Whether it is for their soothing sound or to cool the sizzle, water features are popular in Texas gardens. Every landscape no matter the size or style can have one.

There is a gate, but it is always shut.

In the early fifth century, the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming, who called himself Tao Qian, Recluse Tao, thus described his life. Born into a politically illustrious family in decline, he felt compelled as a young man to enter government service. A mistake. The career felt like one long wrestling match with corruption.

Finally, at 40, fed up with bowing and scraping for crumbs, he ditched the job and took off for the country, where he stayed for good, reading, drinking, thinking, writing under five tall willows and raising chrysanthemums. He fretted at times that he had shirked his public duties, tarnished his name. But the garden felt good. Small and enclosed, it was the world in which his spirit opened.

To anyone strolling through the Chinese painting galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this summer, the world itself looks like a garden of infinite expansion. That’s the impression given by the 80 paintings and objects that make up the exhibition called “Chinese Gardens: Pavilions, Studios, Retreats.” Drawn from the museum’s deep holdings, it’s a show about paradises lost and found; about nature blooming and fading; about cosmological events transpiring in backyard bamboo groves.

The show, organized by Maxwell Hearn, the curator in charge of the Met’s department of Asian art, starts grandly enough, with a 17th-century panoramic painting of the single largest pleasure garden China had ever known. Called the Palace of the Nine Perfections, it is said to have existed near the present-day city of Xi’an, and to have covered so much ground that its many pavilions could be visited only by horseback — or by air if you were a Taoist deity and had taken the place for heaven.

Whatever the facts, the Met’s king-size picture — 18 feet long and pieced together from a dozen side-by-side hanging scrolls, is impressive. Much as it looks like a royal commission, though, it wasn’t. Painted by a professional urban artist named Yuang Jiang in 1691, it was probably made for a merchant who, too tied up in trade ever to leave town, wanted a piece of total-immersion pictorial real estate in his own home. That’s what he got, with lots of everything: acreage, kiosks, paths, bridges and mountains shaped like scholar’s rocks.

But Chinese taste in art, as in gardens, also ran to less is more. A lone pavilion in a misty setting had a mystique of its own, evident in the painting “The Pavilion of Prince Teng,” by Tang Di (1287-1355). The towerlike structure, erected for an emperor’s son in the seventh century and still extant many reconstructions later, was renowned not for the prince who gave it his name but for a poet who spent a night there.

Wang Bo (649-676), the Percy Bysshe Shelley of the Tang dynasty, stopped at the pavilion while on a trip to visit his father in what is now northern Vietnam. He was offered dinner; he accepted. At some point in the evening he composed the “Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng,” a meditation on the shortness of life and on tasks left undone. He soon resumed his journey and drowned while crossing the South China Sea.

His fame was instant and lasting: the “Preface” is one of the most popular poems in Chinese literature. Yet there’s nothing triumphalist about Tang Di’s painting of the pavilion. The building perches uncertainly over a foggy abyss. Its fine-lined architecture suggests some ethereal form of basketry, porous, fragile. The tone feels muted, lonely and probably romantic for a crowd of tourists paying a visit.

Of course not every pavilion was a celebrity landmark. Nor was the average garden a mini-Eden. It was more likely to be a homely affair, with high humidly, bad feng shui and bugs. At least some of these factors are evident in a 13th-century illustration of a verse from the “Odes of the State of Bin,” a Confucian classic detailing the seasonal rounds of natural life in the country:

In the sixth month the cricket shakes its wings

In the seventh month it is out in the grounds

In the eighth month it is under the roof

In the ninth month it is in the doorway

In the 10th month the cricket is under our bed.

The scene painted is as described in the text, as Pekinese-size crickets hop across a lawn, into the wide-open house, and settle under the bed of a solitary, restless-looking sleeper.

We usually think of Chinese garden-retreats as being dedicated to solitude, but they weren’t always. Tao Qian regularly invited his rural neighbors in for drinks. And some of the most significant developments in Chinese culture took place at buzzy garden parties.

A 1560 painting called “Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion,” by the Ming artist Qian Gu, records an alfresco affair that had taken place centuries earlier. The main event on that spring day was a poetry contest among scholars, during which so much wine flowed that it was hard for people to write. The exception was the calligrapher Wang Xizhi (307-365), who described the goings-on in an essay called the “Orchid Pavilion Preface.” For centuries, every Chinese schoolchild has learned to copy it.

Qian does a nice job with the scene in his painting, catching the madcap mood without resorting to shtick, and letting the garden itself, with its twisty dragon-tail trees, be the main character. It makes sense that he was good: he had a superior teacher in Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), a leading painter of the day and a garden designer par excellence.

Wen was born in Suzhou, a city of canals that remains a veritable museum of classical gardens, most from the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), a few earlier. The Met’s Astor Court, which serves as the exhibition’s de facto centerpiece, is modeled on a section of the city’s Garden of the Master of the Fishing Nets, which dates from the Ming era (1368-1644). And Wen had a hand in the Garden of the Humble Administrator (or Inept Administrator, in the Met’s translation), a so-called backyard garden, meaning one behind and connected to a house. He had a studio there, and an album of his garden illustrations is at the Met. One of the pavilions he painted, the Hall of Distant Fragrance, still stands.

A visit to the Suzhou gardens is a stimulating but disorienting experience. You get a firsthand sense of the complex stop-and-start movement and expansion and contraction of space that classical garden design creates. You also see how manipulative and coercive the designs can be, based on rigid rules of ritual protocol and hierarchy.

Gardens are meditation aids, but they’re also power machines. Despite poetic glosses, garden and pavilion culture was the handiwork of an elitist society that wanted no contact with the larger world — that was, instead, in willed retreat from social realities.

What it was receptive to, in a fixated way, was nature. And the images in the show’s last few galleries add up to a compendium of natural forms: birds and fish; pines and peach trees; peonies in extravagant bloom; and lotuses, in contemporary photographs by the American artist Lois Conner, withered to black stems. Each element — painted on silk or porcelain, carved into lacquer or jade — carries a specific metaphysical meaning and psychic weight.

The metaphysics and emotions surrounding gardens are not so easy to parse. Gardens can be sites of renewal or of exile, of safety or grief. For Tao Qian, whatever his misgivings about dropping out of public life, a garden brought peace and fulfillment. In a 13th-century painting called “Returning Home,” we see him sailing across a lake in a skiff toward his beloved willows and his garden with its high walls. He opens his arms, elated. He’s where he belongs.

The painting of him was once attributed to the Southern Song artist Qian Xuan (1225-1305), whose story was very different from Tao’s. When the Song capital fell to Mongol invaders in 1276, Qian, cast adrift, never regained his moorings. Mourning the old regime, refusing to work for the new one, he burned his books, drank and peddled his paintings on the street. He seems not to have sought out a garden. Instead he painted one, flower by flower.

The Met owns one of his flower pictures, of a blossoming pear tree, inscribed with a poem. The painting isn’t on view now but is worth recalling in the context of the show. It’s a reminder of the garden without walls, the retreat into art, that Qian created. And the words of the poem, which refer to the pear tree — and, by implication, to a cherished world gone — as a lover, suggest a breadth of sorrow no wall could contain or keep out:

Behind the closed gate, on a rainy night, how she is filled with sadness,

How differently she looked bathed in golden rays of moonlight, before darkness fell.

“Chinese Gardens: Pavilions, Studios, Retreats” continues through Jan. 6 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org.

For roughly 16 months, residents have been waiting to catch a glimpse of the future Lyndale Garden Center property.

Finally, during a community event with the Richfield Farmers Market Thursday evening, The Cornerstone Group unveiled initial renderings of the future downtown Richfield center.

“We’re still very much in the design and planning part of the process,” Colleen Carey, president of the development firm, told Richfield Patch. “It’s not a done deal yet.”

Thursday’s event was a chance for the Carey and her development team to showcase their current concept for the site. The event was also aimed to gather more input and feedback.

“We want input and we welcome input,” Carey said. “We want [the center] to be a place where people want to go and hangout.’

The Plans

Carey initially announced her plans to redevelop the site in late-March 2011 and many of her original intentions haven’t changed.

The former garden center building will be rehabbed to house permanent tenants and provide public space. A few months ago, Carey announced the firm was in negotiations with a co-op grocery and hardware store, however, nothing has been confirmed yet.

“We had originally hoped to have leases signed by now,” Carey said. “We have one tenant that says they would definitely like to be there.”

Carey said plans may need to move forward without the co-op grocery store and that other possibilities are being looked into.

Moving outside the building, the design renderings plan for an outdoor market pavilion, a kids waterplay area, a performance stage, swinging benches covered by an arbor, gardens, an attached porch facing the wetlands and new bridges connecting the site with Richfield Lake.

The market pavilion would serve as a possible location for the Richfield Farmers Market in the warm season and as parking or perhaps a holiday or winter market in the cold months.

As for the performance stage, Carey said details with the city are still being worked out. Talks about creating an ampitheater have been on the books for a while, with the Richfield Symphonic Band hoping to have a space created.

“Whether or not [they city] does something with us, we intend to create the space,” Carey said. “We hope the city will want to work with us to make that space something they would want to use as well.”

In addition, a housing element is still planned for the property. The unit would be on the northwest side of the property at the lake’s edge and would feature about 115 market rate and affordable units at an 80/20 split.

Another housing structure on Lyndale Avenue that would’ve housed Minnesota Life College was also planned, but for financial reasons, the college bowed out of the project a few months ago. However, Carey said work is still being down with the college to help find another space in the area.

The Timeline

While the developer had hoped to have signed leases by now and start construction this fall, that will likely be put on hold. For obvious reasons, Carey said it was important to get leases locked down before bringing in the construction crews.

“My timeline would be as soon as we can get the tenants in place,” she said.

However, plans to begin the housing portion of the site are still set for Summer 2013.

While many area residents may be getting restless with anticipation, Carey said she wants to do it right.

“The good ones take a long time to get done,” she said. “And that doesn’t happen over night. … But we’re working hard.”

Richfield Patch will continue to update readers as more information becomes available on the project.

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We’ve teamed up with the National Home Improvement Show to giveaway 15 pairs of tickets to the event which is being held in London in September.

The three day homes extravaganza (September 28-30) is in its fourth year and will be hosted at the Olympia exhibition hall in West London. 

Pick up tips on how to create – or renovate – your perfect home with design seminars and workshops, plus learn more about renewable energies and get all your garden landscaping questions answered.

Experts including Real Homes editor in chief Michael Holmes and DIY SOS’s Julia Kendell will also be on hand!

To be in with a chance of winning a pair of tickets…

 

Competition closes on September 14 at 10am

For more information visit www.improveyourhomeshow.co.uk.

Nehme Moujaess, the managing director of TerraVerde and the man in charge of the garden’s design, says that while much thought went in to the planning of the landscape, the construction itself took only 30 days. “Our brief, which was supplied by Ayman Rashad, the owner of the property, was really focused and clear, which was really helpful when it came to the creation of a practical yet beautiful outdoor living area,” he says.

Welcome back to hotelsmag.com!

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On Wednesday August 15, 10 percent of all sales will be donated to the farm, which hopes to distribute $50,000 worth of farm fresh produce to emergency food programs as well as continue its farm-to-school program, and farmer training and food education workshops for children and adults. In addition, Artefact is offering 15 percent off garden and home accessories such as the whimsical IMIMIdesigns pillows Design New England chose for May/June 2012 Local Wares, and 10 percent discounts on lighting and furniture. But we won’t be done shopping until we grab some farm fresh produce at Waltham Fields’ pop-up farm stand, which will be on the premises from 3-6 p.m. Corn on the cob, anyone?

Artefact Home|Garden
1000 Pleasant Street, Belmont, MA; 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

PG staff writer Doug Oster blogs about gardening. Contact him at 412-779-5861.

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The Singapore Garden Festival is becoming one of the must-see garden events in the world.

As the only international flower show in the tropics, its ability to attract the world’s best designers has seen it deliver a spectacular visitor experience, firmly securing its place in the top five garden shows.

The biennial show last month was the fourth since its inception and by far the best. It attracted 39 internationally acclaimed designers, including first-time entries from the US, UK, New Zealand and Australia, as well as some very talented local designers.

It was at the Suntec Singapore International Convention Exhibition Centre, with the fourth floor featuring the floral, orchard and community garden displays and the sixth floor covering 2000sqm and some incredible gardens.

DISPLAYS TO DELIGHT:

There were two categories of display gardens: landscape and fantasy.

British designers have always done well here and entered two stunning gardens this year. Andy Sturgeon, a multiple award-winning Chelsea Flower Show designer, presented an entry that was effectively the quintessential modern contemporary garden. The message he presented was that man can make an intervention with Mother Nature but he can’t conquer her.

Sarah Eberle was making her first appearance in the show, and has also won multiple awards at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Her display garden, titled Continental Drift, depicted the tectonic plates pushing against each other. Plants on the top plate, those closest to sun and heat, were those able to adapt to that extreme and the ones at the lowest levels were lush and moist, cooler plants. This was really clever and the longer I stood admiring the design, the more I got what she had set out to achieve.

Andrew Seccull is an Australian designer who has won his fair share of awards and now has gold from Singapore to add to the list.

Every display garden of his is unique.

Mazu Garden was entered in the fantasy category and named after the goddess of the sea. The use of orchids was stunning and the banyan trees in the heart of the garden provided a kind of ceiling to the universe. It was very surreal and different, one of those designs where you ponder the inspiration and messages behind the design.

Damian Tang is a local who works as part of the national parks team. His fantasy garden, which borrowed elements from many fairytales, was amazing.

It won gold and was also the best in show for the fantasy category – no mean feat considering he soundly beat the best of the best internationally.

What was really clever was the creation of window frames set around the garden, allowing visitors to view different scenes within a bigger picture of the surreal fairytale reality.

Each one depicted different fairytale scenes and subtle hints were left with captions from the tale that suggested which scene it could have been, leaving visitors guessing.

Home gardeners can develop similar clever scenes or gardens with meaning in the same way and I took away so much from this clever garden.

He used an extensive selection of plants, which were somehow mystical. They included a massive olive tree imported from Spain, estimated to be over 1000 years old.

Andy Ellis and Danny Kamo are a couple of Kiwis who won gold last year at the Ellerslie International Flower Show in New Zealand. They were acclaimed internationally for their creativity and earned the invitation to display at Singapore this year.

They created an earth-shaking display featuring incredible artificial rocks, made by the same company that created the gothic film sets for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

This display took things to a whole new level, with audiovisual effects and an earthquake that shook the display, reminding visitors of the recent Christchurch experience.

People gasped as the serenity of a typical mountainous New Zealand natural landscape changed and the display started roaring and shaking.

It’s the first time I’d experienced a garden display with a full-blown sound and light show and a moving set. This new dynamic was recognised by the international judging team with gold.

Joe Palimeno, a talented American landscape designer who has won multiple awards at the Philadelphia International Flower Show, created something special with his signature contemporary design style, calling his piece The Modernist Garden.

A classy design with clean edges and sleek lines, this would sit perfectly in most Australians’ backyard. The use of locally sourced plants and local materials was most impressive.

Mr Palimeno said his design was inspired by famous landscape architect Robert Royston but I felt the work of Australian/Indonesian designer Made Wijaya was oozing through here.

Its use of water with a pool and lava stone statues was reminiscent of Made’s work in the past and its class was recognised with a gold medal.