Serenity in the Garden

Thomas Church - Donnell Residence, Sonoma, CA 1948 Thomas Church was one of the most influential American landscape architects of the twentieth century. His ideas on the 'modern' landscape revolutionized home landscaping and changed the look of the suburban backyard.  Born in Boston in 1902, he attended college in California and came under the spell of its climate and outdoor lifestyle.  Church received his landscape architecture degree from Berkeley in 1923 and his Masters in Landscape Architecture from Harvard in 1926. Tommy Church - Plan for Donnell Church urged people to see residential property as a single living space with the house and garden directly connected.  This was a dramatic notion for its day.   His greatest influence was through his books and numerous articles. His popular book on home landscapes, 'Gardens are for People ,' was published in 1955.    Church advocated four basic landscape design principles: •...

"Serenity.  Serenity is the great and true antidote against anguish and fear,  and today, more than ever, it is the architect’s duty to make of it a permanent guest in the home, no matter how sumptuous or how humble.  Throughout my work I have always strived to achieve serenity, but one must be on guard not to destroy it by the use of an indiscriminate palette." Luis Barragan, 1980 

We all know that herbicides can harm us and the environment, so it follows that scientists are studying natural weed control methods.   A team at Michigan State University  recently studied the effectiveness of   mulched maple and oak leaves on common dandelions in bluegrass lawns. The team tested chopped up leaves of red maple, silver maple, sugar maple and red oak and looked to see how they worked to suppress dandelions in a lawn. They found that after one and two mulch applications (at a high rate of mulching)  up to 80% and 53% reduction in dandelions was achieved, respectively. This makes sense since leaves lay naturally on a meadow and are not blown off. They block light and water and suppress weed growth.. But we, lawn owners, immediately blow off all the leaves on our lawn in our early spring 'clean up' which opens up sun to all weed seeds.  We then apply pre-emergent weed ...

I planted these 'Negrita' tulips as a companion to the pink PJM Rhodies Olga Mezitt.  Purple and pink are great colors for a spring garden! Tulips make such a splash in the garden - I once planted some for a client and he liked them so much that the following fall he planted hundreds more!  Here are some photos from his tulip display: Tulips at a client's property  Jan Johnsen tulips around a Kwanzan Cherry tree that we planted Tulips along a fence - a classic pairing

Polygonatum odoratum ‘Variegatum’ Variegated Solomon’s Seal was the   2013 Perennial Plant of the Year . It is deer resistant and loves shade. It flowers in spring. It is a shady woodland gem... Variegated Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum odoratum ‘Variegatum’) grows 18 to 24 inches tall and tolerates full-shade. It is a great companion plant to hostas, brunnera, dicentra, ferns, and astilbes.  The sweet fragrance of its small, bell-shaped white flowers will enhance your walk along a pathway on a spring morning. And you can use its variegated foliage in spring floral arrangements. And finally, this all-season shade lover offers yellow fall foliage color. photo by George Weigel It will spread by rhizomes to form colonies.  Increase by dividing clumps every two to three years. photo by Rush Creek growers Below are all of the Perennial Plants of the Year since the beginning of the program in 1990. Click on the name for more info o...

Do you garden in a dry area?  I love this teaching approach by Olivier Filippi. 1: Salvia chamaedryoides 2: Rhodanthemum hosmariense 3: Artemisia abrotanum 'Silver' 4: Phlomis 'The South' 5:  Senecio vira-vira 6: Salvia fruticosa 7: Salvia leucophylla 8: Artemisia lanata This photo and information is from a French website that I cannot translate into English. It is by the authority on dry gardens, Olivier Filippi, and is very good. Check it out:    http://www.jardin-sec.com/ Also he wrote a great book called 'Planting Design for Dry Gardens'.  Nigel Dunnett says,  "In  Planting Design for Dry Gardens  Olivier Filippi has charted a future for garden and planting Design. Combining authoritative practical advice with deep ecological insight, Olivier shows how learning from nature can give us the best of all worlds: beautiful and sustainable gardens with a unique sense of place. I challen...

A Solid Take on Landscaping Meets a Perennial Classic Esther Jackson  is the Public Services Librarian at  NYBG ’s  LuEsther T. Mertz Library  where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events. Jan Johnsen ’s  The Spirit of Stone  is a new book from Pittsburgh-based publisher St. Lynn’s Press. Johnsen, an instructor with The New York Botanical Garden’s Adult Education Department, brings 40 years of experience to bear in her newest book. In the introduction of  The Spirit of Stone , Johnsen writes: Stone is often an overlooked player in a landscape. While we may swoon over the many shapes and colors of plants within a garden, the stone walks and walls stand silently by, perhaps unnoticed. This ...