Serenity in the Garden

rocks and blue fescue - Johnsen Landscapes My upcoming book, The Spirit of Stone (published by St Lynn's Press) will be out in February, 2017 .  It looks at many ways you can use natural stone in the garden from artful accents and stone walks to sustainable dry creeks and rock gardens. One of the topics I address is the art of setting stones in a rock garden. I once lived in Japan (I worked in a landscape architecture office in Osaka) and so I feel a special connection to Japanese rock gardens.   In my work with placing rocks (often with large machines) I always listen to what the stone says. Sometimes, after a tough time placing a rock , I say that the stone does not want to be there and remove it.   I used to think that this conversation with a rock was my unique approach. But I was wrong.  I also said that the first rock to be set determined the rest of the rocks in the garden and so this was the most important. Again, this was an old rul...

Curved Walk - Jan Johnsen The line of a garden walk can be an integral part of the overall composition rather just a simple linkage. And the layout of a garden wall can be something more than a physical barrier.  For example, ancient Chinese garden designers used curving perimeter walls to enclose their revered gardens.  Osvald Siren described the winding grace of a Chinese garden wall in his book, 'Gardens of China': “They seldom follow straight lines, and as a rule are not broken in sharp angles; they rather sweep in wide curves, ascending and descending according to the formation of the ground and thus often have the appearance of being elastic or modeled rather than built up.” The elasticity of a curve lends a mysterious air to Chinese gardens. Andy Goldsworthy, the great land art artist, did this with a stone wall at Storm King Mountain Sculpture center. You can also attract people’s interest by laying out a walkway in a strong, playful line. Here I l...

C.L.Fornari photo of flower ice cubes in a serene garden in Cape Cod C.L. Fornari, aka The Garden Lady, has a wonderful garden radio show that  airs every Saturday on the Cape Cod station WRKO from 12-2 p.m. You can hear it as a podcast online. Her show covers many gardening and landscaping topics and she discusses her favorite plants and answers listeners' gardening questions.  C.L. is also the author of the inspiring book,  The Cocktail Hour Garden: Creating Evening Landscapes for Relaxation and Entertaining The Cocktail Hour Garden shows how to enjoy that special evening hour in the garden I was especially thrilled a week ago to be interviewed by C.L. about my book, Heaven is a Garden.   She asked some great questions about what is music for the eye in a garden and how to make your garden in tune with the four directions. C.L. is an insightful interviewer and I wanted to  share our short and fun chat with you! Click  below to hear ...

rose hips photo by Jan Johnsen  Allow your roses to form hips. Did you know that, like  many plants that produce fruit, the formation of rose hips is a signal to the rose to go dormant for the season? from Monrovia - Japanese rose  Rose hips provide wonderful color in the garden and are a good source of vitamin C for birds in the fall and winter.  They are one of the highest plant sources of Vitamin C. 'Cherry Pie' Rose makes great rose hips: Oso Easy Cherry Pie Rose -from May Dreams Garden Blog  You can eat them too. Rose hips are used for jam, jelly, syrup, soup, beverages, pies, bread, and wine.  They can also be eaten raw if care is used to avoid the hairs inside the fruit.   The redder they are, the softer and sweeter.   source: live by the sun blog  for more info on roses go to Chris Van Cleave - click here . 

Amsonia foliage sparkles in fall Speaking with Earth Spirits  Deep down, in the warmth of the fecund earth, the spirits sing songs of life. Hoping we hear, they inhale and exhale along with the seasons. Beautyberry in November Now, in the cool days of November, they sing to us of rest and replenishment  and ask us to be calm. Molinia stands tall in late fall The time has come to listen and of course, to rake the leaves...the leaves... - Jan Johnsen the deep reds of November

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This is a great magazine. Have you noticed that I love the new Garden Design Magazine? At every talk I give, I gush about it.  It is a gorgeous magazine devoted to garden design and plants. Every article is fascinating. It comes every few months. Dwarf NY Asters featured in the Fall issue of Garden Design magazine Now they have upped their game even more and have developed some fabulous videos that share with you a little of what is in their issue.... Jim Peterson, the publisher and driving force behind the magazine, plans to make three kinds of videos. The first supports stories in the magazine. The second is about garden features that are popular and on the fabulous Garden Design website  and the third will be about garden design and will be made in collaboration with designer,  Richard Hartlage. Here is an interview with the editor of Garden Design magazine, Thad Orr, talking about the magazine and what is covered. It is a gem of a magaz...

October Skies Aster- Jan Johnsen   In my part of the world - New York State - October is when Mother Nature shines.  The days are shorter, the sun is low in the sky, but the weather stays warm enough for the flowering plants to hang on.  I design and install gardens with October in mind because it is now when people have time to appreciate their grounds - it is too cold for the beach and graduations and summer parties are a memory.  This is when people can stop and savor a garden.   The design of Fall gardens is something I urge my students to master because these gardens prolong our enjoyment of Nature's gracious gifts.   And, more importantly, they quietly trumpet the siren call of the garden muse who is about to take her leave...but not just yet..... she sticks around to give it one last show .... So in that vein, I am describing a little of what goes into making a autumn flower b...

Otisville Correctional Facility - where I taught but it was not this nice looking back then In the 1970s, I was a part of a team that taught a one year intensive certificate program on Landscape Development and Maintenance at a community college near New Paltz, NY. I was a young instructor but was very earnest and devoted to teaching. Then one day the president of the college called me in and told me that I, alone, would be teaching all my courses at a men's correctional facility 44 miles away.  What??!! all my classes? away from the campus? in a prison? After much protesting, I was sent 'away' to teach the entire program at a men's prison. Well, as often happens, it was one of the best experiences in my life. I taught full time there for 2 years and still cherish the memories. Otisville Correctional Facility classroom  - but not my specific class I have a lot of fun stories. We installed walks, plant beds and even a solar greenhouse (it was donate...

Rock Art by Thomas D Kent, Jr This is funny.   Glenn Eichler wrote an open letter to the New York Botanical Garden in 2014 in the New Yorker regarding his love of their rock garden. He felt it deserved more attention:  "...rocks—dragged by glaciers, striped and striated by, I guess, also glaciers—deserve better.  Not sexy? Compared to what, the Donald J. Bruckmann Crabapple Collection?  No disrespect to Mr. Bruckmann, but Mick Jagger and Keith Richards haven’t spent fifty years playing to sold-out crowds as the Rolling Crabapples, the world’s greatest crabapple-and-roll band." Glenn has a point, don't you think? Mick Jagger in garden

 I have written about the Native Americans'   Three Sisters Garden  (corn, beans and squash ) but I neglected to tell you of the  Fourth Sister ... a very important member of this family! This is from  Hubpages :  "Fourth Sister, didn't look anything like her other sisters, although she was as tall and as slender as First Sister (corn) . That seemed fair to all, because Third Sister and Second Sister shared similar but different features. They could climb and run, while their other two sisters were forced to stand tall and proud." Mother Sun explained that each sister had her job and each had to benefit from and protect one another.  But Fourth Sister's job was most important of all -- for she was the  guardian of the North ,  planted firmly, to protect others from the robbers who soon would come. The fourth sister was the elegant sunflower. The Sisters are known to the Native Americans as th...

Verbena Bonariensis is tall and airy and one of my fave flowers.   It blooms like crazy all summer into fall. I plant it next to walls and fences for a stunning effect. Here I mixed it with white cosmos -   purple and white is such a great garden combination.  The lavender clusters are held high on wiry stems that wave in the breeze from mid summer to frost.  Called "verbena on a stick",  it is a hummingbird magnet and is an easy flower to grow.  It p refers full sun in well-drained soil. Remove top 1/4 of plant periodically to force new buds.    

Farm in Upstate NY - photo Jan Johnsen I often write about creating beautiful outdoor environments to lift our spirits and enhance our wellbeing but we cannot be comfortable if the health of our planet is deteriorating. We talk about restoring balance to the earth. This starts with the soil. Once the soil is revitalized the  atmosphere and weather will correct itself.   Here is why: the sky and earth interact. In other words, droughts come from poor soils, pollution and other inharmonious activities on the ground. Fix the soil and the droughts and storms will subside.  So start with fertilizing the soil - this does not mean applying more soluble  nitrogen fertilizers loaded with anhydrous ammonia or nitrates. Doing this to plants is like feeding them amphetamines. Reliance on poisons to grow our food is one of our major problems right now.  Changing thi...