpark Mall. Tickets are $5 per child with the accompanying adults admitted at no charge. This is a come and go event; however, we recommend families arrive no later than 10 a.m. to have ample time to enjoy all the activities.

Anyone with questions about any of the Festival of Trees activities is encouraged to contact the Spencer Regional Healthcare Foundation by calling Mindy Gress at 264-6226 or Susan Zulk at 264-6461.

The Architect and the Plantsman

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By IAN VOLNER

Enlarge Image

imageimage

Photography by Bert Teunissen

From left: Oudolf in his garden in Hummelo, the Netherlands; Zumthor at home in Haldenstein, Switzerland

PETER ZUMTHOR IS THE CLOSEST THING architecture world has to a true hermit: The 69-year-old winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize runs a small office from his mountain home in Switzerland; he doesn’t give interviews by telephone; he rarely makes public appearances; and his projects—like the ghostly luminescent bathhouse he created for the Swiss town of Vals—emanate a high seriousness that could only have come from this oracle of the Alps. Yet recently, the typically solitary Zumthor has taken to palling around with another prominent designer: celebrated garden designer Piet Oudolf.

Though not so private as his architectural counterpart, the Dutch-born “plantsman” (as he humbly calls himself) is also something of an ascetic, living and working far from the madding crowd in a bucolic retreat. The garden that surrounds his office—hectic with high grasses and coarse meadow flowers that look good in all seasons—is typical of the style pioneered and popularized by Oudolf, the same that’s given his High Line park and the Promenade in Manhattan’s Battery their quasi-wild charm. The designer, 68, sees his work as a pitched effort to bring a bit of quietude to the modern city. “You try to reconnect people with something they’ve lost,” he says, “something they’ve forgotten, because they are so busy in the world.”

The pair first teamed up last summer for the annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London’s Hyde Park. Zumthor knew Oudolf’s work and was eager to bring him aboard. True to form, his approach in their first meeting was forthright and phlegmatic. “I showed him the [design],” says the architect, “and there was a void in the middle for the garden. And I said, ‘Take it.’ ” Critics and the public cheered the project, and now the two are at work again on what will be perhaps the most complex commission either has done to date: De Meelfabriek, a defunct factory in the Dutch industrial port city of Leiden, that will be converted into 40 high-end residential lofts with striking views of the city and lush plantings throughout.

The project is still in its early stages and will require close collaboration before it’s through. Working in tandem may mean checking their monkish credentials at the door, but for these two masters, designing as a duo may yet yield even better results than going it alone.

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©Tim Mitchell/Arcaid/Corbis

URBAN OASIS | Zumthor and Oudolf’s Zen-like 2011 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion

Zumthor on Oudolf

I DISCOVERED PIET AND HIS WORK two years ago, and then we worked together at the Serpentine. We saw we were of the same age, shared a lot of the same ideas; it was sort of like meeting some kind of a brother. So this was really nice. He says he felt the same, very comfortable. He likes that I respect gardens, plants and that I’m always willing to put them in the center if possible. I’m not meeting his prejudices about architects.

I’ve worked with a couple of landscape architects for my own house, which I designed around a garden of 12 maple trees. I was doing the design, but I needed their knowledge. I’m not so much looking for a landscape designer—I’m looking for a plant-knower and lover. This is exactly what Piet is. And then he is more, and you can see it: His work is very aesthetical and beautiful, but it is really about the prima materia. That’s what I love.

““His work is very aesthetical and beautiful, but it is really about the prima materia. That’s what I love.””

I’ve been waiting to do something like Meelfabriek, something in the city. I’ve done things like it many times with my students, but people have not given me jobs like this. Maybe it needed some time. Me, starting from the Swiss mountains, staying there and working out of there—I’m not a “network” person, and this grows from my work. I hate consultants, the guys who say, “Give me your watch and I’ll tell you what time it is.”

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Courtesy Piet Oudolf

NATURAL KINGDOM | Oudolf’s home garden features molinia ‘Transparent’ and Sanguisorba ‘red Thunder’ grasses.

I have had this idea in mind: to make the Meelfabriek’s theme the garden in the center of the dwelling place. There was a film, Green Card, with Gerard Depardieu. It takes place in this Manhattan apartment with a beautiful garden. I went to see this movie twice because I wanted to see this garden; the whole apartment is about this amazing greenhouse.

In a way, the Serpentine was an ideal collaboration, because I simply said, “Here, you have the hard part!” But we want the Meelfabriek to reach another step of collaboration. I think that vegetation, plants, they are important for our life. And if you are too much in the city, we lose touch with this. I want a greenhouse. Children, parents, they can have their plants outside over the wintertime. And these are things I don’t have to explain to Piet. I say greenhouse, and he says we need this and we do this and that and that. He is so practically oriented. I love it.

Oudolf on Zumthor

PETER IS AN ARCHITECT, and I’m the plantsman. As an architect, Peter has a very good sense of volume and space. The architect is the lead in design, and he more or less gives you the brief to work in. We plantsmen have to think about process, about how things develop through years, through time—that’s a dimension that we put in our design. You put something in the ground and sometimes it grows forever, sometimes it only grows for a few years.

““I often have to fight for my place as a plantsman. But with the best people, you don’t really have to fight.””

Meeting people in architecture has been a very positive development in my career. Only in the last four or five years have architects become interested in my work—before that, no one was. But working in a world of architects means working in a world of big egos. Some people, their egos are too big to let other egos come close—sometimes it works and sometimes not. The people who it doesn’t work so well with aren’t that good. I often have to fight for my place as a plantsman; you have to defend yourself against very strong characters. But the best people you don’t really have to fight. You find a way to communicate, and they try to understand you.

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Helene Binet

SWISS BLISS | An outdoor bath at Zumthor’s Therme Vals spa

We had this meeting at Peter’s house talking about Meelfabriek. We just outlined the garden, no specific planting ideas—just invented the type of spaces, how it could look. He created a rough drawing, and we sat down at his house and figured out what we could do.

And there was something in our conversation—an openness, honesty, like we can talk freely about cooperation and working together. I don’t have to keep my mouth shut and think to myself, Oh, don’t say that, he might not like it. I’m free to say what I want. Like with the Serpentine Gallery, Peter explained he wanted a sort of summer meadow, but as we started talking, I realized the image he had in mind was not something I could do. I had to change his idea about what was possible. At the end of the conversation, he just gave me carte blanche to do what I thought would work.

At the Meelfabriek, every house owner should have his own little garden. But as soon as they come out of that garden, there’s another part: a greenhouse and a place to sit and read, a place for people to come together who live in the complex, for people that want to have a garden and grow vegetables— there should be spaces for all of this. That is the general idea. It’s still in the early stages. The real work for me has yet to begin.

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The Gardener Within: Make a dazzling winter garden

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When it comes to garden design, the vibrant colors of spring and summer are the first things we consider. After all, that’s when we use our gardens the most. But with just a bit of planning and effort, the winter landscape can be unique and interesting, too. The key is diversity. A variety of textures, colors and forms will take a winter landscape from dull to dazzling.   

Start by choosing plants that don’t all look the same after their leaves drop in fall. Contrast shapes (round vs. triangular, weeping vs. upright), textures (coarse vs. fine) and colors (intense vs. pale, dark vs. bright, warm vs. cool). Set up a strong contrast between elements, such as red berries against the white snow; or thin, feathery grasses in front of stiff, upright evergreens. Balance these strong elements with more subtle colors and textures.

If hungry birds and animals don’t get them, many fruits ripen in late summer and fall. They hang on through the winter, making bright punctuation marks on the landscape. Deciduous hollies, chokeberry, coralberry, heavenly bamboo and hawthorn all feature colorful fruits.

After trees and shrubs drop their leaves, their inner beauty comes through in brightly colored stems that grow richer in hue as the temperature drops. Dogwoods, Japanese kerria and many willows offer bright green, yellow and red accents to the winter garden.

Witchhazel and Christmas rose really command attention because their flowers are so unexpected. Most evergreens feature some varieties that burst with color. Try a golden or bluish conifer or a variegated broadleaf like euonymus. There are endless sizes, shapes and textures to work in any landscape.

The scaffold, the trees’ and shrubs’ bare bones, really put on a show in the winter when the foliage is out of the way. The wings on the stems of a burning bush or the spidery traces of Boston ivy snaking along a wall are wonderful surprises. Harry Lauder’s walking stick and corkscrew willow have tremendously twisted branches.

Herbaceous perennials that die back in the winter also add structure. Golden brown and tan grasses look great popping out of the snow, adding a lazy movement that only shows up at this time of year. Purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan and other stiff-stemmed flowers stand up to winter winds and provide a little food for wild birds. Pigsqueak turns a vibrant, golden orange while keeping its ground hugging form. Yucca shoots blossoms to the sky like winter fireworks.

In winter, bark becomes a powerful landscape element. Stewartia and river birch have exfoliating bark that peels off in distinctive shapes. Silver green honey locust and smooth, bronze cherry are also effective players.

Select just a few places to highlight: the front door, views from a favorite room, and the most visible front corner of the lot are good places to feature. Draw a rough plan of the design, first concentrating on shapes, textures and colors. Then select favorite plants that work in your USDA zone and in the various exposures and microclimates in your unique location.

Remember colorful twigs will fade and scaffold shapes change as the plant matures. Keep everything trimmed in a pruning routine that will encourage a fresh crop of striking new growth year after year. And make a habit to tidy up the garden in the fall so it will start winter off looking fit.

Joe Lamp’l, host of  “Growing a Greener World” on PBS, is a Master Gardener and author. Visit www.joegardener.com.