Landscape architect Thomas Rainer (whose blog Grounded Design I’ve raved about) recently spoke to a rapt audience at the National Arboretum’s Native Plant Symposium, addressing the big question – how to create a native-plant garden that looks like a garden. You know, cared for and pretty. So first he clarified that he’s no typical landscape architect but a true [...]
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Posted by
Susan Harris on April 10, 2012 at 6:30 am This post has 19 responses.
If you're not one of the 80,000 people already reading Leaf Magazine (after just one issue) then why the hell not? It's a free e-magazine, available right here. The new Spring 2012 issue, at 142 pages, is gorgeous and inspiring, full of the kind of garden design photography and...
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Posted by
Susan Harris on April 3, 2012 at 6:00 am This post has 12 responses.
The largest and oldest flower show in the U.S., the Philly Flower Show is a always grand, but especially this year (to this visitor) because it brought the lushness of Hawaii to green-deprived Easterners. Starting with this 30-foot waterfall festooned with orchids and Anthuriums. Below, don’t try this at...
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Posted by
Susan Harris on March 13, 2012 at 5:40 am This post has 7 responses.
Many in the gardening world are mourning the recent loss of Wolfgang Oehme, one of the world's most famous and influential landscape architects. He and his design partner James van Sweden populared sweeps of ornamental grasses and easy, mostly native perennials in a naturalistic style named The New American...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and Schemes, Unusually Clever People
Posted by
Susan Harris on December 27, 2011 at 6:36 am This post has 9 responses.
Of all the mistakes I've made in my garden over its 26 years under my direction, there are two that I won't be repeating in my next garden. (Here's my recent post about selling my house and moving on.) 1. Neglecting to take "before" photos is something I've regretted...
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Posted by
Susan Harris on November 15, 2011 at 7:33 am This post has 29 responses.
Bloedel After viewing two lovely examples in Seattle last week, I found that some among our group of garden-tripping bloggers seemed jaded by the genre. Their reasons varied, but two dominated: boredom, and a feeling that the style was too often misused. I must admit I’ve seen gardens their...
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Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on August 1, 2011 at 7:51 am This post has 14 responses.
Weeds have been on my mind lately. They always are, really, but after reading the Mabey book, I've been looking at them more closely, even to the point of stopping to examine the countless specimens I see in my daily travels. (Above is a Cirsium vulgare—bull thistle—I spotted at...
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Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on July 18, 2011 at 5:00 am This post has 14 responses.
And to be clear, this is a FRONT YARD and this planting technique continues across the entire property. (House not shown, to protect the guilty.) But wait, maybe this isn't landscape fabric after all, but sheets of black plastic – how creative! Addendum: This is how it's looked for...
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Posted by
Susan Harris on July 12, 2011 at 5:25 pm This post has 28 responses.
Don't laugh. You're looking at the future of garden design. Remember when we first got our iPhones? It was all about the apps. Mine is still loaded up with six screens worth, only 4-5 of which I use on a regular basis—a weather app, whatever will find restaurants and...
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Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on June 27, 2011 at 5:00 am This post has 14 responses.
We've long been admirers of Don Engebretson, the Renegade Gardener. We love his funny and spot-on yearly awards so much, we recommend them again and again and again. He's given this blog and especially the Manifesto a shout-out or two and we've become a mutual admiration society among...
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Posted by
Susan Harris on June 21, 2011 at 5:38 am This post has 47 responses.
Gardening in the digital age—is it 2.0, 3.0, or maybe 3.5? It depends. If you count all the websites, blogs, and social media about gardening, then I suppose there has been considerable progress. If we’re talking about digital garden planning and implementation, that’s different. Garden-related computer software and mobile...
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Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on April 4, 2011 at 6:47 am This post has 13 responses.
Making honey – total involvement Beekeeping is all the rage these days, and my friend Pam (PamJ when she comments here) is one of the many who’s become “Hooked on bees in suburbia.” That’s my story of her first year of beekeeping, including the highs, the lows, and the...
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Posted by
Susan Harris on March 29, 2011 at 5:32 am This post has 26 responses.
Meet the Flintstones. Sometimes it just needs to exist. This was not my year for any of the big shows, but I did have a chance to see a different local event—in Rochester, where I did a couple talks. And this weekend, I’ll be visiting Buffalo's, mainly to support...
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Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on March 22, 2011 at 4:56 am This post has 10 responses.
It was recently announced that Green Roofs for Healthy Cities has selected the green roof at the headquarters of the American Society of Landscape Architects in downtown DC to win an Award of Excellence, so congratulations are in order to everyone involved. That includes not just ASLA but the...
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Posted by
Susan Harris on November 22, 2010 at 6:28 am This post has 4 responses.
I'm handing out advice and arguing with some experts (would you believe the revered Barbara Damrosch?) – and on a corporate blog, no less. I know plenty of GardenRant readers (and writers?) will disagree with me but go ahead; I can take it. After 4+ years here, we've all...
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Posted by
Susan Harris on November 17, 2010 at 5:42 pm This post has 20 responses.
Thanks to Straight Dope.com, whoever that is, for investigating the "Mowing for one hour is equivalent to driving an SUV 300 miles" factoid we've all read a million times, or some version of it. Gas mowers ARE extremely inefficient, but it's nice to get the actual numbers right. Via...
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Posted by
Susan Harris on November 14, 2010 at 12:14 pm This post has 12 responses.
A study by the U. S. Forest Service has found that certain kinds of trees can reduce crime in an urban neighborhood. Certain kinds of trees. It’s really interesting. I had heard this on NPR last week, but didn’t write down the reference and couldn’t find it on the...
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Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on November 9, 2010 at 4:40 am This post has 17 responses.
Wisteria has surprisingly nice fall color. Agreed. Trend surveys are little more than marketing fodder and often are blatant advertising of certain products. However, I still like to look at them because I always found something interesting, or something that, regardless of why it’s named as a trend, I...
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Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on October 21, 2010 at 7:45 am This post has 17 responses.
I got to hear plantsman and American Meadow author John Greenlee talk to the landscape architects recently and learned that what he designs to great effect aren't really meadows as we commonly use that term. He calls them grass ecologies and if I knew that I might not have...
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Posted by
Susan Harris on October 4, 2010 at 5:17 am This post has 20 responses.
Here's more on garden objects from guest ranter Benjamin Yogt/The Deep Middle Your house is your home. You can, of course, do whatever you want to the inside or outside. Unfortunately, in regards to the outside, the rest of us have to look at it and wonder what you...
Read more in: Designs, Tricks, and Schemes, Guest Rants
Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on September 10, 2010 at 10:28 am This post has 47 responses.
