by All-America Selections
Posted: Friday, October 11, 2013 at 3:15PM EDT

DOWNERS GROVE, IL – After a resoundingly successful first year, the All-America Selections Landscape Design Contest has concluded its second year with a 20% increase in the number entries for the 2013 contest.

This contest is a landscape design contest incorporating AAS Winners, past and present. Each garden is responsible for creating and executing the design, generating publicity surrounding the contest then submitting the photos, proof of publicity and an overall description of their design. All-America Selections is extremely pleased with not only the number of gardens that participated but also the broad range of garden types: large and small public gardens, seed companies, community gardens, master gardener programs and university gardens. All-America Selections salutes all the gardens and their impressive efforts to produce an attractive display of AAS Winners.

The rules were fairly simple:

1. A list of AAS Winners used in the design must be furnished
2. A minimum of 50% of the total landscaped area must be AAS Winners and be labeled as such
3. There must be a written statement that describes the location of the site and the design features
4. Between five and ten photographs of the design must be submitted
5. Local publicity is expected and will be part of the judging criteria
6. Contest is for current year plantings only

The criteria and final score weighting were:

25% of the score was based on the quantity of AAS Winner varieties used
20% of the score was based on the overall attractiveness of landscape design
20% of the score was based on the creative use of AAS Winners in the design
25% of the score was based on any promotion of the display to local media and garden visitors/members
10% of the score was based on photo quality and design description/explanation

There were three categories, based on number of visitors to that garden in one year:

Category I: fewer than 10,000 visitors per year
Category II: 10,001 – 100,000 visitors per year
Category III: Over 100,000 visitors per year

All-America Selections recognizes and thanks the contest judges who are industry experts in the field of horticulture and landscaping:

• Jeff Gibson, Landscape Business Manger, Ball Horticultural Company
• Bruce Hellerick, Senior Horticulture Specialist, The Brickman Group
• Susan Schmitz, Trials and Education Manager, Ball Horticultural Company
• Barbara Wise, author and Director of Floriculture, Landscape Services, Inc.

Category I: fewer than 10,000 visitors per year

• First Place Winner: LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. One of our judges aptly described the design as an appetizer table that allows the visitor to enjoy the thirty-nine varieties of AAS Winners in small bites. LSU topped their performance from 2012 when they were the second place winner in this category. One of the major changes since last year was incorporating the Children’s Garden with the AAS Display garden for greater cohesiveness between the two sites, combining hands-on learning with a display. Garden Fest was the largest promotional event at the garden and brought in over 1,000 people in a single morning to see the diamond shaped landscape beds.
• Second Place Winner: University of Wisconsin Spooner Ag Research Station, Teaching and Display Garden, Spooner, Wisconsin. For this contest, the Master Gardener Volunteers at the Spooner Ag Research station transformed the space into eight individual, slightly bermed, triangular beds to replace the traditional mass plantings that had the AAS Winners in one long row. Well-maintained lawn paths between the beds added to the beauty and function. Each bed included approximately 75% AAS Winners, combined with other flowers and vegetables to carry out a theme in each garden, ranging from “sunset colors” to “drama”. The annual Twilight Tour was held in August to educate the public on the entire Demonstration Garden and was a key factor in the judge’s decision to award second place to this entry.
• Third Place Winner: Meredith Public Library Garden, Meredith, New Hampshire. This entry shared an interesting story of a community that stood up to its leadership who wanted to remove a garden and put a less-expensive and lower-maintenance lawn in its place. Community support overrode that decision and the Meredith Public Library Garden was saved, thanks to the non-profit community organization, Greater Meredith Program, and the Friends of the Meredith Library, that take care of the design, planting and maintenance. This design transformed a boring lawn into a striking floral display making good use of a slope, a sidewalk and the AAS signage.
• Honorable Mention, Most Educational Garden: ISU Polk County Master Gardener’s Demonstration Garden, Urbandale, Iowa. Our judges were very taken with this garden’s creative use of repurposed items such as frames and plates that were used as plant markers. The entire garden’s theme was designed to demonstrate how to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Even the plants were designed in the shape of the easily recognized recycling symbol of three clockwise arrows. The garden hosted multiple events for the public where they were able to view the various AAS Winners and learn about sustainability while right in the garden.

Category II: 10,001 – 100,000 visitors per year

• First Place Winner: Agriculture Canada Ornamental Gardens, Ottawa, Ontario. This garden won second place in 2012 and bettered themselves this year with a “Disc and That” theme. Disc (aka “This”) is a play on words alluding to the Asteraceae family of flowers which includes AAS Winners such as the Echinacea and gaillardia. The “That” consists of various other AAS winners such as Ornamental Millet ’Purple Majesty’ and ‘Foxy’ Foxglove. There were a total of 1295 plants in the bed of which 1053 are AAS winners. 15 varieties make up the “disc” collection while 18 varieties are in the “that” portion.
• Second Place Winner: The Arboretum State Botanical Garden of Kentucky, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky. Judges praised the excellent use of signage in this garden in addition to the extreme tidiness of the display. With gardens bordering each side of a high-traffic walkway, the designers implemented a good mix varying plant heights in the design. The overall “spoke” design of the Home Demonstration Garden and accompanying brochure were very helpful in explaining the garden and All-America Selections to their visitors.
• Third Place Winner: Jardin Daniel A Séguin, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec. At this garden, the 21 varieties of AAS Winners were beautifully planted in circular beds around a fountain focal point. Student groups were responsible for maintaining the garden and promoting the display garden and AAS Winners to the general public as well as to the garden’s visitors.

Category III: Over 100,000 visitors per year

• First Place Winner: Rotary Botanical Gardens, Janesville, Wisconsin. Rotary is another repeat winner by placing first in Category III in 2012 and again in 2013. Rotary continues to impress with a very creative design in a brand new garden space by skillfully combining AAS Winning plants with unique props. An impressive 150 AAS Winners were featured in their display, using 48 plants of each variety for a grand total of 7,200 plants in 2,600 square feet of garden. For educational purposes, Rotary created custom signs explaining the history of AAS then arranged the planting beds in chronological order from the 1930’s to present. There was also a “teaser” satellite garden that urged garden visitors to find the larger AAS Display Garden to get the full story. Judges also commended Rotary on their use of Social media, blogs, e-newsletter and local media outreach.
• Second Place Winner: Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver, Colorado. The location of the All-America Selection Display Garden was directly in the center of the Denver Botanic Gardens, near water gardens and sculptures, surrounding a tent that is the center of their programs and events. The design elements incorporated a fun interactive space for children’s programs as well as features to attract attention during high-profile fundraisers. The AAS garden is 90% AAS Winners. Publicity generated, garden location and the great use of signage were the top three reasons why Denver Botanic Gardens won for this year.
• Third Place Winner: Kentucky Exposition Center, Louisville, Kentucky. Contest judges were impressed by the Exposition Center’s determination to work with what they had (large concrete containers) and make something beautiful in a unique setting (outside a very high-traffic Exposition Center with over 5 million visitors per year) for their AAS Display Garden. Garden managers effectively used the AAS Winners in an attractive and eye-catching display with some containers being mono-culture while other containers made good use of mixed varieties in attractive designs with the variety names and the AAS Winner designations clearly marked.

Each of these contest winners are profiled on the AAS website, under “Display Gardens”

A complete collection of photos from all contest entrants can be found on the All-America Selections Flickr and Facebook accounts.

For more information about the contest winners or how to participate in 2014, contact Diane Blazek, All-America Selections at dblazek@aas-ngb.org.

All-America Selections is a non-profit organization founded in 1932 to test new flowers and vegetables for home gardening. We utilize a network of 70 judges in over 40 trials grounds across North America to rate entries against comparisons. We then use an active publicity program to promote the best performers that are declared AAS Winners.

Source: All-America Selections
 

The driveway that came with the 1921 Craftsman-style house that David Ulick bought five years ago was the original concrete one, marred by cracks and with tree roots starting to break through.

“I didn’t like the driveway,” said Ulick, of Pasadena, Calif. “I wanted something a little bit nicer.”

He looked through books and drove through the Craftsman-rich neighborhoods of Pasadena to get ideas before deciding on a concrete drive with an antique finish, accented with reclaimed red bricks from the 1920s.

“I wanted this to look like the original driveway, an original, nice driveway, and using used bricks gives it a nice old-fashioned look,” Ulick said.

“It really makes it a grand entrance for the house,” he added, noting the brick walkway up one side. “I figured I’d treat the Craftsman the way it deserves to be treated, and maintain its design style and heritage.”

While a driveway may still be a utilitarian afterthought for many homeowners, others like Ulick are adding some serious curb appeal to their homes by moving beyond basic options like grass or gravel, asphalt or concrete.

“The driveway is commonly overlooked,” conceded Michael Keenan, an adjunct assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Minnesota. “Driveways are not cheap necessarily, but they are completely functional and necessary if you have a car and a garage.”

Doing up the driveway, Keenan said, is a chance to “celebrate the function because it is a piece of the property you do use every day.”

The design options have grown in the last decade or so, he said, as pavers – made from precast concrete, clay and natural stone like granite – are being turned out in a range of colors and sizes. Some have rounded edges for an older look; others are mottled to add color variation to the driveway.

Installing a customized driveway is a way to put your own stamp on the hardscape and set your house apart from the rest. Depending on the neighborhood, the materials and the quality of the craftsmanship, Keenan said, a driveway also could increase a home’s resale value.

“It does become a point of distinction,” he said. “It is something people notice. It is elegant.”

The least expensive paved driveways are made of asphalt, which cost about $12 to $15 a square foot, and concrete, costing about $14 to $18 a square foot, Keenan said. Though concrete is more resilient and lasts longer, both materials will crack over time, he said.

Pavers, which start at about $20 to $25 a square foot, should last a lifetime, Keenan said. “The key is the fact that the pavement acts as flexible fabric and it can move with the earth, and isn’t a rigid system and isn’t prone to cracking,” he said.

Pavers can be used to make traditional patterns like basket-weave or herringbone, or be fashioned into a custom look.

For a less traditional look, use a paver that comes in three or four sizes and lay them out at random, Keenan said. Or get a custom design without breaking the bank by using concrete pavers accented with more expensive natural stone pavers.

Keenan works with homeowners to find the best driveway for their home. People are most concerned with the color, which might be chosen by looking at the home’s roof, siding or trim color.

“I don’t think you can make a value judgment on which one is the best,” Keenan said of driveway designs. “It’s got to fit the building that you’re paving next to.”

He might recommend, for example, a traditional red-brick driveway to go with a light blue Colonial home. For a contemporary, environmentally “green” home, he might choose light-colored, permeable pavers – a more environmentally sound choice because they let water back through to the earth under the driveway, rather than forcing it to run off and collect debris on the way to bodies of water.

In Naples, landscape architect W. Christian Busk installs “living driveways” that feature real grass interspersed among pavers. That reduces heat and glare and provides some drainage.

“We blur the lines between where driveway ends and where landscape begins,” says Busk, president of Busk Associates. “It always looks beautiful.”

Back in Pasadena, the concrete-and-brick option that Ulick chose is popular among the many Craftsman and other historical homes in the area, said Mark Peters, the chief estimator for Boston Brick Stone, which helped create Ulick’s driveway.

“It’s a very rich feel and it’s understated,” Peters said.

Since he got his driveway in 2009, Ulick said, he has received many compliments, and people sometimes stop to ask if his driveway is the original.

“That’s a bigger compliment,” he said, “that it looks like it’s been done years and years and years ago.”

By Jonny Bonell Friday 11 October 2013 Updated: 11/10 16:28

When I bought a house with a blank canvas of a garden, I wanted to pay homage to one of my horticultural heroes. Having admired the ethos and designs of plantsman and designer Piet Oudolf, I decided to emulate his style by creating my own prairie garden, composed entirely of herbaceous perennials and grasses.

I used to garden piecemeal – a plant-it-in-the-flowerbed-and-see-how-it-looks approach – but I changed my philosophy after doing a garden design course. My previous garden was a mixture of shrubs and herbaceous plants, but I wanted a space that looked as if nature had created it, inhabited by insects and birds, and that was also functional for my family.

The space is about an acre, surrounded by fields, with a few ancient apple trees upon which I anchored my design. Creating such a garden entails a leap of faith. To be a prairie gardener means embracing plants at every stage of their life, whether they are resplendent with colour or starkly bleached by the vagaries of winter. The ebb and flow of the seasons is beautifully captured in a prairie garden, which provides months of interest and a constantly changing palette. After late February’s annual cut-back, the garden bursts into life from mid-May onwards. What follows is a slow burn of successional flowering, reaching a crescendo in late summer, when everything is in flower.

The theory sounded wonderful, but I spent hours deliberating. I worried about how my paradise would look in winter. Would it be awful to look out at brown foliage for three months of the year? Should I take the safe option and incorporate shrubs to provide reliable structure? Eventually my heart won out. This type of planting needs straight lines to provide a framework and curved ones to encourage slowness and contemplation. More mundanely perhaps, my sweeping curves of Breedon gravel make the most fantastic cycle track for my children.

Gravel paths lined with (from back) Stipa gigantea, Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, herb fennel and Achillea ‘Cloth of Gold’ (on right) provide a framework and a way through the garden

The plants were placed, observed and finally planted. The speed with which perennials begin to grow is one of the joys of prairie planting; within weeks the perovskia and eryngiums mushroomed in size, while bumblebees and butterflies danced attendance. Stipa tenuissima bobbed around in the wind like bleach-haired surfers. For maximum effect, plant types are repeated around the garden with each of the sections echoing the others. All parts contain achillea, nepeta and, most notably, Stipa gigantea. This has become my signature plant; it begins flowering in June with a proliferation of floating heads. It is dotted around the garden in ones or threes, and between June and September the setting sun infuses it with a golden light, transforming the seed heads into horticultural popping candy. It creates a focal point and rhythm, and provides a stately punctuation point above frothier planting beneath.

Successful prairie planting demands careful planning; ironically, creating something that looks natural requires thought and discipline. I’ve banned myself from making spontaneous plant purchases. Sometimes, though, the garden has its own ideas. Last summer, the Turkish sage (Phlomis russeliana) prolifically self-seeded and created a planting plan of its own; the Macedonian scabious (Knautia macedonica) did the same. Now that I have the backbone in place, I enjoy letting the garden make up its own mind.

I had to replace a mass of Deschampsia ‘Goldtau’ with new planting this year, after it was rotted by the clay soil and two wet winters. One year, numerous foxgloves magically appeared and are slowly expanding their territory. Cow parsley has also made its way in. It may be a weed, but I struggle to think of other umbellifers to rival its impact. So it stays: the garden has become its own little ecosystem, where humans happen to hang out, too.

How to plant a prairie, by Jane Perrone

Prairie garden designs employ a pared-down palette of grasses such as stipa, deschampsia, calamagrostis and deschampsia, along with herbaceous perennials that look their best in late summer: sedums, echinacea, achillea and the like.

Rather than dotting plants about, plant masses of them in sausage-shaped drifts: contrasts of height, texture and form are more important than colour. Group a tall, airy grass such as Stipa gigantea with the fleshy leaves and flattened flower heads of Sedum ‘Matrona’, for instance.

Choose a sunny, open spot – prairie plants don’t like shade – and remove all weeds before planting. You don’t need a huge garden to get the look: in smaller gardens, prairie expert Noel Kingsbury suggests planting 1m-wide prairie “strips”.

Once established, all that’s required is a decent haircut in late winter or early spring.

• For more pictures of Kirsty Grocott’s prairie garden, go to guardian.co.uk/gardens

Ganna Walska Lotusland is the recipient of the Santa Barbara Mayor’s Award for Design and Accessibility for inclusive docent training and creativity in providing access to the garden.

Gwen Stauffer, executive director, and Dorothy Shaner, director of public programs, accepted the award.

Ganna Walska Lotusland strives to provide access to a diverse population and enhance the community’s ability to experience this valuable horticultural resource, despite the fact that Lotusland must operate under a Santa Barbara County conditional use permit that severely restricts the number of visitors to 20,000 people annually.

Of that, Lotusland has dedicated 5,000 slots to school children in kindergarten through 12th grade, providing education programs at no cost to the students and the schools in Santa Barbara County. This includes its acclaimed Fourth-Grade Outreach Program that serves all fourth-grade classes, including Title One schools, for free, in Santa Barbara, Goleta and Carpenteria.

Lotusland also teams with Santa Barbara nonprofits to host free educational opportunities for children and underserved populations, and to provide free tours targeted specifically for community populations that otherwise would not be able to visit Lotusland because of their disabilities or income bracket. Of the county’s 20,000 visitor’s limit, Lotusland gives back to the community — for free — 6,000 to 7,000, or 30 to 35 percent, of the available slots every year.

Lotusland has purposefully modified parts of the historic gardens to provide accessibility for anyone with a disability, and ensures a fulfilling experience for every visitor by conducting a rigorous docent training program that includes instruction for guiding family tours, people in wheelchairs, and those who may be slow-moving or vision impaired.

Lotusland is one of the few remaining examples of great American estates built in Santa Barbara during the Golden Age, and only one of two that is still intact and open to the public. It was created by some of the most influential taste-makers in Southern California’s estate building and garden design professions.

As a private estate with narrow, winding paths for strolling by a few houseguests — but now a public garden — we have made modifications and created ways for every citizen to enjoy the garden, no matter their condition, without compromising the critical historic and aesthetic integrity of the garden.

Lotusland is committed to sharing this very important and historic garden to as many people as we can, we are grateful for all our collaborators who helped us build our programs, and we are honored by this award.

“We have worked to create access points so as many people as possible can experience the garden, not only as a source for inspiration, but an opportunity for learning,” Stauffer said.

— Bob Craig is the director of marketing and communications for Ganna Walska Lotusland.

They fight weeds, hold soil, and unite garden designs. Who are they?

By

Mary-Kate Mackey /
October 10, 2013

Humble ground covers are the superheroes of garden design. In containers, they appear mild-mannered, but they have the strength to do what many of their taller, showier brethren often cannot: retain soil moisture, block weeds, and tie together disparate garden designs with sheets of similar texture and color. That’s a big accomplishment for such pint-sized players.

Skip to next paragraph

• Test your grammar ‘smarts’ with our quiz!

• While you were in
  

• Coolest member of the family
  

‘;

} else if (google_ads.length 1) {

ad_unit += ”;
}
}

document.getElementById(“ad_unit”).innerHTML += ad_unit;
google_adnum += google_ads.length;
return;
}

var google_adnum = 0;
google_ad_client = “pub-6743622525202572”;
google_ad_output = ‘js’;
google_max_num_ads = ‘1’;
google_feedback = “on”;
google_ad_type = “text”;
// google_adtest = “on”;
google_image_size = ‘230×105’;
google_skip = ‘0’;

// —

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

If you’re still planting fall bulbs, consider ground covers as a companion for the perfect spring pairing. In some parts of the country, the soil retains enough warmth to allow their matting roots to establish. In colder areas, add these frequently overlooked plants to your wish list, and buy them next spring.

Often grown for their colorful foliage – although some pack plenty of flowery punch – ground covers flourish in sun or shade at the front of borders, as well as in pathways among steppingstones.

RECOMMENDED:

Test your grammar ‘smarts’ with our quiz!

Once established, many ground covers can be divided again and again, and planted throughout your garden. That repetition can transform your borders into cohesive and cared-for spaces. The plants ask for minimum care themselves.

Ground cover growth rates vary. Some romp all over in one season. Others take years to fill in. Slow growers can actually be less work. They won’t overrun taller plants or require cutting back. Mulch heavily between new plants to keep down weeds until the creepers fill in. The first year, you may want to add low-growing annuals as place holders. After ground covers are established, weeding time is considerably shorter.

But they do come with one caution: Some may go over to the dark side. In certain parts of the country, they might even be on the invasive weeds list. Check with local nurseries, garden clubs, or extension services to make sure what you want to grow is a local hero.

You can learn a lot about their noble (or wayward) tendencies from well-written labels and descriptions in a good plant encyclopedia. Be wary if a plant’s growth is portrayed as “indefinite.” “Vigorous” is code for those that may overpower less-sturdy partners.

Or, depending on growth-limiting conditions – poor soil, heavy shade – the terrible toughies may do exactly what you want. Experiment. Try planting unfamiliar specimens in a small, controlled test area. If they show a tendency to overpower, you will not have to eradicate the aggressors from your whole garden.

RECOMMENDED:

Test your grammar ‘smarts’ with our quiz!

SONOMA

Sardar, Jennings, Oliver in panel discussion on design

Cornerstone in Sonoma will host a panel discussion Oct. 17 featuring author and design critic Zahid Sardar, Bay Area arts patron Steve Oliver and noted San Francisco architect Jim Jennings.

Jennings collaborated with Oliver on a visiting artist’s studio at Oliver’s Geyserville Ranch that has been widely acclaimed in the design world and is featured in Sardar’s new book, “West Coast Modern Architecture, Interiors Design.”

The two-hour talk begins at 5:30 p.m. at Artefact Design Salvage within the Cornerstone complex. But ticket holders who arrive at 4:30 p.m. can take a guided tour of the installation gardens. Cost is $20. Seating is limited. To purchase tickets visit westcoastmodern.eventbrite.com. For information, 933-3010. 23570 Arnold Drive, Sonoma.

SANTA ROSA

Advice on caring for oaks

Do you know how to care for the oak trees in your yard? Forester Bruce Hagen and oak ecologist Steve Barnhart will show you how during a class Oct. 19 at Pepperwood Preserve in Santa Rosa.

The class will offer a comprehensive foundation for maintaining the health of oak trees via landscaping, irrigation and managing the growing environment. It will conclude with a hike on the preserve to check out some of its many oaks.

Hagen worked as a forester for Cal Fire for 20 years and as an entomologist with the California Department of Food and Agriculture for nearly 10 years. He is a registered professional forester, a certified arborist, and a qualified tree risk assessor. Steve Barnhart taught biology, botany and ecology at Santa Rosa Junior College for 37 years. He currently serves as Pepperwood’s academic director and is a renowned expert on California oaks.

The 3,200-acre Pepperwood Preserve is a community-supported ecological institute that conducts applied research and provides educational programming.

The class will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost is $30. Register online by searching for “Pepperwood” at www.brownpapertickets.com.

Pepperwood is located at 2130 Pepperwood Preserve Road, midway between Santa Rosa and Calistoga, off Franz Valley Road, and adjacent to Safari West. For more information, pepperwoodpreserve.org or 591-9310 ext. 204.

GRATON

Think winter for fall flower show

“Winter Wonderland” is the theme of The Graton Community Club’s Fall Flower Show Oct. 11 and 12.

The 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. event features flowers and displays by Community Club members, as well as a plant sale, handmade crafts and gifts and antiques and collectibles. Admission is free. Lunch will be available for $10 and beverages and desserts on sale all day for snacking. Proceeds support the club’s scholarship program. 8996 Graton Road, Graton.

SANTA ROSA

Native plants and more on sale

The Milo Baker Chapter of the California Native Plant Society will hold its annual fall plant sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building.

Stock up on California native plants suitable to the North Coast climate including trees, shrubs, grasses, perennials, groundcovers, and ferns. There will also be a wide selection of seeds and bulbs, as well as books on gardening with native plants, local flora, posters, notecards and a newly designed T-shirt by Pamela Glasscock.

A special feature of the sale will be a selection of habitat plants that attract birds and butterflies. The display will be staffed by Nancy Bauer, author of “The California Wildlife Habitat Garden.”

Members will be on hand to offer advice on gardening with California natives. For a list of plants available, visit milobaker.cnps.org. 1351 Maple Ave., Santa Rosa. 578-0595.

SANTA ROSA

Workshop on plant propagation

Garden designer Gail Fanning will demonstrate how to propagate plants during a hands-on workshop Oct. 19 at the Harvest for the Hungry Garden in Santa Rosa.

Fanning will show how to create new plants from perennials and shrubs like rosemary and roses using soft wood cuttings. The free workshop will be from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 1717 Yulupa Ave., Santa Rosa. 484-3613.

SANTA ROSA

Student nursery offers bargains

Willowside School’s nursery offers good bargains on a wide selection of plants suitable for fall planting.

The student nursery will hold its sale next Saturday, Oct. 19 — rain or shine — featuring perennials, roses, grasses, trees, succulents and more. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. 5299 Hall Road at Willowside Road in Santa Rosa. For information, 569-4724.

HEALDSBURG

A nod to region’s Russian heritage

The Russian River Rose Company celebrates the end of the season Oct. 19 and 20 with a Russian Tea Fragrance Festival inspired by the region’s history of Russian settlers and the Russian heritage of owner Mike Tolmasoff.

The festivities include live folk, Slavic and Gypsy music, tea leaf readings, rose tea samplings, rose water-infused nibbles by Chef Jake Martin of Restaurant Charcuterie of Healdsburg and cups of Russian “Sweee-touch-nee Tea” prepared in antique Russian samovars. Visitors are invited to stroll the gardens, still colorful with late blooming roses.

Cost is $5. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1685 Magnolia Drive, Healdsburg. 433-7455 or russian-river-rose.com.

ALBION

Last open house at Digging Dog

Digging Dog Nursery co-owner Deborah Whigham will lead a stroll through her impressive demonstration gardens during the Mendocino Coast nursery’s last open house of the season Oct. 12. During the 2 p.m. walkabout, Whigham will also offer her expertise to help visitors with their garden problems. Refreshments will be served as part of the tour, free to nursery guests.

Throughout the weekend of Oct. 12-13, the nursery will also offer 20 percent to 40 percent discounts on plants.

Digging Dog is at 31101 Middle Ridge Road, Albion. It is wheelchair accessible. For information, 937-1130 or diggingdog@diggingdog.com.

You can direct Home and Garden news to Meg.McConahey@pressdemocrat.com or by calling 521-5204.

 

 

Renowned Mix and Dubbing Studio Implements TM7 to Draw from Best of Analog and Digital Audio

 

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, OCTOBER 7, 2013 – When it comes to analog and digital audio, Mix Engineer Drew Vogelman, founder of The Garden, a renowned mix and dubbing studio in Brooklyn, New York, believes in using elements of both worlds to get the best sound. Along these lines, he has incorporated a TM7 TouchMonitor from RTW,a leading vendor of visual audio meters and monitoring devices for professional broadcast, production, post production and quality control, into his studio. The 7-inch, touch-sensitive, 16:9-screen TM7 enables him to monitor both the analog and digital aspects of his clients’ mixes, ensuring that a particular sound, whatever its source, truly contributes to the perfect track.

 

Named after the outdoor garden lounge area of the Brooklyn brownstone where it is located, The Garden comprises a large control room and a dubbing room with a Solid State Logic (SSL) AWS Hybrid Console/Controller at the center of its operations. Vogelman has outfitted the studio with a large selection of analog outboard gear and instruments—everything from vintage drum kits, guitars synthesizers and amps, to plug-ins that replicate classic hardware and sound from storied music production studios and manufacturers—to give his clients a plethora of options for finessing their mixes. The TM7 takes things a step further by providing Vogelman a way to assess whether the sound of a particular analog element will complement a client’s particular mix.

 

“The RTW TM7 is critical to our mix process,” says Vogelman. “I’m an old-school engineer, so I’m a stickler for setting up what unit will be used on every mix. Because analog and digital are very different from one another, it’s important to go into a mix with an idea of what elements will work best for it. In a sense, we’re going back and forth between the digital and analog realms, and the TM7 helps us determine and maintain the right sound, regardless of where it comes from.”

 

The TM7’s intuitive graphical user interface, a feature of all models of the RTW TouchMonitor range, also helps Vogelman set up his tools for monitoring a mix. Users can control the interface with their finger, scaling, positioning and combining instruments in virtually any manner for the best use of available screen space. Multiple instruments of the same type, assigned to different input channels and configurations, can be displayed, along with other elements, such as meters, a feature Vogelman finds especially handy.

 

Once he sets up the GUI for a particular job, Vogelman employs the RTW “to bring everything out analog, through the desk, through the outboard. I sum everything back in through a Burl Audio ADC and I’m actually taking the digital feed from the ADC to the RTW, so I’m literally monitoring my digital mix box and my analog mix box. It’s pretty cool how it does that for me and allows me to just keep an eye on the mix, so I can really manage the analog mix head room and at the same time monitor and manage the digital head room, and the particular loudness factor.”

 

As for loudness, Vogelman says it is as much of a concern in music mixing as it is in broadcast, so the TM7’s ability to monitor for all major audio loudness standards, including ATSC, EBU, ITU, ARIB and SPL, as well as custom standards, is a major benefit. “Mix engineers have to be aware of and work with loudness issues, though with different set of requirements,” he says. “Artists are always aware of that loudness factor and there are lots of opinions around what loudness is. We really hear a mid-range and, so, high fidelity is kind of about getting the lows and the highs in there, but modern mixes are very pointed on the mid-range. So being a mixer is about finding a way to almost satisfy both worlds in a way, whether you’re hearing it on a laptop or ear buds, and knowing that it’s going to cut through the clutter.”

 

The loudness tools also help Vogelman when working with fades. “One of the things I play with a lot are fades, because it’s a way to manipulate frequency relationships, so if I have for instance, multiple tracks of things, which is much more common these days. You start blending these, and you have to create a relationship with them, so RTW is cool for that.”

 

As with RTW’s entire line of TouchMonitors, the TM7 TouchMonitor provides unparalleled flexibility and modularity combined with intuitive control. The software visualizes multiple sources simultaneously. It supports displaying the same signal on multiple instruments in parallel, each with dedicated defaults with both horizontal and vertical operation. The system visualizes up to 16 analog and/or digital sources at the same time.

 

About RTW

For more than 45 years, Cologne-based RTW has accompanied the steady technological progress in the professional audio industry with innovative instruments and technologies for visual audio monitoring in broadcast, production, post production and quality control. Its state-of-the-art audio and loudness metering systems have an excellent reputation throughout the world. With groundbreaking products such as the Surround Sound Analyzer, the company has been a key vendor of professional broadcast and audio metering equipment for decades.

 

RTW’s range of products currently include the SurroundControl series for monitoring, controlling and routing stereo, multichannel and surround audio and the TouchMonitor range, which truly marks a paradigm shift in visual audio monitoring and loudness metering. Combining maximum flexibility and modularity with an intuitive touch-enabled surface and multichannel signal analysis, the TM7 and TM9 units are the essence of many years of experience. The attractively priced TouchMonitor TM3 entry-level system opens new markets, targeting applications such as journalist cubicles, edit suites and small control rooms.

 

As part of its expansion into the U.S. market, in 2013 RTW established RTW International Corp. in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The new office is the first U.S. location launched by RTW, showing the company’s dedication to supporting its customers and dealer networks in the U.S. The new U.S. office will house all customer service, repair and final product assembly activities for U.S.-based RTW customers.

 

For more information on RTW, visit www.rtw.de, www.facebook.com/rtw.de or call +49 221 709130. For more information on RTW International Corp., visit www.rtw.com or call 877-938-7221.

A Hucknall garden designer has scooped silver at a Royal Horticultural Society show.

Andy Tudbury of Halcyon Days Garden Design was celebrating this week after his artistic talents were recognised at the RHS Malvern Autumn Flower Show.

“This is the 15th show I have entered and was a huge success with massive crowds and glorius sunshine,” said Andy of Papplewick Lane. “I am delighted with being awarded silver but now my aspirations are to win gold.”

Andy’s garden was called ‘A Place to Grow, A Place to Dream’ and included a barbecue area, mixed planting of vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, fruit and flowering shrubs.

It also included a pergola with stained glass window and a water feature created from a Butler’s sink.

The award is an accomplishment for Andy who started his business 10 years ago after retraining at Brackenhurst College.

“After completing an art and design course as a teenager I became a photographer,” explained Andy. “But the transition isn’t actually that much different as all the principles apply.

“Designing a garden is like building a picture. It’s about balance, scale, colour and texture.

“The award acts to underline what I do.”

Classical gardens in Jiangsu province were mostly built adjacent to private residences. The past owners of the gardens were usually retired government officials, who took the natural landscape as their model for creating artistic garden scenery. They would invite the social elite to gatherings in their gardens.

The gardens were therefore, in effect, a continuation of the living space, which gave rise to the practice of a lifestyle of leisure and refined pursuits sought by intellectuals.

This preference featured idealized routines of daily life, including reading, painting, writing and reading out poetry, playing music, tasting tea and wine, playing chess and banqueting.

The practical nature of garden living hence required the gardens to be functional with architectural structures of a great variety, all designed to be in tune with the grace of the natural landscape of the garden.

As such, the crafting of classical gardens was designed to create a utilitarian as well as aesthetic living space where the natural and manmade worlds were closely incorporated. The following aspects were all considered:

1. Water features

Some garden designers used water features as the theme of the garden. Bodies of water located in the middle of the garden were surrounded by pavilions and halls connected by verandas. Small bridges crossed the water to provide easy access. In a large pond, it was advisable to add some islets.

Situated near the Yangtze River, Jiangsu has the advantage of easy access to the river to build water features. In addition to artistic concerns, the ponds and streams were also used to provide irrigation and lessen the risk of fire.