Now that we’ve highlighted the elements of good design, it’s time to outline a plan. Consider the site and surroundings, your objectives for the space, plant preferences, the design elements of color, form and texture; and the principles of order, unity and rhythm. Thinking about all these aspects at once can be challenging. That’s why we put it on paper.

Follow these five steps for successful design, outlined by Tracy DiSabato-Aust in “The Well Designed Mixed Garden”:

1. Draw a base map of your landscape area to scale on graph paper with pencil – so you can erase if needed. Graph paper with four squares to one inch equates to each square being one square foot in the garden.

Indicate existing plant material that will stay, plus windows, doors, unsightly meters or air conditioners that need screening. Draw paths, walls and other hardscaping that will be retained or added. As you do this, think about existing colors, textures and style of the house, fencing, hardscaping and landscape. Think too about where you want focal points.

Place tracing paper over the graph paper. Trace the bed or border outline on tracing paper. If you want to alter your design plan, a clean sheet of tracing paper is all you need.

2. Draw in structural plants, starting with trees. Trees, shrubs, hardscaping and large artwork are considered the bones of the garden. Site trees with circles indicating mature width. They are dominant features, so use them to anchor corners, as an accent or as screening. Choose trees with mature heights suitable for the size and scale of an urban landscape. This is essential when planting under utility lines.

If you use evergreens as a screen or hedge, consider planting a bit closer together (five feet, rather than six, for a tree that reaches a mature size of 12 feet). This will create the screen sooner.

The rest of this content is only available in our print edition.

Subscribe or locate a newsstand.

Is there a better way to welcome and remember nature’s gift to us than beautiful gardens?

Not likely, according to garden design expert and noted horticultural author Jack Staub, whose latest book, “Private Edens, Beautiful Country Gardens” (Gibbs Smith, $50), is a testament to his love of such beauty.

Three years from research to publication, it’s not a how-to garden book. Rather, it’s a book filled with wonderful photographs and vivid text, providing an intimate look at 20 unique private gardens on the East Coast.

As a bonus, it’s filled with inspirational views and ideas for gardeners thinking about enhancing their property, regardless of its size.

Because Staub grew up in Litchfield County, Pergola, a home and gardens shop at 7 East Shore Road, New Preston, is hosting a launch/book-signing for “Private Edens” on Saturday, April 27, from 2 to 5 p.m.

Staub and his photographer, Rob Cardillo, visited and photographed gardens in Virginia, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts, as well as in northwest Connecticut, in Lakeville, Washington, New Preston and Southbury.

None are open to the public and, for purposes of privacy, their locations and owners’ names are omitted. So checking out Staub’s book is your chance to peek beyond their gates.

The properties were chosen, said Staub, “because they have features that are most interesting to me. They are large and small, with a variety of gardens and there was a personal story behind each owner.”

Staub highlights the variety found within each garden, including Asiatic flair, Zen features and classic English garden motifs. Many of the gardens also boast such specimen shrubbery and trees as maples and a host of conifers.

All are dotted with colorful ceramic pottery and/or small statues or figurines, with pieces placed to invite the eyes to rest.

Staub, who with his life partner, landscape designer Renny Reynolds, owns Hortulus Farm, a historic property in Wrightstown, Pa., was raised in New Preston, near Lake Waramaug, on land that had been in his family for four generations.

“If you look at the picture of Lake Waramaug in the section of the book titled `A New Perspective,’ you can see where my great-grandfather, Nicholas Staub, pastured his cows,” he said.

Creating a garden on that property, as well as all the properties featured in the book, took time, devotion, planning, taste, money and a passion for gardening.

Today that land is home to a modernist Tuscan villa. Staub writes that one particular garden features an “informality of plantings, tucked as if by nature in rock and gravel.” Those tucks, he added, give this garden deceptively unstudied charm.

Asked what was common to all the gardens they visited, Staub said, “Everybody had to learn to deal with their own space. What they created was site-specific. They realized the challenges on their property and worked around them and have dealt with them in a most interesting and successful way.”

The Litchfield County launch and signing for “Private Edens, Beautiful Country Gardens” will take place Saturday, April 27, 2 to 5 p.m., at Pergola, 7 East Shore Road, New Preston. 860-868-4769, pergolahome.com.

Sybil Blau is a freelance writer in Connecticut; sibby3@yahoo.com

The shortlist will be announced Wednesday May 29 2013 and the winner will be
notified by email on Wednesday June 8 2013.

Promotion

KLC School of Design would also like to offer Telegraph Gardening readers 15
per cent off their Open Learning Diploma in Garden Design. Simply use the
promo code TEL2013, valid until June 16 2013.

Terms and Conditions

Entrants need to be over the age of 18. No previous art or design experience
is necessary.

As a condition of entry, the entrant grants KLC, The Telegraph and
their PR agency permission to use or reproduce the photograph and text in
print or digital format.

The decision of the judges is final and the winner agrees to take part in
reasonable post-event publicity and to the use of their names and
photographs in such publicity.

By participating in the competition the entrant expressly declares his/her
intent to want to complete the KLC Open Learning Diploma in Garden Design.
The course is not transferrable.

All entries must be received by midnight on May 17 2013. By submitting an
entry, each entrant agrees to the above terms and conditions.

New York, NY — (SBWIRE) — 04/17/2013 — All gardening, landscaping, and irrigation requirements can now be easily handled with just one phone call with New York Plantings Garden Designers. The company boasts of over 18 years of dedicated experience in this particular field. And their expertise in irrigation systems is proven by the hundreds of automatic drip irrigation, landscape irrigation, and lawn sprinkler systems that they install for clients every single year.

Unlike many of their competitors, New York Plantings Garden Designers operate a fully-equipped gardening and irrigation trucks arriving to their customer’s door complete with all the parts, systems, and supplies needed to install, repair, or upgrade a lawn or a rooftop garden. When called up for their services, New York Plantings Garden Designers will evaluate their customer’s landscape or garden and then proceed to design the irrigation system for it that is guaranteed to be efficient, reliable, and affordable.

New York Plantings Garden Irrigation has the capacity to install textbook standard designs and principles, as well as adapt all the latest technologies available that can provide optimum irrigation control to their customer’s garden. They would also install the newer automatic sprinkler systems or drip irrigation systems to customers’ gardens situated in New York and nearby localities.

Customers can now easily upgrade their current system to the newer technologies. New York Plantings Garden Designers can provide both commercial and residential services. Aside from a full installation of irrigation systems for new gardens and landscapes, they can also redesign all the installations and additions that you may already have. Now customers can hire the services of real experts to beautify their gardens and make them a very enviable piece of property.

Gardens do add a lot to the value of any property. Proper landscaping can boost the value of property exponentially. People can now set up well-designed garden area with the most effective irrigation system in place. It’s not hard to do that, just leave the rest of the work to the experts. With New York Plantings Garden Designer, a customer needs not do anything after the first meeting. All what is needed is a customer just comes out, sits down with one of their gardening experts, tells them what he wants to see, and he can consider the job done. The expertise of New York Plantings Garden Designers is building Asian gardens and landscapes.

Now it is easy to build and create a dream garden today or update a current one to use the newest gardening technologies. New York Plantings Garden Designers are eager to be of service to its customers. They can be reached through (347) 558 7051 or via email nappidesign@gmail.com and info@newyorkplantings.com or simply visit their website at http://www.newyorkplantings.com.

About Newyorkplantings.com
New York Plantings is an innovative company in New York that has a team of experts who can build top notch rooftop gardens and design an eye catching landscape. The company has been in business over 18 years and has been serving people in New York since then.

A multipurpose living space that looks out on a Zenlike desert garden won the Growdown competition at Tucson Botanical Gardens.

Janis and Phil Van Wyck, owners of Van Wyck Projects, won the judge’s award last Sunday at the gardens’ first such event, subtitled “The Great Tucson Garden Design Challenge.”

Four landscape designers had three days to build gardens based on submitted plans on the theme “Small Gardens, Big Ideas.” Each contestant worked with 300 square feet of space, about the size as two spaces in a parking lot.

The gardens are on exhibit at the botanical gardens at least through April.

Everything in the Van Wycks’ “A Room With a View” entry was made for this garden, including the sloped metal roof of the three-walled “room” and a fountain in which water flows from a small boulder in a trough.

The soil-cement wall exposes embedded rock, while a mature palo verde soars above the “room” to provide shade for agaves and salvias.

A planter inserted into a pony wall sparkles with jewel-toned succulents.

The wood floor and benches with upholstered cushions allow for a variety of uses: yoga, sleeping, relaxing and entertaining.

“We wanted an outdoor, protected space that’s easy to maintain,” Janis Van Wyck says.

Scott Calhoun won the people’s choice award for his colorful border-inspired patio.

The design by the owner of Zona Gardens includes more than 30 ceramic pots filled with silver cacti, rust-colored steel wall panels with circular cutouts and pot shelves, and a matching chiminea with a grill.

He adds vibrant color with tangerine and teal walls and plastic-piping chairs and ottomans, along with old Sonora, Mexico, license plates as hanging artwork.

Here are what the other designers did:

• Ezra Roati of REALM, an Urban Organics Company, flanks a water-harvesting and planted arroyo with a dog play area and edible plants in containers of corrugated panels.

A concrete bench in “An Urban Arroyo” allows a good view of both sides.

• Christine Jeffrey’s “Modern Desert Garden” combines gabion seating, a shade sail, purple dagger yucca and a block wall with shrubs planted in the top bricks.

The designer with LJ Design Consulting adds color with baby blue- and terra cotta-hued tiles forming small squares in the sandy stone floor.

If you go

• What: Growdown exhibit of four small gardens by local landscape designers.

• Where: Tucson Botanical Gardens, 2150 N. Alvernon Way.

• When: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. through April.

• Admission: $13; discounts available.

• Information: 326-9686, www.tucsonbotanical.org

To-do list for April

There’s April work to be done in the yard, according to the Tucson Botanical Gardens’ horticulturists.

• Clean and repair your drip irrigation system and adjust it for warm-weather watering.

• Prune frost-damaged shrubs.

• Finish spring planting and start summer veggies, including melon, squash, cucumber, eggplant and okra.

• Fertilize roses, irises and container flowers.

Contact Tucson freelance writer Elena Acoba at acoba@dakotacom.net

For the first time the National  Botanic Garden of Wales is  entering a garden in the  prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower  Show. More than 4,000 plants are being  grown for the Get Well Soon artisan garden designed by Kati Crome and Maggie Hughes  which will go on display when the show opens  on May 21.

When the designers – previous 2011 gold  medal winners at Chelsea –  approached the National Botanic Garden in the Towy Valley asking if they could design a debut garden,  director Rosie Plummer thought it was too  good  an opportunity  to pass up.

Their entry, the Get Well Soon Garden,  draws inspiration from the healing properties of plants and Wales’ own famous 12th century  herbalists, the Physicians of Myddfai, who  are honoured at the National Botanic Garden.

The design is one of eight artisan gardens at the show, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

Get Well Soon features a reflexology path, a  seat carved from a long-dead elm tree at the  National Botanic Garden, a  water feature and 2,500 plants, all with healing properties.

There will also be two trees, a willow  already on site at Chelsea and a Euonymus europaeus which will be delivered in a vast  pot.

 

To ensure the 2,500 plants are at their best  for the show, Kati and Maggie have spent the  last few months growing double that amount  as around half won’t make it or peak in time.

And it’s been a family affair, says Kati.

“We have approximately 96 different plant  species that we have sourced from around 17  different nurseries with a total of just under  2,800 plants. About half the plants are  currently in our two gardens. We have no  greenhouses and have small gardens – so our  husbands are not particularly pleased with us!

“I’ve got a tiny cold frame that I’m keeping  a few of the plants in and have been fleecing  the rest every night. I also find myself moving  them round the garden following the sun on  those rare days that it decides to appear.”

Kati and Maggie live in the south of England  but have ties to Wales as Maggie’s husband  Simon is from Swansea and they’re regular  visitors to the national  garden. They also  designed a gold medal-winning artisan garden  for Chelsea in 2011 called Postcard From  Wales inspired by Welsh cottage gardens.

With Chelsea’s 100th anniversary show fast  approaching, Kati and Maggie are now busy  making final arrangements for this year.

They’ll move onto the Chelsea  show site 10  days before opening to assemble the 7m x 5m  garden which also includes wooden post  sculptures,  stonewalls and shelves.

Kidwelly building firm Ron Pocock will join  them on site to build the walls and carry out  heavy landscaping while Kati and Maggie are  charged with planting.

“It’s taken about a year to get ready,” adds  Maggie. You have to submit drawings in  September so a year ago  our thoughts were  on what plants are out at this time of year.

“Medicinal plants are very interesting  because they form the basis of so much  modern medicine. The garden represents all  areas from hi-tech, where tiny extracts are  used to make medicine, to things like fennel  for soothing tea.”

The last few months have been busy and  the cold winter and spring have caused a few  headaches, she admits. “Plants can be quite naughty and we’ve had a cold spring.

“We have had irises grown at Sissinghurst, some in friends’ greenhouses and in our own gardens.”

Although none of the plants are being  grown at the national garden itself, vital parts  of the design will come from around Wales.

Four wooden posts are waiting  in  Pembroke Dock to be made into  plant labels,  a bust of Hippocrates has been made in  Swansea and Dai Edwards from Pontypridd  has cut a section of a dead yew tree from the  national garden to make  a seat while stone  from a Swansea quarry will also be  used.

When the show finishes the  £22,000  garden,  sponsored by Penn Pharma,  South West Wales Tourism Partnership  and Growing The Future will come  back to Wales to Penn Pharma’s  Tredegar headquarters.

More information from www.rhs.org.uk

 

MEDICINAL PLANTS

The vast majority of modern medicines we  use today started with biochemical  compounds that have their origin in plants,  even  if  they are now synthesised.  Here are  some of the common  plants important in  medicine.

Daffodil

The daffodil has a  poisonous bulb and  shares the compound  galanthamine with  snowdrops. This  compound is  useful in treating Alzheimer’s  disease.

Foxglove

Despite being extremely  toxic, the foxglove  contains digitoxin, a  compound of which is an  important heart medicine.

Willow

Salicylic acid derived from  willow bark was used to  create the first aspirin in  the 19th century. The  father of modern  medicine, Hippocrates, who lived sometime  between 460 BC and 377 BC left records of  pain relief treatments, including the use of  powder made from the bark and leaves of  the willow tree to help heal headaches,  pains and fevers.

Valerian

A herb which is most  commonly used for  insomnia, valerian can  also be used for muscle  and joint pain and as a  relief from menstrual  cramps.

 

 

REMINDER: Want to design the perfect garden? Sustainable West Seattle has the answers tonight, April 15

The Sustainable West Seattle April Forum “Successful Gardening with Nature Part 2 – Designing the Perfect Garden” is set for Monday April 15.

The forum will be held at 6:00 pm at the West Seattle Community Orchard at South Seattle Community College. You’ll find the orchard on the east side of the north parking lot.

Before you start planting a garden, start planning. Successful food gardens are well planned to take advantage of natural features such as sun and shade as well as structural features like walls, concrete and fences. A good plan incorporates not only what you want to grow, but includes the benefits of plant-to-plant interaction, pest control, aesthetics, and ease of gardening.

Where:
West Seattle Community Orchard, South Seattle Community College
When:
6:00 pm Meet and Greet, SWS announcements
6:15 to 6:55 pm – Tour the Orchard with Q A regarding the orchard plan
7:00 to 8:00 pm – Food from local gardens and drink will be served, followed by a power point presentation with local gardens being shown as well as permaculture design principles being presented. The three dimensional garden will also be described.

Whether you’re a seasoned backyard farmer or a newbie contemplating your first tomato plant, join the company of others who want to grow their own food and learn a few tips from successful gardeners.

• 
  

We encourage our readers to comment. No registration is required. We ask that you keep your comments free of profanity and keep them civil. They are moderated and objectionable comments will be removed.

The world’s top garden designers  will be celebrating 100 years of  the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in  May this year with a mixture of  old and new, demonstrating the glories of the  past and the gardens of the future.

Award-winning Chelsea stalwart Roger  Platts, who is designing the MG show  garden, Windows Through Time, is aiming to  capture the design trends and themes of RHS  Chelsea Flower Shows past and present,  showing how British garden design has  evolved while reflecting many recurring  themes that have stood the test of time.

“I believe that the three major reasons driving the development in garden design are  ever-changing architecture, climate change  and lifestyle changes,” says Platts.

“Extremes of weather have tended to kill  off some new trends in planting in recent  years.

“It’s not long since we were being  encouraged to plant drought-tolerant  varieties, only to find them frosted or rotted  in cold, wet winters.

“It only takes a couple of years of extreme  weather in close succession to remove  gardeners’ confidence in certain plants.

“I have always enjoyed growing a wide  range of silver-leaved plants but living on  heavy soil and having wetter weather, I am  reluctant to risk some of these.

“For the average gardener it will always be  best to grow plants tolerant of a wide range  of conditions. The enthusiast will always be  trying to push the boundaries.”

Low maintenance and the need for  neatness will always be a factor in gardens for  the future, he predicts, especially in urban  environments.

“The terms ‘disease free’ and ‘easy to grow’  and ‘uncomplicated’ are as much as I can  predict for future gardens.

“It  is impossible to know what other factors  will dictate how gardens will look in the  future.”

 

 

Platts’ 2013 Chelsea garden will embrace  both new and traditional garden features,  from modern sculpture to planting, threaded  with historical shrubs popular in the 1900s.

His flair for planting will be apparent  throughout the garden, from wild grasses and  meadow flowers to cottage roses and nodding  foxgloves.

He concludes: “The classic look we know  today has been around for some time and I  think and hope that it will be with us for  many years to come.”

So, how much have our gardens changed in  the last century?

Plant pots

In 1913 pots would have been made from  clay. This then developed to plastic with a  recent trend towards biodegradable  materials.

Glasshouses

Back then, heating and propagation for  glasshouses and growing frames relied on  solid fuel and manure. Nowadays, electricity  and bio fuels are used.

Fertilisers

One hundred years ago most fertiliser was  organic. Over the years chemicals were  developed for use in fertilising. There is now  a trend for returning to organic fertilisers.

Construction materials

Then natural timber, stone, clay and iron and  aggregates were mainly used. These would  generally have been locally sourced. Now we  use a very similar range of materials with a  few additions, such as plastics, concrete,  stainless steel (invented in 1913) and  imported materials such as Indian sandstone.

Plants

Varieties we grew in 1913 are similar to what  we grow now but with a wider range today  due to sophisticated plant breeding and  selection methods. A century ago most were  raised in the ground after propagation, being  “lined out” in the field as young plants, hence  the term “liners”, which is still used in the  nursery trade for young plants prior to final  potting.

Lawn mowers

Were definitely in their infancy 100 years  ago. Technology has resulted in garden  machinery becoming more widely affordable.  The basic principles of cutting grass using a  cylinder mower have changed little over the  century. Plastics, battery-powered strimmers  and the rotary mower mean that small areas  of grass are easier to maintain nowadays.  Robotic mowers may be the way forward for  lazy gardeners.

Food

Today we grow our own food at home more  as a hobby than a necessity, whereas 100  years ago before supermarkets, refrigerators  and fast transport, food was grown as a basic  need.

The 100th RHS Chelsea Flower Show  is on from May 21-25

 

Dig in to design wall at community garden

7:00pm Monday 15th April 2013 in News

By Fran Bardsley, covering Education, East Oxford and Cowley. Call me on 01865 425439

Annie Davy at Barracks Lane Community Garden, which is holding a competition for people to redesign a rotting wall

A CONTEST is being launched to design a new wall at a community garden in the heart of East Oxford.

Barracks Lane Community Garden is offering a £200 prize for the winning design for an innovative and interesting way to replace an existing retaining wall.

The wall, which is made of timber posts, is rotting and needs urgently replacing.

Annie Davy, one of the garden’s founders who is organising the competition, said: “The wall was put in place eight years ago and there was a bit of a design fault in terms of the material used so it is actually rotting.

“Also we need it for accessibility for disabled people to use the lower end of the garden, including the Parasol Project which meets here.”

In the past, the garden organisers worked with Oxford Brookes University architecture students on a design for a green roof shelter.

This time, it was decided to open the contest up to anyone who could come up with ideas on how to replace it.

Oxfordshire County Council has given the garden £3,500 to spend on the new wall, which must be in place by the end of August.

The garden will provide the prize money from its own funds, and has some extra budget to add to the grant if necessary.

Ms Davy said: “We don’t want to be too prescriptive about the design because we want to see what people will come up with.

“It could be a wall that could be added to with things growing on it or up it, or it could be a more artistic design with the community adding to it.

“We are looking for something in keeping with the garden’s objectives to encourage community involvement but also to encourage biodiversity and people diversity.”

While designs are welcomed from anyone, Ms Davy said the person would need to have technical understanding of landscape, design or architecture and would need to consider drainage.

She thought the contest might appeal to students building up their portfolio, or established architects or designers keen to have something in a prominent public location.

To get the criteria and design specification, email barrackslanegarden@yahoo.co.uk. Entries must be received by Monday, May 13.

Comments(1)

Myron Blatz

says…

8:02pm Mon 15 Apr 13

Barracks Lane Community Garden agonizes over how best to replace an old wall – meanwhile, thousands are being murdered in the Mid East and Africa, and North Korea continues on its perilous journey up the escaltor of global nuclear confrontation.
Myron Blatz

Comment now! Register or sign in below.

Or

During this year’s Milan Design Week we got to meet with young American designer Danielle Trofe, who showed us the “Live Screen,” a vertical hydroponic garden design. Trofe was promoting her work as part of the Salone Satellite, which ran parallel to the Salone Internazionale del Mobile and involved hundreds of emerging young designers under the age of 35 from around the world.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• View all

Taking inspiration from the idea of having an indoor living wall, Trofe designed the Live Screen to offer regular households a self-irrigating planter system. The screen features a series of small oval-shaped pods that branch off from a central trunk, concealing the irrigation pump that distributes water to each plant.

“The system uses vertical hydroponic technology which allows people to create their own urban gardening at home,” Trofe told Gizmag. “And the self-watering system makes the process of growing your own plants so much easier. Hydroponic gardening is also one of the most energy efficient and sustainable practices in use today.”

The vertical hydroponic system which is incorporated into the Live Screen adopts a simple method which nourishes plants without the need for soil. An energy-efficient pump distributes water from an internal water tank up to the highest plant tier. From there, gravity delivers water to the lower plant tiers. Clay rocks can be put into the bottom of the pods to protect the plants’ roots and since the system doesn’t use soil, many soil-borne diseases can be avoided.

The system also allows plants to grow faster and thus yield higher quantities, making it ideal for growing edible plants such as herbs. However, Trofe does insist that the system is capable of producing larger fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes and capsicums. In addition, the Live Screen offers users easy access to the water reserve tank, allowing them to to check water levels, test the pH or add nutrients to help keep the plants healthy.

The Live Screen is not only an innovative solution for urban gardening but would make a great piece of furniture for a variety of spaces including offices, cafés and living areas – offering interior greenery without the fuss.

The promotional video below illustrates how the Live Screen could work in the home.

Source: Danielle Trofe