It’s always a delight to catch up with our friends at the California design studio Terremoto. Talk inevitably ranges beyond the confines of gardens, touching on issues within the landscape industry that are rarely addressed.
Appreciation of laborers and the creativity that they bring to a project is part of the Terremoto DNA. Co-founder David Godshall explains how this dynamic collective of garden thinkers and doers continue to meet the moment, while showing us around a lovely little garden in Ojai, northwest of Los Angeles.
Photography by Caitlin Atkinson except where noted.
On the Client Brief
Above: At the back of the house, old Chinese elm trees provide protection from the elements.
“The bones of the property were very beautiful but needed updating to be more functional for the clients, as their needs were softly different from the previous property owner’s. An avocado orchard existed, which we, of course, preserved and protected, and coast live oaks surround the property in a beautiful halo,” says David.
Above: For an area in full sun, “We created a mosaic of native and non-invasive Mediterranean plants.” These include sage and lavender.
“The magic of Ojai (I say this as a plant nerd) is that it sits at the confluence of multiple horticultural typologies,” David continues. “It’s a place where coastal sage chaparral crashes into agriculture (most notably avocados and citrus) and more cottage-y, slightly old-school garden-making traditions. Opuntia and geraniums have a surprisingly synergistic relationship. Our clients wanted to bring their garden into a thoughtful new era while being respectful of the innate qualities of Ojai that make it the place that it is.”
A woman who tried to retrieve her lost phone from between boulders in Australia’s Hunter Valley became stuck upside down for seven hours before she was rescued earlier this month.Just the bare soles of the woman’s feet can be seen in photos of the incident posted on social media Monday by the New South Wales (NSW) Ambulance service.The woman had been walking with friends on a private property in Laguna, a country town in the Hunter Valley about 75 miles from Sydney, when she dropped her phone.Somehow, as she tried to retrieve it, she slipped face-first into a nearly 10-foot crevice between two large boulders.Her friends tried for an hour to free her, according to the NSW Ambulance service, but eventually gave up and called for help.NSW Police said emergency services were called at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 12 about a 23-year-old woman who had become trapped while attempting to retrieve a cellphone.For the next seven hours, police, ambulance, fire and volunteer rescue crews tried to free her, police said in a statement.Several heavy boulders were removed to create a safe access point, then rescuers built a frame to perform what was becoming a very delicate operation, they added.”With both feet now accessible, the team faced the challenge of navigating the patient out through a tight ‘S’ bend over the course of an hour,” NSW Ambulance shared in a post on Facebook.A winch was used to move a 1,100-pound boulder to free the woman, and she was finally released at around 4:30 p.m. the same day.Miraculously, she escaped with only minor scratches and bruising.Peter Watts, NSW Ambulance specialist rescue paramedic, said he’d never seen anything like it.”In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic I had never encountered a job quite like this, it was challenging but incredibly rewarding,” Watts said. “Every agency had a role, and we all worked incredibly well together to achieve a good outcome for the patient.”The woman, whose name has not been made public, was taken to the hospital for observation. Her phone, however, remains trapped between the rocks.
CNN —
A woman who tried to retrieve her lost phone from between boulders in Australia’s Hunter Valley became stuck upside down for seven hours before she was rescued earlier this month.
Just the bare soles of the woman’s feet can be seen in photos of the incident posted on social media Monday by the New South Wales (NSW) Ambulance service.
The woman had been walking with friends on a private property in Laguna, a country town in the Hunter Valley about 75 miles from Sydney, when she dropped her phone.
Somehow, as she tried to retrieve it, she slipped face-first into a nearly 10-foot crevice between two large boulders.
Her friends tried for an hour to free her, according to the NSW Ambulance service, but eventually gave up and called for help.
NSW Police said emergency services were called at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 12 about a 23-year-old woman who had become trapped while attempting to retrieve a cellphone.
For the next seven hours, police, ambulance, fire and volunteer rescue crews tried to free her, police said in a statement.
Several heavy boulders were removed to create a safe access point, then rescuers built a frame to perform what was becoming a very delicate operation, they added.
“With both feet now accessible, the team faced the challenge of navigating the patient out through a tight ‘S’ bend over the course of an hour,” NSW Ambulance shared in a post on Facebook.
A winch was used to move a 1,100-pound boulder to free the woman, and she was finally released at around 4:30 p.m. the same day.
Miraculously, she escaped with only minor scratches and bruising.
Peter Watts, NSW Ambulance specialist rescue paramedic, said he’d never seen anything like it.
“In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic I had never encountered a job quite like this, it was challenging but incredibly rewarding,” Watts said. “Every agency had a role, and we all worked incredibly well together to achieve a good outcome for the patient.”
The woman, whose name has not been made public, was taken to the hospital for observation. Her phone, however, remains trapped between the rocks.
It’s no coincidence if Japanese gardens remind you of those scene-in-a-shoebox dioramas you made in grade school.
A Japanese garden is a miniature world full of abstract shapes–rocks, gravel, and cloud-pruned plants–designed to represent the larger landscape of nature. And Nature. For centuries, Zen Buddhist monks and other Japanese landscaping designers have been trying to provoke deep thoughts, with design elements such as raked gravel paths and moss checkerboards and tiny bonsai trees trained to look permanently windswept.
A Deep Question: How do you channel all those centuries of serenity to add a bit of Zen to your garden?
The Answer: Steal one or more of our favorite 10 garden ideas from Japan:
Plant a lacy Japanese maple. There are hundreds of different varieties of Acer palmatum, the maple tree native to Japan. With gracefully articulated leaves and diminutive stature (most don’t grow taller than 30 feet), Japanese maples tuck themselves easily into nearly any size garden. Varieties with multi-branched trunks have a sculptural quality and become a natural focal point in the garden.
Use rocks as a design element. In Japanese gardens, the pleasing shapes of large rocks and craggy boulders are reminders of the larger natural landscape that surrounds us. Depending on the size and shape, a rock also can serve as a functional element–as seating or a table–in the garden.
“Necessity is the mother of invention” is a famous proverb, precisely because it’s so true. If you need proof, look no further than the origin story of Dovetail Workwear.
The idea for a line of workwear tailored specifically for women, and made by women, emerged when landscapers Kate Day and Kyle Marie Summers were hired to design the Portland, OR, garden of their client, Sara DeLuca, an apparel designer. Kate and Kyle griped about their ill-fitting workwear to Sarah, who, as it turned out, had aspirations of revolutionizing women’s workwear. The connection was immediate and serendipitous. The three started designing stylish, functional, and durable garments for female laborers, from the skilled tradeswoman to the backyard gardener. In 2018, Dovetail was born. “Sara’s garden really is the genius loci of Dovetail—where it all began and the most OG of field testing locations for our products,” says Kate.
Today, we’re giving you a tour of Sara’s backyard, the garden that launched a clothing brand.
Above: What started as a water-break conversation about workwear woes on Sara’s back deck soon turned into a design challenge to make the perfect work pants for the modern woman. Pictured are Sara (left) and Kate, both wearing Dovetail workwear.
Sara had vision and bought her house in inner Portland after it had been abandoned for several years and sat on short-sale. After more than a year of meticulous renovation to restore its historic 1908 charm, she turned to Kate and Kyle to transform the neglected and overgrown mud pit (her backyard) into a sweet outdoor jewel box that highlighted the intimacy of the contained landscape, had ample space for relaxation, and, of course, offered visual beauty.
Above: A small lawn for Shasta, Sara’s dog, to roll around in.
The dream was to create zones that could evolve with time, spotlight the seasons, minimize water demands, achieve a balance of hard- and softscapes, rethink the approach to daily foot traffic between Sara and her brother’s house, and spotlight several visual focal points from and inside the house. Last, Sara wanted rain gardens in both the front and backyard living spaces (because: Portland). “We designed the garden in what we used to say was our ‘Portland Romantic’ style–lots of texture, touches of subtle color, a boulder-filled rain garden, and mixed foliage and forms to make it feel inviting and alive,” says Kate.
Above: Pacific Northwest garden staples—ferns and bleeding hearts.
Sara’s yard is a stellar study in considering how yards must evolve over time. Sara’s children were young when the garden was first designed, but naturally the family’s needs changed over time. “Kyle and I took cuttings from a neighbor to build a willow house that the kids enjoyed for years, which was eventually removed to create a seating and reading space,” says Kate. Similarly, the dry river bed in the back of the garden, supported by Fiddlehead Landscapes, who did the stonework, doubled as a place for the kids to climb and frolic, but once they outgrew playing outside, Kate added drought-tolerant plants within the rocks to enhance visual interest.
caption: “The big takeaway is that gardens are not static and how important it is to create zones that can morph and change over time to keep yards compelling and interesting,” says Kate. Here, she’s adding plants to the dry river bed, now that Sara’s kids no longer play there.
Growing up on a farm, Sara now has her version of a mini urban farm. She has native bees (mason and leaf cutters) visiting her yard, chickadees nesting in the birdhouse, and Shasta, her dog, who loves rolling in the grass. Plus, plants just grow more in the Pacific Northwest because of the lush rains and temperate winters. “Staying on top of pruning the crape myrtle, maple, dogwood trees, and several other bushes like the ninebark and flowering currant helps maintain their structure and health,” says Kate.
Above: Adirondack chairs in a corner invite lingering.
Over the past five years, Kate has continued to update Sara’s garden even though she now works full-time building Dovetail. “But I’m constantly evolving her yard, and equally as important, wear- testing our apparel.”
Eight months after then-Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and then-Transport Minister Michael Wood unveiled options for a second harbour crossing, two transport bodies have opposed the preferred option and work has started on cheaper alternatives.
In August, Labour chose to go with two three-lane tunnels for vehicles and a 21km light rail tunnel between the CBD and Albany that would take decades to build and was priced at an eye-watering $56 billion in a newly released council report.
Former Transport Minister Michael Woods and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins in front of the Auckland Harbour Bridge ahead of an announcement about new Waitematā Harbour crossing options in March. Photo / Michael Craig
The Ministry of Transport and Auckland Transport do not support the road/light rail tunnel plan, and Auckland councillors are expected to join them at Thursday’s transport and infrastructure committee meeting.
What’s more, the new Government will almost certainly kill the plan for light rail to Albany, but could adopt some of the work for a revised crossing.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown said during the election, National campaigned on the importance of a second crossing for Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour to reduce congestion, provide additional options for commuters on both sides of the harbour and address capacity pressures on the ageing Auckland…
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