joene's garden » Anna Gresham Landscape Design School

A Seventeenth Century New England Garden

joenesgarden — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:38:07 +0000

To fulfill one of my landscape design lessons, I sunk my imagination into what the gardening life of a female settler at Plimoth Plantation might be. I needed to design a small garden to show key characteristics of an authentic garden set in a period of my choosing. I've long been fascinated by the survival skills learned and adopted by 17th century New England colonists - even tried my hand at braiding onions and garlic - so I opted to develop a series of garden beds indicative of this time.

One of the main characteristics of gardens of this period is their randomness. To optimize planting space beds were created wherever they fit. Beds were not necessarily evenly spaced or arranged. Paths between each bed were narrow and often filled with weedy growth. Garden size depended on the size of each family and the number of mouths to feed. Principles of more modern landscape design such as unity, balance, proportion, rhythm/movement, and interest were not an important consideration. Instead, the driving forces behind early settlers' gardens were function, convenience, efficiency and productivity. They had to grow as much food as possible plus all herbs, medicinal, and dye plants they might need throughout the year. Survival depended on the harvests from smaller garden or kitchen plots and from larger field-grown corn, beans, squash, grains and other edible crops.

Settlers took care to fence edible gardens from roaming livestock and edge raised planting beds with large rocks or the trunks of felled trees … tasks likely relegated to men. Otherwise colonial women did most or all the gardening chores, including digging/hilling the soil, spreading manure, planting, harvesting, collecting seed … all with little help from other family members who were busy elsewhere.

My design shows perennial herbs such as hyssop, lemon balm, sage, thyme, sweet woodruff or mints in green. Yellow shades are annual vegetables like pumpkin and other squash, cabbage, carrots, melons or beans. Fruit trees, perhaps an apple, pear and plum, and berry brambles are planted along the western edge. Additional berries and fruiting shrubs like mulberry or quince run along the north fence line. The heavy black line in the upper right is part of the house. The lighter line just below it is a livestock pen.

Portraying this garden accurately meant squelching the urge to build planting beds of uniform size and shape; to ignore creating paths that could accommodate landscape machinery or garden carts; to forget aesthetically pleasing plant placement; and to forego any thoughts of hardscape or grassy pathways. Settlers did not have herb gardens or beds of dye or medicinal plants. They intermingled all the plants they needed to grow. They placed plants wherever they found space. Pathways were overgrown with weeds, worn down to bare soil, or possibly scattered with the crushed shells from seafood harvests.

These were rough, rugged working gardens. But I think their simple functionality shines through. There's still balance, rhythm and movement, but it's that of a period when garden design took a back seat to growing edible plants to survive.

Categories: Gardening, General, Techniques, Training.
Tags: Anna Gresham Landscape Design School.

Share this post:
Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Google Bookmarks
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Technorati Favorites
Twitter
Yahoo! Buzz

Concept Garden: Herbs and Butterflies

joenesgarden — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:44:01 +0000

It's been a while since I posted about my educational journey towards certification as a landscape designer. I'm still plugging away, moving around and through some roadblocks life dropped in my path, and my journey is taking longer than I want, but anything worth having is worth working for … so I continue to follow my Papa's advice to keep dancin' or, in this case keep studyin'.

One of the lessons involved designing a dynamic space – an area that urges people to move and allows them to do so safely and comfortably. The dynamic space must lead to a static space that encourages quiet, passive activities. My creation for this lesson uses a paver pathway to lead from a flat lawn into a formal herb garden. The four ground-level beds have lower-growing herbs (thyme, Alpine strawberry, globe basil for instance) along the edges of the paved path. Mid-size (lavender, rosemary, chives, sage) and taller (fennel, blueberry bushes, hyssop, tansy) herbs fill the center and outer edges of these beds. A five-foot vine-covered trellis surrounded by mid-height herbs sits at the center of the first paved circle. With no benches or raised areas available for seating, visitors are encouraged to move along the pathways. But the the herb plantings serve as a distraction that slows movement so visitors can leisurely enjoy the scented foliage and colorful blooms of the herbal plantings.

The stroll through the herb garden leads to another circular area paved in an alternate pattern to denote a second garden area. Centered in this circle is a five to six foot tall potted specimen plant – think fig or citrus tree, or a flowering standard specimen. This second circular area denotes the entrance to the butterfly sitting garden. At it's center is a two-foot tall raised bed planter containing a solar-powered fountain – the noise of the moving water helps drown out distracting outside sounds - surrounded by flowering annuals/perennials. At the outer edges of the raised bed, opposite three benches, rests three shallow butterfly-watering basins. While sitting on the benches visitors can observe the butterflies as they flit from flowering shrub to flowering perennial to flowering annual to the shallow watering basins. Square potted container plants sit at the four corners of the square pathway. The planting areas at the edges of the square, paved path are planted with butterfly-attracting shrubs, ranging from three to six feet tall, that enclose the seating area in blooming shrubbery.

This formal design, which calls for paver pathways and granite edging can be adapted to create a less formal feel. Planting beds could have less formal cut-soil edging to keep lawn grass at bay. The paths could be loose gravel, fieldstone, or woodchip gravel. Planters could be simple clay pots. Plantings in the sitting area can also be altered to attract hummingbirds, or the entire design could planted as a kitchen or edible garden. Some of the herbs could be replaced by salad greens, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and beans and the sitting area could be surrounded by small fruiting trees and shrubs.

The idea is to entice visitors into the area using the straight path, slow their movement by the attraction of and interest in the planting beds and, finally, give them reason to stop and reflect on the natural beauty surrounding them as they sit on the benches. Busy gardeners often need to be reminded to stop a while to enjoy the fruits or flowers of their labor. Creating a sitting area enclosed by gardens will do just that.

Click Training under the Topics heading in the sidebar to read previous posts related to landscape design and other training.

Categories: Garden Design, Gardening, Training.
Tags: Anna Gresham Landscape Design School, butterfly garden, herb garden, landscape design journey.

Share this post:
Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Google Bookmarks
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Technorati Favorites
Twitter
Yahoo! Buzz

Landscape design styles – part 1

joenesgarden — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:17:12 +0000

One of my recently completed landscape design lessons required researching three major landscape styles and submitting a report on my findings and how each style - Paradise Gardens, the English Landscape Movement, and Japanese Gardens - impacts modern garden design.

We often don't think where design ideas originate. We may copy aspects of other gardens seen in books, magazines, or in person, but where did the inspiration for these gardens come from? We may inherently know certain sites better avail themselves to geometrically planned garden beds while other sites call for less formal and more curvaceous lines … and we all recognize sites of visual discord, but outside of ingrained creativity where does the gut sense that one design works while another does not come from? What's the history behind what we do as modern gardeners?

Here's an excerpt from the first part of my report. It briefly covers Paradise Gardens.

Modern garden design draws on gardening styles developed over centuries. People from multiple geographical regions sculpted landscapes to fit their needs, desires, and beliefs. Contemporary garden designs utilize aspects of three major historical landscape styles. Each style reflects how humans of certain periods shaped the terrain on which they lived into varied forms and functions.

The peoples of arid regions developed gardening methods that tapped into local water supplies and protected precious food crops from the harsh climate. Drawings from ancient Egyptian tombs as old as 3000 B.C. depict walled, symmetrically planted gardens irrigated with redirected waters from nearby rivers and streams. Hand excavated canals delivered water to areas previously unable to grow vegetation. The combination of walled structure and availability of water gave rise to the planting of groves of trees, the creation of fish filled pools, and garden areas in which to grow food crops.

Paradise Gardens

Gardens in the «Paradise» style have a central focus from which other aspects flow outward. In Persia (300 – 500 B.C.) these gardens were typically quadripartite with a central fountain or pool of water – or Fountain of Life - from which four «rivers» flowed. The term Paradise likely comes from ancient Persian words pairi and daeza meaning around and wall. Persians built walls to enclose their plantings and as protection from the harsh, arid climate and predators. Within the walls they grew scented flowers with religious significance and fresh fruits for sustenance. The gardens afforded people protection, shade, and areas for quiet thought.

Persians were not the first or only people to develop and follow this garden style. Walled, symmetrically-planted gardens irrigated with water from nearby sources are historically evident in multiple arid regions. Drawings from ancient Egyptian tombs as old as 3000 B.C. depict such gardens fed by hand excavated canals to transport water from the Nile River. Gardens of the Bible and Quran followed similar design – a central object from which waters flow and sectioned-off planting areas for edible, medicinal, and religiously significant plants.

Gardens were mans' oases or Garden of Eden, feeding both body and soul. Islamic conquests helped spread the concept that heaven is a garden, but each culture that modeled enclosed, geometrically-planted garden areas fashioned them according to their own geography, needs, and beliefs.

Afghan's customized Paradise gardens with raised platforms that seemingly floated above water sources and the plantings below. The Romans and Turks expanded the walled garden concept to encompass entire cities from which leaders could live, entertain, and rule while safely surrounded by all things beautiful.

The Gardens of Pompeii, excavated from beneath the volcanic ash of Vesuvius (79 AD), reveal walled rectangular courtyards, covered walkways, underground cisterns for water collection, ornamental pools, outside dining, trellises, and pergolas. Roman-influenced gardens in Spain tapped irrigated water into sunlit reflecting pools to cool and brighten adjacent interior rooms.

Gardens based on geometrically planned quadrants became the foundation for formal European gardens, as massively illustrated at Versailles. There, in the mid 1600's, France's Louis the 14^th had an entire town and valley re-constructed into acres and acres of formal gardens expanding out from a grand canal via multiple intersecting avenues and paths, many lined or enclosed by walls of manicured greenery and highlighted by reflecting pools.

Think of what in your gardens reflect aspects of Paradise Gardens - symmetrical beds, a central fountain, bird bath, or pool; is your garden your Paradise; do you plant edible crops in visually pleasing designs; do you plant certain vegetation because of its meaning or religious significance?

The next segment of this four part series on landscape design styles will reflect on the English Landscape movement. Part 3 will cover Japanese gardens, and part 4 will bring these historical styles into modern gardens. Stay tuned.

Want to learn more? Check the local library for Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers or Paradise on Earth: The Gardens of Western Europe by Gabrielle van Zuylen.

Categories: Techniques, Training.
Tags: Anna Gresham Landscape Design School, landscape design history, landscape design journey, Paradise Gardens.

Share this post:
Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Google Bookmarks
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Technorati Favorites
Twitter
Yahoo! Buzz

Plotting along, but winter still rules

joenesgarden — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:56:34 +0000

The tools? Paper, pencil, measuring tapes, and because the ground's frozen state will not allow me to drive stakes in as markers, a willing husband. He held one end of the measuring tape while I held the other and carefully recorded each measurement for later use.

The task? Measure a house outline with notations of all windows, doors, porches, decks, downspouts, faucets, electric outlets and boxes. Then choose specific plot points such as a boundary marker, a fence post, or any other spot usable as a measuring reference, and take multiple measurements of the distance between point A-F, A-H, B-F, B-H, and on and on until we gathered enough measurements from each plot point to each prominent aspect of the house outline.

Why do this in the dead of winter with 8 inches of snow on the ground? Well, when class work calls, anxious students respond, and this anxious student was not about to let old man winter and a few inches of snow keep her from moving forward with her next landscape design lesson.

If I had waited for the friendlier weather of spring, the CAD lessons I struggled through would no longer be fresh in my mind. So we bundled up in coats and gloves, pulled on our boots, grabbed our tools, and took as many measurements as possible. Since then I've been putting pen to paper – or more accurately measurements to keyboard and mouse. You can see from the photo that my computer now stores a house drawing.

There was a time in my life – way back when – that I would have relished creating on paper, with ruler and square and pencils and many erasers, what my computer screen shows now. But progress dictates we move forward, and I'm now happy to be able to draw on screen with the knowledge that a quick hit of the save icon allows me to freeze my work in time for a time when I have more time to plot through this lesson.

So I ask that you please forgive my intermittent posts of late.

I've had to shove blog ideas aside – even though a post about scabiosa keeps trying to poke its way out of its draft status to a full-blown published state.

Though seed packets stare out at me from their storage pouch, they too must wait.

Outside of a brief foray to the flower show all my garden and flower thoughts have been buried under line segments and snap points.

Now, I begin plotting the house on the site. During stage two of this lesson, center and radius circles and marker points will dance in my head until the CAD version of the house is depicted on the computer as accurately as it is on the ground.

In a perfect world, which for this lesson is sans snow cover, all aspects of the landscape are measured at once. First the house. Second, fences, walls, and boundaries. Third, trees, shrubs, walkways, gardens, etc. Then with all measurements at hand, you sit at the computer and plot away.

I do not live in that perfect world, but in my perfect world, New England, where snow and cold reign from December through April. I have to grab measurements as snow permits. I hope some of the current snow will be gone by the time I get the house plotting stage done. But I won't hold my breath or bet on this - the weather forecast calls for slush … then rain … then snow.

Categories: Training.
Tags: Anna Gresham Landscape Design School, landscape design journey, winter in Connecticut.

Share this post:
Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Google Bookmarks
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Technorati Favorites
Twitter
Yahoo! Buzz

Lesson: don’t give away ideas you hope to market

joenesgarden — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:36:45 +0000

So translating design ideas into writing may not be as seamless for me as I expected … at least not if my goal is to convince someone that they desperately need my ideas over another designer. Those who have followed this blog before know that I'm taking a landscape design course. It's a long sought goal for me to have a real piece of paper designating me certified as a landscape designer. Those new here can catch up with my previous posts.

The lesson was to develop a consultation questionnaire and write a site assessment proposal for a design re-do of a familiar property. The first part – a «Getting to know» questionnaire – is meant to entice the who, where, what, how, and when concerning any design or re-design. I dutifully developed this document – it ended up being three pages long - trying to factor in as many clues as I could conjure up that might tweak any future consultation I have with a prospective client. It covers the number of people residing or using the location in question; their likes, dislikes, and physical limitations; what is currently best and worst about the spot in question; and what they hoped to achieve. I'm happy to say it passed with no further suggestions from my instructor.

The site assessment proposal proved to be a little more challenging. Understand, for my day job I write synopses of medical research so that consumers better get the gist of the findings. In this venue, it's important to provide enough information for readers to get the whole story … the who, what, when, where, why, and how. This is not, however, what one does when trying to get a client to pay for your design ideas.

My first attempt, though well written, gave away «all the specifics,» my instructor noted. I chose a narrow driveway entrance to a back lot. It has just 25 feet of street frontage and is the center of three driveways. It begins kind of non-descript then winds up into the woods for a few hundred feet before reaching the house (virtually unseen from the road). Instead of giving a broad overview of my ideas, I gave specifics – outlining pretty much all I would do to spruce up the narrow entrance and the more wooded sections farther along. In essence my first site assessment negated the reason for the client to have me draw up a design plan, as my instructor aptly pointed out. Hmmmm … not a very good business plan for someone who hopes to eventually be hired to offer her design ideas and plans.

So, I took the constructive criticism and reworked my report … not to have my grade amended, but to see if my second attempt better met the goal. It's always a good learning experience for me to have the opportunity to take something I've created and have to incorporate the suggestions of someone more experienced than I. I learn best by doing and revising. My second attempt turned out much better … even garnered kudos from my instructor.

So now it's on to the next lesson, an actual survey of an actual property. Since it's winter, and this is the first time I've ever taken such extensive measurements and plotted out a property in a CAD program, I'm gonna go a little easy on myself and survey my own property. There will be plenty of opportunities for me to survey other locations farther on in the course. Wish me luck … I'm still a very green newbie with computer aided drafting. I may be offering a lot of home cooked meals to my civil engineer son – I'm not above bribing him to help his dear old mom master CAD.

Categories: Training.
Tags: Anna Gresham Landscape Design School, landscape design journey.

Share this post:
Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Google Bookmarks
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Technorati Favorites
Twitter
Yahoo! Buzz