Serenity in the Garden

KIDS LOVE PIZZA... Pizza is the most popular choice on the school lunch menu in the United States. So why not grow a Pizza Garden? It can contain all the ingredients we find in a pizza pie.... Tomatoes, Onions, Peppers, Eggplant, Scallion, Parsley, Basil and Greek Oregano, among others. Here is what you can plant: All the photos below were taken from a wonderful Better Homes and Gardens article on a Pizza Garden 'Husky Red' Cherry Tomatoes 'Golden Jubilee' Tomato Basil Sweet Green Bell Pepper or Other Color Peppers Hot Jalapeno pepper You can also plant Greek Oregano, Parsley 'Italian Flat Leaf', Tomato 'Roma' ( small, oblong tomatoes with a thick meaty flesh), Basil 'Dark Opal', Red Leaf  Lettuce and Onion 'Spartan Banner' ... The Pizza Garden can be shaped like a pizza.  Tie a piece of string to a center stake and mark off a circle with it. The radius can measure 4 ft. to create...

( from Fast Company website) My graduate degree is in land planning, specifically, 'urban and regional planning'.  A misnomer in my case since I was already, back decades ago, a devotee of E.F. Schumacher and his 'small is beautiful' ideas. In 1955, the British born Schumacher (b.1911) accepted a three month assignment as Economic Development Adviser to the Government of Burma.  He soon concluded that the last thing the Burmese people needed was Western style economic develop­ment. He suggested that they develop a ‘middle way’ between the Western mode of increasing material consumption (satisfied by mechanised production) and the Buddhist ideal of satisfying human needs through dignified work (which also purified one’s character and was a spiritual offering).  He later coined the term ‘Buddhist Economics’ for a way of life that has respect for meaningful work and he urged industrial countries to scale down their ‘wants’ in order to meet their real p...

Ah, Color! If you love gardens you are especially sensitive to color.  So you will enjoy this wonderful global video that celebrates color made for the Lets Colour Project by Dulux Paint.... Grey is out. Orange is in. Shot by award winning director Adam Berg over four weeks in Brazil, France, London and India, 650 people transformed their communities with vibrant color. The following locations were shown: stairs in Lapa, Brazil, a council estate in Aulnay-Paris, a Virginia Primary School in Tower Hamlets-London a boys school, main street and community center in Jodhpur-India (The saris are as beautiful as the walls) The people painting are not actors but residents and volunteers from the local areas. The music track behind this film is 'Go Do’ by Jonsi   - a great song and a lovely call to arms for the world to start coloring. It's a life affirming movement that anyone can join - click here to find out how you can be a part of it - website: http://let...

To make a point, repeat yourself...that is what the business coaches tell us... repeat it and maybe it'll stick. So it is with landscapes...and art. Walter de Maria, an Amercian sculptor (b.1935) uses repetition in his work. His '13, 14, 15 Meter Rows' (1985) highlights his interest in mathematical systems and features 117 solid stainless steel rods, each one measuring one meter long and having equal volume and weight. They are ordered according to precise calculations.  As Gagosian gallery describes, natural light floods the gallery space through the south and west clerestory windows allowing the viewer to experience the artwork differently according to the weather and the time of day. (another sculpture by Walter De Maria) All this lovely art derives from gardens, I am sure. After all, before art galleries, there were gardens! So if you see your garden as an art gallery, of sorts, and your walkway as an art installation, you, too, can create a repetitive art pie...

A Great Lecture For those in the New York tri-state Area! Wednesday  May 26 - 6:30 pm A Great Morgan Library Presentation - cosponsored by The Olana Partnership, Central Park Conservancy, and Foundation for Landscape Studies. Great Romantic Landscapes: Central Park and Frederic Church's Olana This panel of expert historians and historic landscape stewards will explore the relationship between two of America's greatest nineteenth-century Romantic landscapes: Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's Central Park, and Olana, Frederic Church's villa and landscape garden. Speakers include Sara Cedar Miller, Central Park Conservancy historian and photographer and author of Central Park: An American Masterpiece; Katherine H. Kerin, Olana Landscape Curator; Evelyn D. Trebilcock, Olana Curator. Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, President, Foundation for Landscape Studies, will moderate. Tickets: $15 for Non-Members; $10 for Morgan, Olana Partnership, and Central Park Conservanc...

"Its all Connected" - so says Stuart, a set designer turned landscape designer, he wrote this to me (sent from his iPhone) and I thought I would share the edited version with you ...  When I saw your blog entry regarding 'black and white' it made me think of the time in landscape design class you asked me about set design... ( richard finkelstein set) What makes designing for the theater special is that for about two hours a number of people will congregate for an event in a finite theater space and see designs that ideally reinforce a well conceived text...a visually poetic expression of the text, or opera, musical.... you know, the narrative. But 'narrative' is inherent in all designs . It can be in the 'dialogue' between the colors and textures of plantings. Or, it could be the dialogue with a site's history or context... Every space has a story to tell in some way. When you talked in class about going to a site and 'feeling th...

(Rose Acevedo of Hilo, Hawaii) The Pepsi Refresh Project looks for people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact on their communities and funds them if they get enough votes from the public.  My blogging friend, Noel in Hawaii , wrote about Rose Acevedo   and asked us to vote for her idea ...she wants to have people help her harvest ripe fruit from people's trees in backyards in Hilo, Hawaii and donate them to local food banks and to the homeless. She writes, "I cannot reach all the yards alone. I must have funding to organize a team, purchase the required tools, ladders and a vehicle to harvest as much fruit as possible. The Hilo community is depending on it." I voted for Rose and now am asking you all to do the same if you like Rose's idea: Here is what she wrote to Pepsi: "Thanks to the sunshine, plentiful rain and the Aloha spirit there is an abundance of fruits and vegetables year round on th...