O.C. Simonds - An American Landscape Design Pioneer

Ossian Cole Simonds was one of the early practitioners of modern American naturalistic landscape design. His technique of using thickets of native trees and gently sculpted landforms in the early part of the 20th century caught the public’s attention and he became an influential landscape designer. He humbly attributed his design approach to “old principles” yet his innovative ideas were the inspiration behind the Midwestern ‘prairie style’ school of landscape design.

In a 1922 talk at the University of Illinois, Simonds urged design students to become familiar "with the hills and valleys, the level areas, the location of buildings, the distant views, the existing growth, the surrounding property…" before beginning a design.

He noted that a landscape designer has "a mission to investigate, study, and acquire knowledge regarding the beauty of Nature and to impart this knowledge to those with whom he comes in contact."

This ‘old principle’ of looking to Nature as teacher is still relevant today and at the heart of what I term 'the power of place'. So keep talking to those trees!

That Same Rock Garden - for Jim

My friend, Jim, says he hardly has time to read blogs but that he does look at photos...

so for Jim, I decided to place a few more photos of that rock garden I just wrote about ...

He is thinking of creating something similar in front of his 'fueling station'....

(the rock garden in summer)

Wouldn't it be great if all gas stations had gardens like this?  This is what the rock garden looks like right now, in early spring:

(Iberis (Candytuft) and Grape Hyacinths - an unbeatable combination)

A Rock Garden to Celebrate Spring (and a Wedding)

About 2 weeks before her daughter's garden wedding, my friend was in the throes of pre-wedding running around and decided that her overlooked hillside rock garden needed help, and fast.

She asked me, "Can you improve upon my little rock garden? It looks so unkempt."

I took the project without a second thought. My friend is from Switzerland where they create the most beautiful 'Alpine' rock gardens above the mountain summits. Although our rock garden could not sustain delicate 'alpine' plants easily, I did want to recreate a little bit of 'home' for her in her garden.

We did not have enough time to bring in a tractor or large rocks so I decided to rearrange the existing small rocks and gather sllightly larger rocks from their property. We used a large 'treecart' and lots of muscle to carry the rocks uphill to the garden site.

We dismantled the existing rock garden and gently dug up the existing plants. I created a narrow winding path with rock 'steps' leading through the garden. This path is both good looking and necessary. It acts as a 'spine' around which the rocks and plants are placed. It is also helpful for tending to low growing plants.

After that, I placed rocks throughout the garden and turned over and prepared the soil for planting (important! do not skip this step). Lastly, we planted new plants and replanted my friend's original garden plants.

Within 5 days, we transformed a forgotten corner of the property into a little gem of a garden. We added wonderful rock garden plants and several evergreen yews at the top of the rock garden to act as a green backdrop for smaller plants.

The biggest hit of all were the annual flowers that we planted, Gomphrena 'Buddy Purple' and the trailing White Bacopa. They are not standard rock garden plants but they provided a splash of color on the rocks all summer long. Some of the plants listed below are not hardy in my area - but they looked great during the wedding.

The Rock Garden Plant List

Campanula carpatica 'Blue Clips'   'Blue Clips' Campanula   6" - 8" h. blue

Campanula posharskyana   Serbian Campanula   6"- 8" h. lavender

Cotoneaster dammeri 'Coral Beauty'   'Coral Beauty' Bearberry Cotoneaster   2' -3' h. red berries

Delosperma cooperi   Ice Plant   6" h. vibrant purple

Delosperma nubigenum   Hardy Ice Plant   2" - 3" h. yellow

Dianthus gratianopolitanus 'Bath's Pink' 'Bath's Pink' Dianthus 6 - 8" h. pink

Dianthus allwoodii alpina   Alpine Dianthus   8" h. pink

Geranium 'Biokovo'   'Biokovo' Geranium 10" h.   White w/ Pink

Helianthemum nummularium 'Raspberry Ripple'   'Raspberry Ripple' Sun Rose   6" - 10" h.red & white

Helianthemum 'Wisley Pink'   'Wisley Pink' Sun Rose   6" -10" h. soft pink

Iris cristata   Dwarf Japanese Iris   6" - 8" h. purple

Kamtschaticum ' Varigatum'   Variegated Sedum   4" - 5" h. orange

Sempervivum 'Mahogany'   'Mahogany' Hens and Chicks   3" h. red tinged

Thymus wooly   Wooly Thyme   3" h. pink

Veronica repens   Creeping Speedwell   2" h. light blue

Veronica 'Waterperry'   'Waterperry' Speedwell  4" - 6" h. light blue

Gandhi and the World Peace Rose Garden

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves. –Mohandas K. Gandhi

महात्मा

Mohandas Gandhi was first called Mahatma (महात्मा) by Rabindranath Tagore. It means 'great-souled', a person of profound wisdom...and that he was.

Gandhi extolled the virtues of the simple life, spinning cotton, making salt and gardening. In fact, at the end of his life he lived in a self sufficient community in India called Sabarmati Ashram.

Gandhi's life was his message.  And his message was non-violence, love and yes, working the soil. In effect, he was reminding us - with his lifestyle - not to forget ourselves...

Peaceful living and gardening to me are synonymous. If you are a contented soul then you will inevitably be in the presence of flowers.

(Poolside landscape by Johnsen Landscapes & Pools)

Flowers embody peace. Gandhi knew this.

It was probably inevitable that some wise people would establish a memorial amidst flowers to Gandhi.  The Gandhi World Peace Memorial  was established in 1984 at the beautiful Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades in California, USA.

There are 90 multi-colored roses framing the memorial.

This garden spawned the establishment of the non profit International World Peace Rose Gardens (IWPRG) in 1988. Its purpose is to create captivating rose gardens dedicated to engendering peace on public, accessible sites.


The Gandhi garden is the first of five world peace rose gardens. Others are in Atlanta, Ga.; Mexico City, Mexico; Assisi, Italy and Sacramento, California. Proposals are in place for gardens in Vietnam, Brazil and China as well.

Sylvia Villalobos, President of International World Peace Rose Gardens says the gardens serve as places of inspiration and magnets for community activities, including the IWPRG youth programs.

Gandhi sang the song of love and peace and tilling the soil  He reminded us not to forget ourselves but to rejoice in the little things, the important things, the basic things.

Everything else is just fluff.

(Peace Hybrid Tea Rose  - The most widely planted rose in the world)

Grow A Three Sisters Garden

(from Nativetech)

According to Native American legend, corn, beans, and squash are three inseparable sisters who grow and thrive together.When planted together, the Three Sisters all help each other - the corn stalk serves as a pole for the beans, the beans help to add the nitrogen to the soil that the corn needs, and the squash provides a ground cover of shade that helps the soil retain moisture.

(courtesy of HumanFlowerProject)

Bean vines also stabilize the corn plants, making them less vulnerable to blowing over in the wind and spiny squash plants discourage predators from approaching the corn and beans. Addiitonally, the large amount of crop residue from this planting combination can be incorporated back into the mound at the end of the season, to build up the organic matter in the soil and improve its structure.

(pole bean plants - courtesy Hort purdue)

According to Three Sisters tradition, corn must grow in community with other crops rather than on its own. Why? Most thought it was because corn needed the nitrogen in the soil that beans supply but there is another reason.  Corn, the primary crop of mesoamericans, provides more calories or energy per acre than any other plant but lacks the amino acids lysine and tryptophan, which the body needs to make proteins. Beans, however, contain both and therefore together these two they provide a balanced diet.

Thus, this tradition of interplanting corn, beans and squash in the same mounds, is a sophisticated, sustainable system that provides long-term soil fertility and a healthy food supply!  

The wonderful website Nativetech provides simple instructions for planting a Three Sisters garden. This information comes from them - I modified it a little.

(me - a long time ago in my vegie garden)

1. In spring, turn over the soil and heap the earth into mounds about a foot high and about 20"  across. The centers of your mounds should be about five feet apart and should have flattened tops.

2. In the center of each mound, plant five or six corn kernels in a small circle.

3. After a week or two, when the corn has grown to be five inches or so, plant seven or eight pole beans in a circle about six inches away from the corn kernels.

4. A week later, at the edge of the mound about a foot away from the beans, plant seven or eight squash or pumpkin seeds.

(courtesy of New York State Museum)

5. When the plants begin to grow,  weed out all but a few of the sturdiest of the corn plants from each mound. Also keep the sturdiest of the bean and squash plants and weed out the weaker ones.

6. As the corn and beans grow up, make sure that the beans are supported by cornstalks, wrapping around the corn. The squash will crawl out between the mounds, around the corn and beans.

Renee's garden also offers instructions on planting on their website and sells this packet of seeds.

The Iroquois believe corn, beans and squash are precious gifts from the Great Spirit, each watched over by a sister or 'sustainer' spirit ( called 'De-o-ha-ko').

In truth it should be known as The Three Sustainers garden....a sustainability landscape indeed!

(courtesy of New York State Museum)

Savoring A Garden

Early Spring is a wonderful time to savor a garden....

Just as a wine connoisseur relishes that first sip on his tongue, so can we revel in a flower, a scent or even a Sprng breeze. Gardening and wine are very similar - although not essential to life, they enrich the experience and contribute to an overall sense of well being.

Garden lovers know what I am talking about - that exquisite moment of 'stop time' when the wafting fragrance of a single rose-pink blossom captures your attention and lifts you away.

Or when, basking in the warm morning sun, the birdsong is louder than the chatter in your head.

Or that first deep breath you take when stepping outside into the budding green realm where Flora reigns. In short, gardens allow you to delight in the little things of life, to savor the essence of the our natural world... to see the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Other activities can transport us away from the daily hubbub - yoga, reading, running - but only gardens can be shared. And gardeners are only too happy to share their 'dreamtime' with others. Its a gift to be able to say, "Come to my garden and be transported with me."

(Johnsen Landscapes & Pools)

How can an outdoor setting affect us so markedly? The realm of nature is a dynamic world that colors our outlook immeasurably. It is not simply a nice view or a pleasant sound - it is the energetic presence of all that enlivens us.

Garden lovers know this - the trilling of songbirds really does lift our spirits. The quality of
sunlight does affect our outlook. And red really does stimulate!

(Johnsen)

So go out there and align yourself with the spirit of nature outside your door - plant that pot of flowers....spread those nasturtium seeds...prune that smokebush....

and when you do, savor the air around you...it is humming with those subtle flavors of oak, maple and a slight hint of crabapple...

Its Time - Spirea, Butterfly Bush and 'Lifting' a Tree's Canopy

Russian Sage - Prune Back Now

In the northeast of the US, early Spring is the time to trim back many shrubs, especially those that flower on this year's wood... If you do this now then the plants will be full of flowers at a proper height.

If you don't, they will be leggy and odd looking...do not be afraid to cut, cut, cut....

Plants to prune back to a foot or 18 inches above ground now are :

Butterfly Bush Dark Knight (Buddleia spp.)

(courtesy of wayside gardens)

Spirea Anthony Waterer and other summer blooming spirea(Spirea spp.)

Limemound and Lemon Princess Spirea and other summer blooming spirea (Spirea spp.)

(photo courtesy of Greenleaf Nursery)

Blue Mist Shrub (Caryopteris spp.)

'Lifting' a Tree's Canopy

You may also prune certain trees now and remove selected lower limbs to 'lift' their canopy. This allows more air and light into a space, providing 'filtered' shade which makes the area more inviting and more hospitable to 'understory' shade plants.

Lifitng a tree's canopy is a time honored practice. Thomas Jefferson himself extolled the virtues of this pruning practice when he wrote:

'Let your ground be covered with trees of the loftiest stature. Trim up their bodies as high as the constitution & form of the tree will bear, so as that their tops shall still unite and yield dense shade. A wood, so open below, will nearly have the appearance of open grounds…"

(photo of Jefferson's Monticello)

The Energy of Stone and How to Use it in a Garden

Rocks reflect the energies of a place.

They resonate with the atmosphere of their natural setting and enhance the overall mood, engendering good feelings and a serene sense of place.

My belief in the power of native rock is borne out of decades of working with stone in the landscape. As I set them carefully in a slope, along stream beds and use them as rustic steps,  I cultivated a kind of 'rock awareness', and could sense which rocks were amenable to change and which were not.
 

(Johnsen Landscapes & Pools)

In fact, I silently talk to the stones as I work with them. The operative word here is 'silently' because if I spoke out loud I think the workers and my clients would look at me askance...but nonetheless, I do talk to the rocks.

 

My 'knowing' about a rock's innate energy is best described by Lame Deer, in his book, 'Lame Deer: Seeker of Visions':

"You are always picking up odd-shaped stones, pebbles and fossils,

saying that you do this because it pleases you,

but I know better.

Deep inside you there must be an awareness of the rock power,

of the spirits in them,

otherwise you would not pick them up and fondle them as you do."

How true. It is the rock power that you feel in a stony place. They vibrate to the place around them. If you pick a pebble up and carry it with you - then you have a little bit of that place with you.

This is why I prefer to use the rocks we find on a property in my rock walls and in rock gardens. These native rocks are, like native plants, the highest expression of a specific area.

(Johnsen Landscapes & Pools)

I know my suggestion to use native rock may sound strange to some but a garden is like music and the elements within can create consonance or harmony or dissonance or discord. 

Sometimes rocks that are brought in from another locale appear out of place or feel just plain odd.  I have found that native rocks (those from the same area) are in synchrony with the setting.

Even a house made from native stone such as this one in Maine has a certain 'belonging' that you don't get from the concrete stone veneers they sell today. Those ersatz 'stone' walls affixed to a backing board decorating a home's entrance don't sing the praises of a place but rather suppress it with their 'otherness'.

I guess I see using native stone in a garden as a collaboration. When you place them in a way that we can use and appreciate them -  as in steps or as edging -  they are like our co-creators. And that is good.... You could say using native rocks in a garden are our grateful nod to a bountiful Mother Earth.

As Douglas Wood notes in his wise book for children, Grandad's Prayers of the Earth.:

 "Rocks pray too," said Grandad. "Pebbles and boulders

 and old weathered hills. They are still and silent, and

those are two important ways to pray."