Gardens get a makeover on new design course

9:50am Sunday 14th April 2013 in Hartlepool News

KEEN gardeners can learn how to personalise their own outdoor spaces at a new design course.

The sessions over 12 weeks will cover site surveying, garden history, planting styles and landscaping.

The ‘complete garden design course’ which is being held at Stewart Park in Middlesbrough at the Bolcklow Visitor Centre costs £44 for a series of 12 three-hour classes on Thursdays or Saturdays from 9.30am to 12.30pm.

Tutor Nicky Morgan, who has 25 years experience in the horticultural industry said no experience of garden design was required but a love of the outdoors and a willingness to learn were essential.

For more information or to book a place contact Nicky Morgan on 01642-515643 or email Nicola_Morgan@middlesbrough.gov.uk or northeast@wea.org.uk.

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Brent Freitas, owner of Eye of the Day Garden Design Center, has been invited to attend Milan Design week. The annual furniture exhibition is the largest trade fair in the world where internationally famed vendors and designers gather to showcase the latest trends and designs.

Santa Barbara, CA (PRWEB) April 14, 2013

Owner of Eye of the Day Garden Design Center, Brent Freitas, has been invited to attend the Design Week Fuori Salone, Milano in Milan. Freitas will be attending the event from April 9 to 14 and will be attending with Eye of the Day partners Terrecotte San Rocco and Angelo Grassi.

The annual furniture exhibition, also known as Milan Design Week, is the largest trade fair in the world. Internationally famed vendors and designers attend from around the world to showcase innovative furniture and other designs, including lighting, home furnishings, and garden pots and décor.

“I’m really excited to have Eye of the Day work with Terrecotte San Rocco and Angelo Grassi,” said Freitas. “Our Italian terracotta pots are popular buys for customers looking for a luxe outdoor look. It’s a real experience to attend the fair with the best of the best in the industry, and to see what other products are trending.”

Milan Design Week was established in 1961 and the trade show mainly focused on Italian furniture. Now, the show features more than 2,500 vendors in a 2,500,000-square-foot venue, and close to 300,000 attendees are expected from more than 150 countries.

“I want people to know that garden design isn’t just a potted plant placed here and there. We work with clients like Tommy Bahama and Ralph Lauren to create aesthetic environments to take outdoor décor to an entirely different, eye-pleasing level.”

Eye of the Day Garden Design Center is located in Santa Barbara, and offers more than an acre of high quality garden landscape products, including Italian fountains and terracotta pottery. Eye of the Day is a leading importer of fine European pottery, and works with customers ranging from private consumers to landscape and design firms from around the world.

About Eye of the Day Garden Design Center

Eye of the Day Garden Design Center is a retail showroom that features more than an acre of high quality garden landscape products, including Italian terracotta pottery and fountains, Greek terracotta pottery, French Anduze pottery, and garden product manufacturers from America’s premier concrete garden pottery and decoration manufacturers. Eye of the Day is a leading importer and distributor of fine European garden pottery, and caters to private consumers and landscape design and architecture firms around the world.

To see what Eye of the Day Garden Design Center offers, visit http://www.eyeofthedaygdc.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/4/prweb10630207.htm

Photograph by Dana Gallagher. Produced by Lindsey Taylor.Drifts of perennials, including Agapanthus Donau, line the stone path.

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Thousands of people walk New York’s High Line every day — and for many of them it is not the views they have come to see, or the architecture, or each other, but the plants. The same could be said of Chicago’s Lurie Garden in Millennium Park, where extensive drifts of flowering plants in permanently planted borders constantly draw in passers-by. These are examples of a new kind of urban planting, one with incredible public appeal — it is colorful but somehow also wild looking; there is plenty of seasonal change although the plantings are permanent, and they pull in urban wildlife too. Piet Oudolf, the Dutch designer who is responsible for the planting in both of these public projects, is also much in demand for planting private gardens, like this one in Nantucket, which showcases his horticultural philosophy.

Once upon a time, planting in the city meant beds of brightly colored flowers that lasted for a few months before being dug up, disposed of and replaced with something else. It was all very labor intensive, resource-hungry and unsustainable. Oudolf’s work is part of a movement that seeks to use long-lived, perennial plants, which need minimal management. In some projects, like Millennium Park, his first public commission in the United States, or at Battery Park in New York, volunteers get involved in basic maintenance work, providing an outlet for gardening energies and the desire to be close to nature. The city may have become our habitat, but we are increasingly learning how we can share it with other species — and the new perennial planting is central to how we are doing this.

Oudolf’s career as a garden and landscape designer has mirrored the growth of this new planting movement, of which he has been a pioneer. Born in the Netherlands in 1944, he has worked in garden design for most of his life. The tradition he came from balanced strong shapes, often formed from clipped evergreens, with rich planting. The flowering plants available, though, tended to emphasize color above all else and to be high maintenance. Oudolf found himself increasingly drawn toward plant varieties that kept the proportions and grace of their wild ancestors. In this he was not alone, for a whole generation of gardeners and garden designers in the Netherlands, Germany and Britain was looking at the visual possibilities of using wildflowers and nature-inspired plant combinations. In Germany, a number of publicly financed research bodies were applying plant ecology science to the management of public parks, while in Britain, a growing network of small specialist nurseries was steadily increasing the number of perennial plants in cultivation. Researchers in Britain also began to work on using seed mixtures to create extensive long-lived plantings — as was appreciated by visitors to last summer’s spectacular Olympic Park in London.

Oudolf began to use more and more “unconventional” plants in the gardens he made for clients. He was particularly drawn to plants with strong visual structures like grasses and members of the Queen Anne’s lace family; he once said, only half-jokingly, that “a plant is only worth growing if it looks good when it’s dead” — in other words, plants whose seedheads or winter foliage have strength and character are every bit as valuable as vibrant summer flowers. Finding commercial sources of these plants difficult, in 1982 he set up a small nursery to supply his design work. Run by his wife, Anja, the nursery developed a momentum of its own — soon British gardeners were finding their way across the Dutch countryside to visit and buy plants.

Meanwhile in the United States, a similar process had begun with the work of Oehme van Sweden, who favored romantic drifts of ornamental grasses and blocks of perennial flowers rather than the trees, shrubs and lawn grass look that dominated American landscapes. Elsewhere in the United States, primarily in the upper Midwest, ecologists had begun to promote native wildflowers as an alternative to the conventional lawn. The idea of the garden was becoming steadily wilder.

For large public projects, Oudolf collaborates with landscape architects, so that he can concentrate on the planting. In Chicago, he worked with Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and the set designer Robert Israel on the Lurie Garden: five acres of public garden above a parking garage. Small groups of perennials and grasses, over half of them Midwest natives, are intermingled on gently rolling ground. It is clearly a garden, but looser and less controlled than most of us had seen before. The garden created a huge amount of public interest, with people strolling through and bombarding garden staff with questions.

The New York High Line was a collaboration between Oudolf and the landscape architects James Corner Field Operations (who also did the master plan for the Nantucket garden). Wilder still than the Lurie Garden, the High Line again used a very high proportion of regionally native plants. Oudolf devised a method of precisely planning the distribution of the plants so that it looks almost as if nature had put them there. Wild grasses tend to form a matrix in areas, with flowering perennials interspersed between them. Small trees and shrubs are used in other areas, with an underlayer of the kind of plants that are very similar to those that might be found beneath trees in natural woodlands. For many a city dweller, this is about as close to nature as they will ever get. For urban bees, butterflies and birds, this is nature.

The garden on Nantucket also uses drifts of mostly native American grasses to create the effect of wild grassland, but on a far more expansive scale; visually they tend to complement and even highlight the flowering elements as well as have their own intrinsic beauty — one especially appropriate to the open coastal landscape of the island. The evocation of natural habitats may look carefree and unplanned, but this is the result of many years of research, and the latest stage in a continuing and collaborative journey.

A version of this article appeared in print on 04/14/2013, on page M294 of the NewYork edition with the headline: A Wilder Way.

Want to design the perfect garden? Sustainable West Seattle has the answers

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 on Monday, April 15, 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.

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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.

A simple garden design that he commissioned for his own backyard turned into an award-winning career change for Thomas Wheaton.

Wheaton’s new career began after he and his partner moved to Littleton in 2005. Their backyard was “nothing but grass that became just a big patch of burnt grass in the summer,” Wheaton said. The following year they hired a garden designer to create a perennial border for their backyard. Wheaton, who has a degree in art history and was working as an accountant in Boston at the time, enjoyed the process so much that, when he started thinking about changing careers, he decided to become a garden designer.

In 2011, he enrolled in the Garden Design School USA at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in West Boylston, where he earned a certificate in garden and landscape design.

After graduation, he teamed up with classmate Christine Kendall Quinby, of Natick, and they designed a garden to enter in the Boston Flower Garden Show in March. They won four awards for their design, titled “A Welcoming Urban Oasis.”

“The theme of the show this year was called ‘Seeds of Change’ and they were looking for innovative uses of materials — new kinds of plants that need less water; a very environmental sort of green approach,” he said.

Wheaton said the design had to be contained inside a 400-square-foot plot.

“That was fun because I was given a blank space – a perfect square,” he said.

He put a circle inside the square, accessed by two paths.

“I imagined … a small space somewhere in a dense area like the South End or Beacon Hill with buildings all around it. I imagined a little courtyard and for purposes of the show, I imagined it as a parking space. My imaginary clients had the space they weren’t using and they wanted to put in a garden. So I imagined taking out the asphalt or brick and resurfacing and putting in a garden.”

Wanting to create some interest, he shifted the circle a foot in two directions, to create four slightly different triangular spaces surrounding the circle. The design included a built-in rainwater recovery system that provided irrigation.

The next step was deciding what materials to use in the finished design. Keeping to the theme of the show, he chose porcelain tiles for the pathways because they contained 20 percent recycled material. He used weathered steel for the retaining wall, because it took up less room than rocks or bricks and lent a nice texture to the design.

Selecting the right plants was a little tougher.

“Because we’re in New England,” he said, “we had to have all the plants for the show picked out before the holidays last year. The next step was to find a nursery that could store them in the winter and trick them into blooming early.”

They chose Weston Nurseries in Chelmsford. Once all the materials were gathered and the design was complete, it took a team of eight volunteers two and a half days to build the garden in the showroom, before the start of the show. All in all, Wheaton said, it took them about eight months to plan the garden, and $15,000. But it was worth it, he said, because it generated new clients.

“The exposure I’ve gotten from the show has been incredibly valuable,” he said.

Now he hopes to continue the momentum to build his new business – Thomas Wheaton Garden Design.

He offers a range of services and prices – from initial consultations to design to overseeing the entire project.

First, he meets with the clients on site to take a look at the space and determine their preferences.

“Then I look at ways I can design the space to meet their expectations and make it more useful to them, more beautiful,” he said.

Wheaton says he is a big fan of modern designers, but he tries not to let his personal style influence his designs.

“It starts with listening carefully to what [the clients] want,” he said. “I sometimes have to restrain myself from designing what I want and start thinking like the client.”

“What I’d like to end up doing is working at home on designs for people who want to have their landscape composed in a thoughtful way,” Wheaton said. “And along the way meet some great people and exchange ideas and create some beautiful yard scapes.”

Visit thomaswheatongardendesign.com, email tom@thomaswheatongardendesign.com tom@thomaswheatongardendesign.com or call 508-345-2029.

 

Television and radio personality P. Allen Smith, who drew a crowd to his recent container gardening demo at a Plano Calloway’s, will design a decorative and productive edible garden at the Dallas Arboretum.

The arboretum is putting the finishing touches on its Children’s Garden, set to open this fall, but

12 April 2013

Russian oligarchs and other rich clients are helping the high-end market for domestic garden design to thrive in the face of bad weather and competition that hampers smaller-scale work.

A house designed by LDa Architecture + Interiors takes advantage of the site and places the living room to the south, where expansive windows take in the view and the sun’s rays for warmth and light.

We all know the basics of “going green” in residential design – downsize, repurpose materials, and buy local. But John Day of LDa Architecture + Interiors of Cambridge, Massachusetts, offered more precise suggestions. He showed photographs of beautiful and practical rooms that take advantage of nature, views, and daylight while maximizing solar gain with south-facing windows. He emphasized that using durable materials that will last and not end up in a landfill is another way to keep your project green.

Some little known facts about sustainable designs were revealed by Doug Hanna of S+H Construction of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who said the rules vary from town to town. In Cambridge, for example, sustainability is encouraged and installation of solar panels can supersede historical building regulations and be placed on rooftops of older houses. However in some historic districts in Boston, the equipment must be totally hidden from view.

Outside, you don’t have to rely only on native plants to make a green impression. That’s what Kimberly Mercurio of Kimberly Mercurio Landscape Architecture, also of Cambridge, Massachusetts, advocates. She says to mix native plants with site appropriate plants, and notes she likes to integrate outcroppings of existing stone rather than remove them. She also uses as much recycled stone as possible to create her beautiful hardscapes.

An S+H crew installed a photovoltaic array in Cambridge, where the sustainable outweighs the historic.

Kimberly Mercurio and her clients studied where they were walking most outside, and installed pieces of hardscape to create a stepping-stone effect that also is pervious so water seeps into the ground rather than running off into storm drains.

Sisters and Artefact owners Sue and Maureen Walsh spoke with verve about the products they carry in their store that are locally designed and/or made as well as products such as the Vellum furniture line that is made in the United States.

Our next salon is at the fabulous Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts, where we will be looking to outdoor rooms with “Beyond the Patio.” Here’s more information and how to register: www.designnewengland.eventbrite.com

Rockers METALLICA have made a green-fingered fan’s dreams come true by handing out funds to help him develop his garden design for a prestigious British horticultural competition.

Arek Luc’s garden design, inspired by the band’s track I Disappear, was accepted to go on display at the Royal Horticultural Society’s annual flower show at Hampton Court in England in July (13), but the project was in jeopardy due to lack of funding.

The rockers were alerted to Luc’s plight by their manager Peter’s wife, former British politician Louise Mensch, who read about the design in a local publication, and the stars decided to dip into their own pockets to ensure the project went ahead as planned.

Luc tells Britain’s The Times newspaper, “Louise e-mailed me and asked how much I still needed. I couldn’t believe it when they sent me several thousand pounds.”

Mensch adds, “The whole band was tickled pink (delighted) by Arek’s garden. The band does a colossal amount of work for charity but it’s not usually associated with gardens.”

Copyright 2013 World Entertainment News Network. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Now that it is finally warming up on East Coast—at least where I live in Pennsylvania—I am just itching to get out and start digging in my garden. Perhaps you’re feeling that same itch.

Every year my husband and I have grand plans designing a garden somewhere in our yard where we previously haven’t had any plants and shrubs. Or we decide to totally redo an existing garden to change things up, such as the year we tried lasagna gardening.

Unfortunately, in the past we have fallen victim to some of the common mistakes people make when designing a garden. For example, wanting to plant a vegetable garden but not really giving enough thought to where in the yard that garden was going to be. Because it turns out that while our yard seems sunny, it is not sunny enough to sustain vegetable plants. Last year we grew one very expensive green pepper—we’d paid $6 for the pepper plant and it yielded a single pepper. I should have followed my own advice and stuck to container gardening to grow vegetables.

I recently came across some information from Preen, the maker of weed-prevention products, about the common mistakes that home gardeners make when designing a garden—be it a brand new garden or one that they’re fixing up from an earlier design.

Avoid Invasive plants.
What might look like a find (so pretty and such a fast grower) may actually be a garden monster. Invasive plants spread by runners or underground stems. Aggressive and extremely difficult to remove, these plants spread to choke out other plants. Offenders include chameleon plant, lamb’s ear, lily of the valley and goutweed. I had no idea about lamb’s ear and lily of the valley—two of my favorites! In my yard some of these invasive species include bamboo, but with our houses so close together, we have found that bamboo acts as a great “natural” screen to complement a fence. However, it does take off like wildfire. To avoid out-of-control invasive plants, put them in a deeply lined bed or large container garden pots.

Look Out for Weeds Gone Wild.
Weeds are the ultimate invasives as they adapt to the local habitat and get greedy for territory. To stop them, tackle their seeds. Remove existing weeds before they go to seed (each plant can produce thousands). Then apply a layer of mulch and sprinkle a weed preventer on top. Mulch blocks the sunlight that weed seeds need to sprout. For an added layer of weed protection, lay down newspaper over the offending area, then add the mulch.

Will You Be Inviting Trouble?
Some plants are more than attractive—they attract pests that you may want to avoid. For example, if you are allergic to bee stings, you should avoid plants that act as bee magnets. These include buddleia bushes or monarda (aka bee balm), zinnia and salvia flowers. Where deer are abundant fill your garden with plants and shrubs that are labeled as deer resistant. Deer love hostas, tulips, yews and azaleas, so avoid putting them in your garden if there are a lot of deer around.

Choose the Right Plant and the Right Place.
Before planting any shrubs, flowers or vegetables, be sure to read the label on that plant. That adorable shrub won’t look so cute by the house when it grows to 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide. Labels detail light and water needs, and follow them to a tee. Putting shade-loving impatiens in Southern-facing window boxes will die in the full sun. However, plant them in a shady, north-facing pot, and they’ll thrive. Not sure which areas of your yard are full sun, partial shade or full shade? Step outside throughout the day and note where the sun is. Also, trees don’t have leaves yet so a sunny spot in April could be a shady area in May. Keep that and USDA hardiness zones in mind as you make your choices for flowers, plants and shrubs.

More Isn’t Always Better.
Believe it or not more home gardeners kill more plants by watering them too much, versus not watering them enough. Most established plants prefer about one inch of rainfall or irrigation every week or so. Too much water can cause rot or weak growth. Also too much fertilizer won’t make plants more robust, but it can burn and kill them. When it doubt, use a light hand with watering and fertilizing.