ReportWire

Tag: Garden Visit

  • ‘A Moment in Time’: Kathryn Herman’s Country Garden in Connecticut

    [ad_1]

    Herman is also especially generous with the details, like a friend offering insightful advice. For example, here’s her precise description of her pool: “The pool measures 12 by 24 feet, mirroring the dimensions of the original gamecock house, now a dining pavilion. Three inch-thick, rock-faced bluestone coping edges the pool, which is finished in a French gray plate.” Likewise, her notes on plants are conversational and useful, like when she describes Orlaya grandiflora, Herman tells the reader, “It self-sows easily, making groupings achievable, but is not problematic or invasive.”

    Above: Herman is especially fond of umbels like the vibrant Zizia aurea. Photograph by Neil Landino, from A Moment in Time.

    Herman is clearly a devoted plantswoman. The book features many hero shots of specific plants (all helpfully labeled). Of those close-up moments, she tells us, “I think it’s really important to have that sense of intimacy, paired with big, broad shots for context.” Herman says there easily could have been more, noting “it is about all those individual pieces that make up the greater whole.” Herman has included a Resources section at the back of the book with all her favorite places to buy plants, seeds, and garden ornaments, which will be of particular interest to gardeners in her region. 

    Above: Peony ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ is paired with the deep pink of Tanacetum coccineum. Photograph by Neil Landino, from A Moment in Time.

    This book will appeal to anyone with an appreciation for formal, English-inspired gardens, but is also a surprisingly intimate book that any seasoned gardener will relate to.

    Above: A Moment in Time: Designing a Country Garden by Kathryn Herman is available wherever books are sold including Bookshop.org.

    See also:

    (Visited 21 times, 20 visits today)

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Snowscape Visit: The Max Family Garden in Brooklyn – Gardenista

    [ad_1]

    There is a strong temptation to stay indoors when the world freezes. But out there in the cold, and especially after snowfall, the brown bones of gardens are suddenly emphasized, outlined in white. Visiting gardens in winter, when leaves and flowers belong to dreams of spring, allows us the thrill of anticipation, the pure pleasure of comparison, and an appreciation of structure, adding layers of understanding to our experience. It also tests our plant identification skills.

    For as much as it obscures, snow reveals what we may not have noticed before. Dusted with white, trees do not shape-shift—they can’t—as much as they become eloquent, damp snow emphasizing the gestures of bare branches.

    Photography by Marie Viljoen.

    Above: Glory be to brick. 

    Just a whisper north of the Brooklyn Bridge, and within Brooklyn Bridge Park, is the Max Family Garden (also known as the Triangle Garden), a hidden wedge guarded by old brick walls and arches, and designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA).

    Above: Snow turns found bluestone slabs into plush (but cold), cushioned seats.
    Above: New movement is revealed where snow delineates branches.

    Near double swing-doors, a mature sassafras branch extends a gracefully welcoming arm, the theatrical winter expression in keeping with the entrance to St. Ann’s Warehouse within the garden

    Above: Bluestone slabs found at the site were stacked, redeployed as seating.

    In 2015, the St Ann’s Warehouse performance space opened within the vestiges of a late nineteenth century tobacco warehouse, reimagined by Marvel Design.

    Above: The unroofed walls frame views of the Brooklyn Bridge.

    The two-floor brick shell that encloses the Max Family Garden is what remains of the original structure, and was commissioned by St. Ann’s Warehouse to fulfill zoning regulations that require new waterfront development to include publicly accessible green space. Both an entrance to the theater and a backstage door open into the garden.

    Above: In mid spring the frosted shrubs burst into yellow life—they are Kerria japonica.

    The restrained palette of trees is limited to birch, sassafras, and redbud. Beneath them shrubs include Japanese kerria and sweetspire, for spring and late summer bloom. Hellebores appear in late winter and the flower clusters of Skimmia follow soon after.

    Above: Vertical birch trunks become focal points.
    Above: A generous arch frames the garden.
    Above: Layers of arches reveal the cross hatching of snowy branches.
    Above: Occupying the corner of a 19th century tobacco warehouse, the garden within feels secret.

    While the Max Family Garden becomes part of the working St. Ann’s Warehouse space (via doors within the triangle) it is open during regular Brooklyn Bridge Park hours, a quiet space within the bustling greenway.

    See also:

    (Visited 46 times, 46 visits today)

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Nicholas Morton’s SGLD Award-Winning Coastal Garden

    [ad_1]

    Last Friday night the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers (SGLD) gathered in London to present their annual awards. Gardenista got the scoop on this year’s winners, which include several firms who won multiple awards for their submissions.

    The “Garden of the Year Award” went to a family garden in Putney designed by Tomoko Kawauchi, the design director at Charlotte Rowe Garden Design; this garden was a triple-winner, also taking home the prizes in the “Small Residential Landscapes & Gardens” and “Built Landscape Design” categories. Another multi-award winner was a shady, terraced London garden submitted by Adolfo Harrison, which won both the “Judges’ Award” and the “Garden Jewel Award.” Fi Boyle took home the “People’s Choice Award,” which is the only category decided by public vote, for a garden sited in an old quarry.

    But the garden that most caught our eye was the winner of the “New Designer Landscapes & Gardens” award design by Nicholas Morton, though he’s no novice designer: Before starting his own firm he worked for more than a decade for well-known designers Charlotte Rowe and Arne Maynard. Morton had also previously won one of SGLD’s Student Awards. “It is an incredible confirmation for a young design studio to be recognised by the SGLD,” says Morton. 

    Judges praised Morton’s restoration of a coastal town garden as a “a delightful, well-planted garden that overcomes challenging conditions with skill,” while remarking on the thoughtful planting, high-quality materials, and clever use of budget. They also noted: “The restrained design works beautifully with the building and its history.

    Here’s a peek at Morton’s winning garden.

    Photography by Elissa Diver, courtesy of Nicholas Morton.

    Above: Added as part of architectural work on the house, new French doors connect the garden to the open-plan sitting room and kitchen. Morton describes the resulting indoor-outdoor space as “a place that feels like it is very private and a far away from the world outside.
    ”The clients’ in-town property was a tricky L-shaped garden that wraps around the house, from the back to one side. “The challenge was to connect two arms of a garden, which had very different conditions, using planting that would both look good year-round and have seasonal highlights from multiple windows. All whilst breaking up the space to create a journey that both utilised, and encouraged use of, all of the space,” says Morton.
    Above:”The clients’ in-town property was a tricky L-shaped garden that wraps around the house, from the back to one side. “The challenge was to connect two arms of a garden, which had very different conditions, using planting that would both look good year-round and have seasonal highlights from multiple windows. All whilst breaking up the space to create a journey that both utilised, and encouraged use of, all of the space,” says Morton.
    For the hardscaping, Morton paired reclaimed Yorkstone pavers with a shell-based gravel mulch, which helps the garden retain water, for a welcome time-worn feeling. Outdoor furniture pieces from HAY’s iconic Palissade collection appears in each of the garden’s seating areas. 
    Above: For the hardscaping, Morton paired reclaimed Yorkstone pavers with a shell-based gravel mulch, which helps the garden retain water, for a welcome time-worn feeling. Outdoor furniture pieces from HAY’s iconic Palissade collection appears in each of the garden’s seating areas. 
    Custom wood fencing and a row of newly-planted pleached trees and two specimen multi-stem ‘Strawberry’ trees create privacy and vertical interest along the property line. 
    Above: Custom wood fencing and a row of newly-planted pleached trees and two specimen multi-stem ‘Strawberry’ trees create privacy and vertical interest along the property line. 
    Morton describes his drought-tolerant planting scheme as “deceptively simple,” noting he used repeated structural planting with a matrix of grasses that “allow the feature plants to really stand out when it is their turn to shine.” Strategically-placed, naturalistic evergreen shrubs break up the space and define different areas within the garden. 
    Above: Morton describes his drought-tolerant planting scheme as “deceptively simple,” noting he used repeated structural planting with a matrix of grasses that “allow the feature plants to really stand out when it is their turn to shine.” Strategically-placed, naturalistic evergreen shrubs break up the space and define different areas within the garden. 
    Note how Morton cleverly concealed an external oil boiler (at right) that dominated the view along this arm of the garden. Morton designed  what he calls a �220;collector’s table,” a reclaimed slate table top with custom-made corten legs, to hold the clients�217; potted sun-loving plants. 
    Above: Note how Morton cleverly concealed an external oil boiler (at right) that dominated the view along this arm of the garden. Morton designed  what he calls a “collector’s table,” a reclaimed slate table top with custom-made corten legs, to hold the clients’ potted sun-loving plants. 

    See also:

    (Visited 761 times, 761 visits today)

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Before and After: From Yard to Garden, London Edition – Gardenista

    [ad_1]

    Susanna Grant is a garden designer and co-director of Care, Not Capital, with the irrepressible John Little (we wrote about him here). With help from “lots of excellent gardeners and ecologists,” they offer a free program that helps to equip trainees with the skills needed for “modern gardening.” Susanna explains: “The main idea is shifting the emphasis and some of the budget away from hard landscaping and infrastructure towards planting, habitat creation—and gardeners.”

    This little yard in North London was transformed by Susanna for like-minded clients, who had already successfully campaigned with their Islington neighbors to get the local authorities to install some planters on a sad stretch of sidewalk, which they described as a “disused piece of pavement.” They asked Susanna to make a wildlife garden there; then asked her to help them with their own disused backyard.

    Let’s take a closer look at the transformation:

    Photography by Susanna Grant.

    Above: A lot of plants and a consistent palette in the hardscaping make a small space seem bigger. “It was a tough brief as the owner wanted interesting plants: lots of planting plus room. I think it shows what you can fit in a space.”
    Above: “The back garden is tiny, north-facing and quite boxed in,” says Susanna. “It backs onto flats, and rather than try to pretend they weren’t there, I wanted to ensure the view from the house focused the eye on the planting—not up and beyond.”
    Above: “The client wanted interesting plants,” continues Susanna. “Although my scheme was predominantly quite woodland because of the aspect, there was an existing banana, nandina domestica and acer palmatum which I needed to work around. I added an Abutilon ‘Canary Bird’ right next to the house as it flowers for most of the year and picks up on the vibe of some of the existing plants.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Garden Visit: Beverley McConnell’s 12 Acres of Eden – Gardenista

    [ad_1]

    Only a handful of gardens around the globe are real must-visits for garden lovers. Ayrlies, on a large country estate near Whitford, southeast of Auckland on New Zealand’s North Island, is one.

    This masterpiece was begun more than 60 years ago by Beverley and Malcolm McConnell. As a young couple, they purchased a large rolling pastoral terrain, meant for cattle, to start their family. They were amateur gardeners with big ideas. They began by turning three acres into a garden, and over the years it grew to 12 acres of heavily planted informal gardens, with several ponds and water features.

    Beverley has the eye, and a natural sense of color, texture, and combinations. Her late husband, Malcolm, who headed up a large engineering and construction company, was keenly interested in water. And several years in they hired Oliver Briers, knowing it would take more than just the two of them to realize their dreams. Working by Bev’s side, he helped bring a sense of design to the property, now a lush garden of Eden.

    Beverley has been called the Vita Sackville-West of our day, working with a sub-tropical palette of exotics and native plants. Building a garden like this takes a lifetime, and to have a soul it needs an artist at the helm. Now in her 80s, she is still a vital force. If creating the ornamental garden wasn’t enough, in 2000 she embarked on a 35-acre wetlands project to restore five acres of swampland that connects the garden to the Hauraki Gulf.

    Photography by Ingalls Photography.

    The ponds and water features at Ayrlies were all created by Malcolm, who was fascinated by the effects of water in a garden. Here, tree ferns and aquatic plants create a lush scene, somehow making the pond look as if it�217;s been there forever.
    Above: The ponds and water features at Ayrlies were all created by Malcolm, who was fascinated by the effects of water in a garden. Here, tree ferns and aquatic plants create a lush scene, somehow making the pond look as if it’s been there forever.
    Many areas of the garden are delineated by theme, plant selection, and color. In the Lurid Border, Beverley plays with hot Gauguin-like colors: orange day lilies �216;Flaming Nora�217;, black-leafed castor bean, and variegated canna with striking orange blooms, underplanted with silver stachys, or lamb�217;s ear.
    Above: Many areas of the garden are delineated by theme, plant selection, and color. In the Lurid Border, Beverley plays with hot Gauguin-like colors: orange day lilies ‘Flaming Nora’, black-leafed castor bean, and variegated canna with striking orange blooms, underplanted with silver stachys, or lamb’s ear.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Expert Advice: 9 Tips for a Moody Winter Garden – Gardenista

    [ad_1]

    In fall the Instagram feeds of many of our favorite gardeners, quite understandably, start to wither or move indoors. Not so that of Dutch garden designer Frank Heijligers. Indeed, much like the dames of imperial Russia, who, rather that retreating from the cold, donned furs and tiaras in anticipation of the social high season, Frank’s winter garden seemed to reach the height of its sparkling charm.

    Enchanted, we decided to ask Frank, who grows grasses, perennials, trees, and shrubs at his nursery, Plantwerk, to divulge his secrets for a successful winter garden. Here are his nine tips for adding sparkle and moody color:

    Photography by Frank Heijligers.

    Embrace black.

    Above: Now a dramatic black, the once purple cones of Agastache ‘Black Adder’ still stand tall in the frosty winter garden.

    “Successful winter gardens need a lot of plants with good structure in them,” says Frank. “The plants have to be strong and have more than one interest: nice foliage, bloom, color, seed head, change of color in fall, strong skeleton in winter.”

    Showcase long-lasting seedheads.

    Like spectators at the ballet, crowds of Monarda ‘Croftway Pink’ seedheads watch a changing fall landscape.
    Above: Like spectators at the ballet, crowds of Monarda ‘Croftway Pink’ seedheads watch a changing fall landscape.

    Fill the gaps.

    Because plants with good structure tend to bloom later, Frank notes that the successful four-season garden �220;starts with having a little more patience in spring.�221; To fill in the gap, he uses bulbs. Alliums, which maintain a sculptural seed head after they have gone by, are a good choice.
    Above: Because plants with good structure tend to bloom later, Frank notes that the successful four-season garden “starts with having a little more patience in spring.” To fill in the gap, he uses bulbs. Alliums, which maintain a sculptural seed head after they have gone by, are a good choice.
    One of Frank�217;s gardens in summer. Though lust and leafy, it still maintains a textured feel.
    Above: One of Frank’s gardens in summer. Though lust and leafy, it still maintains a textured feel.

    Consider frost-proof plants.

    A similar border garden in winter, when the regal heads of Phlomis take on a silver sheen.
    Above: A similar border garden in winter, when the regal heads of Phlomis take on a silver sheen.

    “Hosta or Alchemilla mollis are plants that look good early on in the year, but with the first bit of frost, they collapse,” Frank says. “You need plants like Phlomis, Aster, Eupatorium, Veronicastrum, and Anemone combined with grasses like Deschampsia, Miscanthus, Sporobolus, and Festuca mairei to make the garden look good until March.”

    Another sculptural favorite: Veronicastrum ‘Pink Spike.’
    Above: Another sculptural favorite: Veronicastrum ‘Pink Spike.’

    Bonus: Birds love all the leftover seedheads in Frank’s hibernal garden.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Magic in Maidenhead: An English Garden That Glows in the Winter – Gardenista

    [ad_1]

    When Sarah Pajwani and her family moved into their house near Maidenhead (an hour from London) in 2011, it was surrounded by an “overgrown field.” Having created a design rationale with the help of professional landscapers, Sarah set about filling her garden with plants of her choice, border by border. Despite her best efforts, in winter she would gaze out of the windows and still feel that there was nothing to look at.

    Now, every garden-facing room in the house frames a different aspect of the winter scene, and the house has a lot of windows. Dare we suggest that winter is the garden’s best season? We can report that Saint Timothee, as it is called, was the first garden of the year to be open for the National Garden Scheme and Sarah gave us a tour.

    Read on for 11 clever design ideas from Sarah to make the garden glow in the winter:

    Photography by Britt Willoughby Dyer, for Gardenista.

    1. Red Twig Dogwood

    A row of glowing red Cornus sanginea �216;Midwinter Fire�217; brings out the best in Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii. Famously vivid in spring, the euphorbia holds on to its structure and excellent leaf color in winter.
    Above: A row of glowing red Cornus sanginea ‘Midwinter Fire’ brings out the best in Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii. Famously vivid in spring, the euphorbia holds on to its structure and excellent leaf color in winter.

    Saint Timothee is a picture of 1930s gentility, with an Enid Blyton kind of name. Yet the garden is not in a time warp. Sarah uses colorful stems, scented shrubs (such as Lonicera fragrantissima, Viburnum x bodnantese ‘Dawn’, Sarcococca confusa), sparsely flowering trees (Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’) as well as grasses mixed with evergreens to brighten the winter scene. Several paths and borders lead the eye from one of the inside windows, across the garden.

    2. Mixed Grasses

    Smoldering dogwood stems draw attention to the drama of super-sized pampas grass, flanking a pond.
    Above: Smoldering dogwood stems draw attention to the drama of super-sized pampas grass, flanking a pond.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Samin Nosrat’s Communal Courtyard Garden in Oakland, CA

    [ad_1]

    Like many excellent chefs, Samin Nosrat is also a keen gardener. When she’s not recipe testing or cooking for friends or, as is often the case these days, traveling to promote her new cookbook Good Things, she can be found puttering around the courtyard garden that she shares with three other households in Oakland, CA. (I wrote about their unique communal living situation in the 2022 book Remodelista: The Low-Impact Home.) Every neighbor pitches in when it comes to gardening chores, “but I tend to drive the bus,” she admits.

    “I’ve been gardening avidly for about 15 years now. My interest in it grew out of both my cooking career and my love of flowers and friendships with Sarah Ryhanen [of Saipua] and [floral designer] Nicolette Owen. And over the years, as I’ve spent more time in the garden, it’s occurred to me that many of my maternal ancestors were also extraordinary gardeners,” she shares.

    “For many years I was hesitant to start gardening because I was a renter and felt like, ‘What’s the point? I’ll have to leave everything behind when I move!’  Then, a master gardener taught me that gardening’s real takeaway is the experience, and that even the best gardeners have tons and tons of failures. This has been a great gift to me, as a recovering production-oriented perfectionist. I love that gardening gives me a daily opportunity to slow down and pay attention, to get my hands dirty, and to learn how to look at my surroundings.”

    Below, Samin takes us on a tour of her courtyard garden, a place for gathering together and growing things. (Curious about her home kitchen? Head over to Remodelista for a peek.)

    Photography by Aya Brackett.

    The courtyard is where the neighbors come together for shared meals.
    Above: The courtyard is where the neighbors come together for shared meals.
    Above: “I don’t have much room in the front of my house and there is a lot of shade, too, so I took a maximalist approach and tried to pack in as much of a cottage garden here as I could,” she says.”Lots of moody oxalis, hellebores, and heuchera, as well as different types of ferns, including a beautiful bronze fern…. I’ve got chocolate akebia climbing the front, and added a clematis this year. There are a couple different abutilons, a few silver-leafed Japanese camellias, and some oak leaf hydrangea. I also always have Minoan lace and Dara Daucus planted, and then I add annuals throughout the year.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Garden Designers Harry and David Rich’s Cottage Garden in Wales Is Like a Fairytale

    [ad_1]

    All week, we’re revisiting the most popular stories of 2025, including this one from May.

    A transportive garden can owe as much to a magical setting as to the plantings. At the garden of brothers and award-winning garden designers Harry and David Rich, the surrounding landscape ramps up those feelings before a visitor even sets foot in the garden. Nestled deep in Welsh woodland, this is a fairytale cottage fully immersed in nature—including roving herds of sheep—where access is possible only by bridge over a stream, a tributary of the River Wye.

    The atmospheric garden is one of 18 featured in my new book Wonderlands: British Garden Designers at Home, in which I explore the private spaces of leading landscape designers, revealing how their own homes become testbeds for their professional projects; these are spaces for the slow evolution of ideas, schemes, and plant combinations, as well as private idylls where they can retreat from the world. Some are grand projects created over decades, but many, like Harry and David’s cottage garden, are hands-on gardens created with limited resources in the past few years.

    Photography by Éva Németh.

    Above: A run of pleached crabapple trees dissects the space and creates a link from the building to the garden.

    Harry relocated from London to the secluded cottage just north of the Brecon Beacons in Wales, where he now lives with his wife, Sue, and their two children. But the garden has always been a shared project between the two brothers, who together became the youngest winners of a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2012, when Harry had just formed his landscape architecture firm and David was still at university. They went on to create two more gardens at the show, winning another gold medal in 2014.

    Above: Plantings are taken right up to the cottage walls, increasing the sense of full immersion in greenery.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • A Secret Garden in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, by Julie Farris of XS Space

    [ad_1]

    Overhauling a townhouse backyard after a renovation is a fairly common assignment for a New York City landscape designer. For one recent project, Julie Farris, the founder of XS Space, was given different a task. “Rather than erase and start anew as most projects do, the goal with this project was to identify the aspects of the previous garden, and to try to magnify those aspects in a more targeted and precise way,” says Farris. The results are a garden that felt deeply personal from Day One.

    Farris’s clients had lived in their Brooklyn brownstone for some time before deciding to add an addition to the ground level. The family loved their home and slightly wild yard, where they had built many memories. “It sort of had this secret garden kind of feel,” says Farris. But as is so often the case post-construction, the 20 x 45-foot garden was left in a sorry state in need of a total overhaul. 

    “They wanted it to feel very natural and organic—sort of revealing what was there rather than inventing a new landscape,” says Farris. The clients requested a stretch of grass for the kids and a little more privacy from the nearby neighbors, but they didn’t have a laundry list of outdoor rooms and functions they wanted to cram into their space. What they wanted was simply a garden. 

    “It was more about having a quiet sanctuary for their family and some friends and not being a showy kind of garden,” says Farris. The family was also intent on doing it as sustainably as possible. “They wanted native plantings, birds, and butterflies,” says Farris.

    The resulting garden is something of a sleight of hand: It honors the spirit of the previous garden, but almost every inch of it was built from scratch. It’s a lesson in the power of restraint and resourcefulness: All the sustainable materials and climate-appropriate plants make this garden feel like it belongs here. Now it’s ready for decades more memories.

    Take a tour of the understated yet elegant space.

    Photography by Matthew Williams, courtesy of XS Space, unless noted.

    Architecture firm Bangia Agostinho Architecture designed the two-story rear extension and deck on the house. The renovation resulted in three different outdoor spaces for Farris to design: The backyard, a new deck, and a little terrace off of the primary bedroom that sits on the roof of the extension.
    Above: Architecture firm Bangia Agostinho Architecture designed the two-story rear extension and deck on the house. The renovation resulted in three different outdoor spaces for Farris to design: The backyard, a new deck, and a little terrace off of the primary bedroom that sits on the roof of the extension.
    Farris describes designing the garden as a process of “sculpting the edges” to draw the eye outwards. “There�217;s this negative space, and then you�217;re just kind of feeling how you want to structure the space in terms of hierarchy and softness,” she says. 
    Above: Farris describes designing the garden as a process of “sculpting the edges” to draw the eye outwards. “There’s this negative space, and then you’re just kind of feeling how you want to structure the space in terms of hierarchy and softness,” she says. 

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Wild Is Best: A Low-Water, High-Spirit Garden in a Small Footprint for an Architect – Gardenista

    [ad_1]

    File this under Seemingly Antithetical but True: The tinier the outdoor space, the more verdant it should be. “We find that minimalist garden strategies work well on large, vast spaces, while smaller gardens are more conducive to wild, exuberant approaches,” says David Godshall of LA- and San Francisco-based landscape architecture firm Terremoto. “Therefore, in this small space, we got wild.”

    The garden in question belongs to architect Fredrik Nilsson of Studio Nilsson, a neighbor and friend of David’s, and was, when the pair began, “mostly just dust,” David remembers. Construction had just wrapped on the compact, architecturally forward LA house Fredrik designed for his young family, and the remaining space on the lot was tight—some of it set at an incline. Still, the family “wanted to make the most of it. They have a young daughter and wanted to spend family time together outside as well,” David says.

    Creating the feeling of an oasis, even in a busy urban environment, was key. “Through conversation and walking onsite together, we realized we want to create privacy from the street, and thus we planted jasmine to intertwine with the steel fence and make the garden smell wonderful,” says David. A mix of native California flora, low-water plantings, places to lounge, and artfully hardscaped paths complete the pocket-sized escape.

    Join us for a look at this garden that’s every bit as lush as it is compact.

    Photography by Caitlin Atkinson, courtesy of Terremoto.

    The house, designed by Fredrik, is set on a petite lot. When Terremoto took on the project, David remembers, �220;Fredrik had designed the concrete aspects of the hardscape, and those were in place.�221; Fredrik had also designed the powder-coated wire-mesh fence: �220;It�217;s designed to allow vines to grab hold and take over with time while still preserving a visual connection to the street and into the property,�221; he explains. �220;The fence facing the two neighboring properties is cedar planks. It has the same materiality as the house but untreated, allowing it to weather over time.�221;
    Above: The house, designed by Fredrik, is set on a petite lot. When Terremoto took on the project, David remembers, “Fredrik had designed the concrete aspects of the hardscape, and those were in place.” Fredrik had also designed the powder-coated wire-mesh fence: “It’s designed to allow vines to grab hold and take over with time while still preserving a visual connection to the street and into the property,” he explains. “The fence facing the two neighboring properties is cedar planks. It has the same materiality as the house but untreated, allowing it to weather over time.”
    Tiered gravel steps lead to a small sitting area. �220;The planting plan is really a mix of native Southern California species and low-water regional species as well,�221; says David. �220;The garden is as much for local insects and wildlife as it is for the family.�221;
    Above: Tiered gravel steps lead to a small sitting area. “The planting plan is really a mix of native Southern California species and low-water regional species as well,” says David. “The garden is as much for local insects and wildlife as it is for the family.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Garden Visit: An 81-Year-Old Daily Gardener in Oakland Shares Her Lessons Learned – Gardenista

    [ad_1]

    Ann Nichol’s home and garden in Oakland, CA, is impossible to miss. Fortunately, there is ample street parking on her block to pull over and gawk and be inspired by the colorful waves of plants on her property.

    When Ann and her husband moved into their home in 1983, the property was filled with agapanthus, a few camellia bushes and “tons and tons of crabgrass,” she says. After two years of clearing and amending the tired soil, Ann was ready to make the garden her own. The only plant that survived the purge: a stately Canary date palm that has since quadrupled in height. “I hemmed and hawed over it for quite a while, as I wasn’t keen on having a tropical garden. However, having decided to let it stay, I felt obliged to keep it company with other tropical plants.” Ann eventually brought in landscape architect Bob Clark, who suggested she divide the garden into different levels and rooms. Unfortunately, Bob left the Bay Area before he was able to add any plants. No worries, Ann was more than up for the challenge and, in the beginning, did the planting herself.

    Ann’s entry into gardening started when she was in her early thirties and living in a different house. Her neighbor across the street was a gardener and had a tiny plot filled with plants. Ann spent time with her friend in her garden and according to Ann, this turned into “a pastime, which became an addiction.” Still pruning, curating, and appreciating, Ann, at 81 years old, knows a thing or two about the power of gardening.

    Here are her lessons learned from decades of working the soil.

    Photography by Kier Holmes.

    It’s about the journey, not the destination.

    Above: Neighbors and people passing by get a free and inspiring view of her lush and well-loved oasis.

    What gardener doesn’t get impatient and want immediate gratification from time to time, but deep down we know that we need to slow down, pause, and not rush ourselves so terribly. Ann knows this mantra well as some of her chosen plants don’t bloom overnight or fill in the nooks and crannies with a blink. “Being patient positively affects both plants and well-being,” she shares. “Once you and your plants get to know each other, the plants will tell you what they need if you listen.” Do they need more water or a shadier spot, perhaps?

    Trust your gut.

    Even the steps leading to Ann�217;s front door are decorated with specimen potted plants, creating another plant-filled experience.
    Above: Even the steps leading to Ann’s front door are decorated with specimen potted plants, creating another plant-filled experience.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Jake Hobson’s Garden: A Tour of the Niwaki Founder’s Mini-Forest Backyard

    [ad_1]

    Jake Hobson is a master pruner. He’s written two books on pruning: Niwaki: Pruning, Training, and Shaping Trees the Japanese Way and The Art of Creative Pruning: Inventive Ideas for Shaping Trees and Shrubs. And he’s the founder of Niwaki, a Japanese-inspired garden tool company headquartered in England. So, it should come as no surprise that his home landscape in Dorset is full of artfully shaped, precisely pruned shrubs and trees. But it isn’t your usual English garden with clipped hedges—nor is it a replica of Japanese gardens.

    “Everything I do is inspired by Japan, but I’m deliberately not making it all Japanese,” explains Hobson. “There’s no koi pond or red bridges.” Not only does Hobson eschew any decorative Japanese elements, he avoids ornaments altogether. “For me, a Japanese garden is creating a sense of a landscape—an idealized landscape—within the plot. If you bring in ornaments, you ruin the magic of scale. Whereas, if all you’ve got is plants, you can create a sense (if you squint and after a couple of drinks) that maybe you’re looking out into a deep forest.”

    Hobson has successfully created this illusion of landscape within his small space. Looking out the windows of the home he shares with his wife, Keiko, and their son, or gazing at photographs of Hobson’s green, layered garden, it’s hard to believe that it’s not much bigger than a tennis court. 

    When Hobson and his wife bought the house, the backyard had four sheds, a mismatched bunch of overgrown conifers, and a ton of concrete paths. They ripped it all out, leaving just the evergreen hedge that blocks the view from a neighboring building. Hobson commissioned a local carpenter to build a single new shed inspired by a Japanese “summer house” at the back of the plot. Then he planted dozens of evergreen and coniferous shrubs and trees that he has been training and pruning for the last fourteen years. The result is a garden that feels like its own miniature world, full of living sculptures.

    Let’s take a tour of Hobson’s garden, which he photographed himself. (You can follow him on Instagram @niwakijake.)

    Every year Hobson lets the grass grow long and mows a new path through it. “Zigzagging through the garden is a really Japanese thing,” he notes. “You never just go straight into a house.” At right are some of Hobson’s undulating boxwood and a Phillyrea latifolia, which Hobson calls a “cloud-pruned tree.” (He had been growing it for years at his parents home before moving it to the garden.)
    Above: Every year Hobson lets the grass grow long and mows a new path through it. “Zigzagging through the garden is a really Japanese thing,” he notes. “You never just go straight into a house.” At right are some of Hobson’s undulating boxwood and a Phillyrea latifolia, which Hobson calls a “cloud-pruned tree.” (He had been growing it for years at his parents home before moving it to the garden.)

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Lu La Studio Turns a Parking Lot Into a Multi-functional Rewilded Garden in Somerville, MA

    [ad_1]

    The depaving movement has become something of a national sport in the Netherlands, with municipalities competing to see who can remove the most paving from their town each year. Stateside the crusade to replace concrete and asphalt with permeable landscapes (ideally: gardens) may be slower to take hold, but it’s been around for nearly two decades, starting with Depave Portland in Oregon and spreading to communities across the country.

    In Somerville, Massachusetts, Depave Somerville organizes “depaving parties” for homeowners. Landscape architect Sara Brunelle, one of the founders Lu La Studio, was selected for one of these volunteer-run events. So, one April day, an asphalt recycling dumpster and a crew of about 10 volunteers showed up to tear up the parking lot behind Brunelle’s house with crowbar and sledge hammers. 

    Brunelle and her business partner, landscape designer Katie Smith, had dreamed up a new permeable landscape for the yard, but they didn’t anticipate how gratifying the actual depaving would be. “It was truly joyful—like the best of a CrossFit gym and an awesome wild community,” says Brunelle. “It really was electric. Katie and I both have a background in urban gardening. This was an awesome moment of direct action.” It was also a little emotional: It began to rain right after the depaving was complete, and they realized the soil had not felt rain for at least 70 years. “That smell of rain on earth was so poignant,” Smith says. “That’s our responsibility as landscape architects to rehabilitate.”

    Brunelle and Smith’s goal was to create a multi-functional, re-wilded garden for all the residents of the multi-family building. They managed to fit in an eating area, a play lawn, a permeable parking space, and a vegetable garden on the 30 feet by 40 feet lot. 

    Photography by Haley Dando, courtesy of Lu La Studio.

    Before

    The gray-on-gray view of the parking lot from the street.
    Above: The gray-on-gray view of the parking lot from the street.
    The yard behind Brunelle’s home was nothing but asphalt and a few conifers.
    Above: The yard behind Brunelle’s home was nothing but asphalt and a few conifers.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • A Santa Monica Backyard by ORCA Inspired by Mediterrannean Landscapes

    [ad_1]

    For those familiar with Los Angeles, the words “Santa Monica” will likely conjure up a very Californian version of the all-American idyll: an iconic pier and long stretches of boutiques surrounded by tree-lined streets and quaint homes with tidy lawns and the occasional shrub or agave. The scene is so picturesque that you can’t blame most homeowners for choosing to simply cut and paste these same elements onto their own landscapes.

    So when Molly Sedlacek, the founder of ORCA, was contacted by two prospective clients seeking a Mediterranean-inspired garden for their Santa Monica property, she was intrigued. And when they mentioned the idea of ripping up the existing driveway and replacing it with more garden, she knew immediately she would accept the job. In the world of landscape design, it’s typically the designer finding, and sometimes fighting for, more green space—not the other way around.

    What proved problematic was the site itself. A relatively small footprint meant that every square inch, including the aforementioned old driveway, had to be put to good use, especially since a new outdoor kitchen would also be required. So Sedlacek went about designing programmatic areas that would blur the lines between each other and the home’s interior. “The client needed a garden that is connected to their everyday lives: an art room that spills into the entry courtyard, a living room that opens up onto the dining patio, and a dining room that overlooks the pool.” To better define these areas, Sedlacek leaned heavily on the home’s existing white stucco and Spanish-influenced exterior to select hardscaping elements that would feel “naturally weathered” and right at home on a Balearic island.

    Her inspiration: Potter’s House Mallorca, the retreat made instagram-famous by European garden designer Luciano Guibbelei. “We studied it for plants colliding with the water’s edge, groundcovers feeling very effortless, and also the use of fruit trees, bees blossom, and Ligularia dentata.” But while the resulting garden may look just like an arid landscape pulled from the coast of Gibraltar, it is primarily composed of U.S. natives and nativars, with a sprinkling of Mediterranean species for effect. Sedlacek and team brought in deep-green species like Ceonathus ‘Snow Flurry’, Frangula californica and Dryopetris arguta to contrast with the lighter palette, while Oenothera lindheimeri and Carex pansa create languorous drifts in sunnier areas.

    The whole effect is of something wild and slightly forgotten. Sedlacek’s favorite element is tucked in the back corner of the garden, next to the site of a brand new pool, where the native Rosa californica clambers up a brick wall from the early 20th century to form a near-perfect simulacrum of an old European villa. “Seeing something built in 2025 that highlights something that has [already] lived here for a century is very special.”

    Photography by Justin Chung, courtesy of ORCA.

    Sedlacek carved out new beds and added permeable paving in what used to be the entry driveway. The new space functions as a courtyard where kids can play, and still has enough hard surfaces to squeeze in a car if necessary.
    Above: Sedlacek carved out new beds and added permeable paving in what used to be the entry driveway. The new space functions as a courtyard where kids can play, and still has enough hard surfaces to squeeze in a car if necessary.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Iford Manor: A Tour Its Magnificent Gardens in Somerset

    [ad_1]

    Last month, the Garden Museum Literary Festival (a traveling event that visits a different historic garden each year in the U.K.) arrived at Iford Manor, just a few miles southeast of Bath in Somerset, England. Over two days, there were fascinating talks and conversations with designers, writers, and makers, including potters Edmund de Waal and  Frances Palmer; photographers Tessa Traeger and Ngoc Minh Ngo; and landscape architects Jinny Blom and Tom Stuart-Smith.

    But perhaps the most wonderful discovery was the location itself. Iford is a Palladian manor house (its Georgian façade conceals its older Elizabethan origins) with an extraordinary Italianate garden created by the architect-turned-landscape-architect, Harold Peto, who bought the property in 1899 and developed the gardens until his death in 1933.

    Location is everything—and Iford Manor’s is spectacular. Although “challenging” might be the way some describe it. Accessible only via two narrow, twisting lanes which meet on a medieval stone bridge that crosses the River Frome, the property sits on a slope in a wooded valley on the cusp of Somerset and Wiltshire. The steep slope means that the garden has been cut into the hillside in a series of terraces and walks, many of which are designed to offer tantalizing views out to the bucolic landscape.

    Although much of the garden had been created long before Peto’s arrival, his passion for the Italianate style, and for ancient architecture, statuary, and antiquities led him to reimagine it into a series of classical and often theatrical walks and rooms.

    Its modern renovation begins with Elizabeth Cartwright, who bought the property from Peto’s nephew in 1965 and began a series of repairs. Along with her husband John Hignett she would continue to restore the house and garden until their son and daughter-in-law, William and Marianne Cartwright-Hignett, became the custodians in 2016. In 2022 head gardener Steve Lannin arrived to continue the estate’s development and preservation.

    Join us for a tour.

    Photography by Clare Coulson.

    The Cloisters

    Above: Arguably the jewel of the garden is the Grade II* listed Cloisters that were built by Peto in 1914 to house his remaining artifacts. The columns are cut from Pavonazzo marble. This magical space is made all the more exquisite by the play of light across the architecture and the plants, carefully placed by Lannin.
    Above: The perfect symmetry and elegant arches of the courtyard in the Cloisters were in part inspired by the Moorish architecture of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • A Stunning Garden in North Haven, NY, by DeMauro + DeMauro

    [ad_1]

    Strike one: a house in need of a major renovation. Strike two: a garden in need of love. Strike three: a remodel that left the surrounding landscape decimated. Such were the conditions that Emilia and Anna DeMauro, the sisters behind DeMauro + DeMauro Landscape Design & Gardens, encoutered when they first met with their client in North Haven, a hamlet north of Sag Harbor, New York. “When we came on the property, it was essentially a construction site,” remembers Emilia. “It really was just exposed earth—just dirt. And further back it was so overgrown in some areas it was difficult to even walk.”

    With a main house, a barn, a pool and a pool house, the two-acre property was not quite a blank canvas. There were also mature oaks dotted across the property, which abuts both woodland and wetland. In addition to repopulating the landscape with native plants, the client, an avid cook and gardener, hoped to add vegetable and cut flower beds (she also wanted to keep the peach trees planted by the previous owner). Last, the client wanted to highlight several sculptures by her late husband.

    To tackle the large project, the DeMauro sisters created distinct gardens within the property, including two pollinator gravel gardens close to the house, a wildflower meadow near the wetland, grassy meadows on either side of the driveway, three cut flower beds, and fourteen vegetable beds—plus, on-site composting and even a chicken run.

    Take a tour of the revived and diverse bayside landscape:

    Photography by Doug Young, courtesy of DeMauro + DeMauro.

    Before

    Above: Before the landscape redesign, the land surrounding the house was nothing but compacted, post-construction dirt. Anna saw the sunny spots between the two house wings as the perfect opportunity to create a dry gravel garden inspired by Beth Chatto’s celebrated garden in Essex.

    After

    Two years after DeMauro + DeMauro’s installation, the pollinator gravel gardens are coming into their own.
    Above: Two years after DeMauro + DeMauro’s installation, the pollinator gravel gardens are coming into their own.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Victorian Terrace Garden in Herne Hill by O’Sullivan Skoufoglou

    [ad_1]

    At first glance, the Victorian terrace in Herne Hill looks like so many others on its South London street: stock brick, narrow footprint, and the familiar rhythm of windows and doors. Inside, however, O’Sullivan Skoufoglou Architects have reimagined the house as a sequence of framed views of the garden—an architecture of light and green. The new lower level pivots around a clerestory lantern and an interior courtyard, spaces that pull daylight deep into the plan and dissolve the boundary between indoors and out.

    The garden, meanwhile, by designers Ann Ison and Colin Clark, is organized into three areas: a sunlit entrance of wild planting and shrubs, a central paved courtyard, and a shaded rear with mature trees beneath the Victorian arches.

    Designed for a creative young family, the 680-square-foot garden is shaped around their brief: a refuge close to nature with interest across all seasons. Last summer, the family harvested vine tomatoes and herbs; over time, fruit trees and additional edible plantings will extend the garden’s role as both retreat and resource.

    Join us for a tour, and be sure to scroll to the end for a comprehensive plant list.

    Photography courtesy of O’Sullivan Skoufoglou.

    The view from the kitchen out onto the garden. Photograph by Ståle Eriksen.
    Above: The view from the kitchen out onto the garden. Photograph by Ståle Eriksen.
    Above: “The planting was chosen to form an ensemble that offers both harmony and drama of contrast,” says architect Amalia Skoufoglou.
    The garden looking back into the lower floor. Photograph by Ståle Eriksen.
    Above: The garden looking back into the lower floor. Photograph by Ståle Eriksen.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Color Theory: 10 Perfect Plant Combinations for Autumn – Gardenista

    [ad_1]

    “I don’t do frilly,” say Diane Schaub, director of gardens at Central Park Conservancy. We are standing under the shade of an old magnolia in the English garden, one of three smaller gardens within Central Park’s six-acre Conservatory Garden near the northeast corner of the park. Schaub, who earned a diploma from the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture, has been curating the Conservatory Garden for more than 30 years. And while she does not do frilly, she does do color and texture, breathtakingly well. She has a painter’s eye for composition and an architect’s instinct for structural detail.

    Below, we share her best color combinations for fall garden beds:

    Photography by Marie Viljoen for Gardenista.

    Burgundy + Green

    Above: “This is as frilly as I go,” she clarifies, indicating a velvet-leafed plant with burgundy leaves, beside the bluestone path. The plant in question is a Solenostemon (formerly classified as Coleus) and the cultivar is ‘Lancelot.’
     Solenostemon
    Above: Solenostemon ‘Lancelot’ (paired with Salvia ‘Paul’) belongs to a crew of leafy annuals whose impact is felt dramatically in this garden, where the seasonal spectacle owes a great deal to plants whose interest lies in their foliage.

    Purple + Yellow + Blue

    If you thought leaves were boring, think again. Solenostemon
    Above: If you thought leaves were boring, think again. Solenostemon ‘Purple Prince’, black-leafed Dahlia ‘Mystic Illusion’, and Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria Blue.’

    Purple + Red

    Elephant-eared Colocasia esculenta
    Above: Elephant-eared Colocasia esculenta ‘Black Magic’, Solenostemon ‘Redhead’, and Agastache cana ‘Heather Queen.’

    Purple + Lilac

    A bed of Pennisetum setaceum 
    Above: A bed of Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’, Salvia x ‘Indigo Spires’, the leafy and lilac-striped Strobilanthes dyeranus, and elephant-eared Colocasia esculenta ‘Blue Hawaii’. The latter “makes the whole composition work,” says Schaub. Dark purple Pennisetum ‘Vertigo’ is in the background.
    The English Garden is arranged in beds radiating from a central pond overhung by the largest crabapple tree in Central Park, leaves now turning yellow. Designed by Betty Sprout and opened in 1937, this part of the park was by the 1970s considered one of the most dangerous places in New York City. In 1980, the Central Park Conservancy was formed in response to the neglect the park had suffered in the previous two decades. Its founding director, Elizabeth Rogers, earmarked the Conservatory Gardens for renovation.
    Above: The English Garden is arranged in beds radiating from a central pond overhung by the largest crabapple tree in Central Park, leaves now turning yellow. Designed by Betty Sprout and opened in 1937, this part of the park was by the 1970s considered one of the most dangerous places in New York City. In 1980, the Central Park Conservancy was formed in response to the neglect the park had suffered in the previous two decades. Its founding director, Elizabeth Rogers, earmarked the Conservatory Gardens for renovation.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • The Low-Impact Garden: Fiona Brockhoff’s Nature-Based Garden on the Mornington Peninsula

    [ad_1]

    In just two weeks, Gardenista: The Low-Impact Garden lands in bookstores! We are so appreciative of all the interest the book has already generated. As a thank-you, our publisher is offering a 20-percent discount when you pre-order our book from their site (use code: GARDENISTA20) before October 14. 

    And if you need further enticement, here’s another sneak peek from the book: a tour of an inspired residential garden in Australia that takes its cues from the coastal national park right next door.

    Fiona Brockhoff grew to love the Mornington Peninsula’s wild ocean landscape as a child on vacation. When the renowned landscape designer built her family home here, the style was a nod to 1950s beach shacks—powered by solar panels and rainwater. Her garden is rooted in ecological resilience.

    Fiona’s love of native plants stems from long acquaintance, aided by her love of bush walking (or hiking) and camping. The house, named Karkalla after an indigenous coastal plant, and which she shares with her partner and extended family, sits on a strip of land that has the ocean on one side and Port Phillip Bay on the other. “It’s quite a harsh environment—it’s very windy and the soil is sandy,” explains Fiona. “The decisions we made were not just about the layout of the garden and the hard landscape elements. A lot of the plants that I chose were those I’d seen when I’d been walking in the Mornington Peninsula National Park, adjacent to our property.”

    The provenance of materials is as local as the plants: “The gravel comes from a nearby quarry, and a lot of the timbers are from a jetty that was renovated when we were building the garden.” Walls of regional limestone anchor the house and garden and are the continuing work of stonemason David Swann, Fiona’s partner, whom she met on the build.

    Fiona focuses on “appropriate planting” rather than lecturing people on the rights and wrongs of natives versus non-natives. When a client asks for bamboo and miniature maples to go in a Japanese-style garden, she asks them to go back a step and think about what it is about a Japanese garden that attracts them. Is it the simplicity and the restricted number of plants and elements in that kind of garden? If so, she suggests creating that feeling using local, indigenous plants.

    City people on the Mornington Peninsula can bring with them a Melbourne mentality, thinking that constant vigilance is required in watering and general fussing over plants. Fiona tells clients that unless they are growing vegetables, this is not necessary. “It’s more about allowing those plants to be themselves. They don’t require a lot of maintenance because they’re mainly indigenous, or they’re a good ecological fit. Yes, there’s some pruning, and the gravel needs a bit of raking, but on the whole, it’s about working with nature.”

    Photography by Caitlin Atkinson.

    Above: Sea box (Alyxia buxifolia, foreground) is found in native coastal scrub, but Fiona shapes it like ordinary boxwood. Behind the table is a clipped Melaleuca lanceolata, which in the wild would grow into a large tree. Says Fiona: “We’ve pruned boxwood, roses, and lavender. Why weren’t we pruning Australian plants?” The main barrier is perception, she suggests. “People say to me, ‘Is that really a native garden? But—it’s so beautiful.’”

    [ad_2]

    Source link