Serenity in the Garden

Its 92 degrees outside. Sweltering. The air hangs like heavy drapes upon the landscape. There is no breeze. The garden quietly endures. So what can you do to lighten the oppressive atmosphere? ADD A BUBBLING URN -  a  recirculating water feature Japanese style bubbling urn by Jan Johnsen Why do this? Because the sound of water and its dynamic presence ( ask the great Dr. Emoto) add life and energy to a stultifying summer garden...  Bubbling urns and fountains bring sparkle to your garden. You can build a recirculating water fountain cheaply by buying parts in a hardware store or more expensively by going to a pond supplies vendor....I am not good at hardware so I buy kits. aquascape Bubbling Urns are set atop an underground reservoir that keeps re-circulating the water. Once the urn fills with water, the water spills over into the underground basin, which pumps the water back up through the urn. aquascape flavio website...

stone bench by Johnsen Landscapes & Pools  In the summer, gardens in my part of the world, are a tangle of foliage, flowers and dense tree canopies. We know we should start cutting back, limbing up or clearing out the overgrowth but what we really want to do is sit in the cool shade and drink a glass of iced tea. Stone Bench by  Johnsen Landscapes & Pools What better contrast to the green lushness that surrounds you than a stone seat or bench, grounded and cool to the touch! Stone seats in the garden have a storied history. The Druids of Northern Europe fashioned stone chairs out of boulders. It is thought that they were used for rituals and perhaps coronations of a sort. Today, in the British Isles and in France, you can find ancient stone seats in fields, woods and near sacred springs. See some great stone benches at the  Stonepost  website Sunny Wieler, an Irish stonemason / artist, follows in his ancestors' tradition a...

Garden Gnome, anyone? A few years ago, the Royal Horticultural Society in the UK declared that the banned garden gnome was now allowed to be part of the  Chelsea Flower Show. Tackiness be damned! Garden gnomes for all!   Garden gnomes, those funny little white-bearded  creatures,  are associated in England with the landscapes of the not-so-rich and the unfamous.   According to English gardening maven, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen,  “Gnomes are very symbolic in English gardens as an anti-class statement." Born to be Wild Gnome Anti-class? anti- posh?  These happy little garden sprites (or small and creepy men, depending on your point of view) are reminders that we are all free to fashion our gardens, our little bits of heaven, in our own way.   I remember, growing up in Brooklyn, walking by many a 'bathtub Mary' in the chainlink bordered front yards of those lucky enough to have a front yard.   They would take a cast ...

"What matters most are the simple pleasures so abundant that we can all enjoy them... Happiness doesn't lie in the objects we gather around us.  To find it, all we need to do is open our eyes.”  ―  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ,  The Little Prince

Benches make a garden.... After you arrange all the plants, the rocks, install the paving and whatever you choose...then you place the bench.  The bench is what calls to us. And the bench adds a special sparkle that touches the visitor directly.  After all, the bench seat is what we feel when we sit down.  :-) Monet Bench at NYBG - Monet's Green is Pantone 327 and the closest Benjamin Moore match is Juniper. So it must look great and feel good.  Here are some choices for your garden. Roseto Bench by Crate and Barrel This  plantation harvested teak bench  has a clean, contemporary double vertical slat-back design.  mortise-and-tenon joinery. This red bench is in Croton on Hudson, NY . A great place to sit and look at the Hudson River....  I love stone benches: And modern ones are so fun - like this eye beam bench: Lucky Beam Bench by Katch Design The  Lucky Beam  bench by Brooklyn-...