A Change of Heart : Renovation and Renewal Time at Garden Designers Round Table

I remember the exact moment the renovation bug bit me.  It was early September and I had rare 4-day Labor day holiday all to myself.  I was reading the latest edition of my GGG  ( Glossy Gorgeous Gardening ) magazine under the shade arbor, sipping a glass of Sweet Tea.   

"Are you tucking your vegetables in far corners because you think they're dull and ugly?  the garden article asked.  A nod and sigh to the tomato and peppers near the utility box. Think your garden is too small to grow them?   Umm , pretty small, lots of herbs in pots on the patio.   " Why not have a beautiful garden and eat it too? Vegetables, fruits , herbs  and flowers growing happily together in what the French call a potager .  Well I'm already enjoying the fruit of my prolific Asian pear tree, and the two grape vines I planted this Spring will produce their first crop next year, so if I plant an apple tree and some blueberries I'll have a home fruit orchard.

The more I thought about having an ornamental vegetable garden the more I liked it. The idea that the potager is an ornamental, four-season landscape that can be the center of attention even in a small urban plot such as mine was appealing.   Of course I also had visions of fried green tomatoes, okra,  succotash and a beautiful salad with nastariums and pansies.  So with this is mind I cleared my back 40 of most of its perennials and began my adventure in potagering ( is there such a word?  If not, there is now. We Southerners like to make up our own.)

With the exception of removing a huge 25 year old yew I'm proud to say I did all the grunt work myself and lived to tell the tale .  This 40-year-old body trapped in a 66 one wasn't even sore the next day, a true testament to what gardening and landscaping has done for me.

The fun part was selecting and planting the clipped boxwoods, 'Knockout ' rose shrub, two blueberries, coneflowers, ornamental kale and variegated sage.  Before planting I prepared the beds with my special recipe of alfafa humate and cattle manure compost, cottonburr compost and fine pines soil conditioner.  When passersby got a whif of it they thought they were in the country.  In a barnyard.  No matter how composted it is, cattle manure smells like a barnyard until it airs out.

 This is merely the beginning of an exciting gardening adventure . I'll need more potager- appropriate whimsicals such as Rusty the Rooster who now sports a bright red coat.  My collection of colorful gourd birdhouses will have a place on the garden wall.   Fall will be spent planting bulbs for Spring and securing a dwarf apple tree, Winter for planning the raised bed veggie and herb beds and Spring for planting . 

Busy with my new garden I lost touch with the real world.  Then out of the blue came a message from the Garden Designers Round Table :  This month's topic is renovation and renewal and you're on the list.  No kidding.  Very timely, y'all.  Here's my contribution :

New beginnings :  A peek at my potager .

" Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights " - Pauline R. Kezer

For more on renovation and renewal visit the Ladies and gents of the Round Table at :

Andrew Keys @ http://www.gardensmackdown.com/garden-designers-roundtable/2010/garden-designers-roundtable-restoration-and-renovation/


Genevieve Schmidt @http://www.northcoastgardening.com/2010/09/garden-restoration-renovation/
Jocelyn Chilvers, The Art Garden @ http://jocelynsgarden.blogspot.com/2010/09/renovation-evolution-of-garden-garden.html
Susan Morrison @ http://www.blueplanetgardenblog.com/2010/09/garden-designers-roundtable-from-junk-pile-to-garden-art.html
Lesley Hegarty and Robert Weaver @ Hegartywebberpartnership.wordpress.com
Rochelle Graeger @studioblog.com
Susan Cohen @ susancohengardens.com

GARDEN DESIGNERS ROUNDTABLE : UNDERUTILIZED PLANTS

Honestly, when have you ever seen a specimen like this ?

Guy walks into the tree and shrub department with a photo of his front yard and says he wants the most unusual tree we've got, cost not an issue.  Sold him an Acer 'shishigashira ' or  as its dubbed  ' The Lion Head '  Japanese maple for several thousands dollars. Saw him later and he told me it was the perfect tree and none of his neighbors knew what it was and he wasn't telling. Turns out he was a well-known restauranteur that felt he had to outshine all the neighbors.

As a tree and shrub specialist I get to see all the unusual specimens that our buyer brings in from around the country.   The most coveted tree on our lot is the aristocrat of the tree world - Acer Palmatum, or Japanese Maple.  I've seen cultivars priced at $5,000 and up .  With hundreds of varieties from bright red, orange, burgundy, variegated green and pink and, chartreuse, there is bound to be one that will steal your heart. For me it was the 'Autumn Moon ' Maple, shown above,  and since I've rarely seen another in a garden I think it is very underutilized.

 Whenever possible I use evergreens in my design and a very underutilized specimen is Chamaecyparis obtusa  nana , or Japanese Falsecypress.  Elegant and artistic, it is much pricier than other evergreens but its uniqueness makes it worth the cost. 'Templehof' is one of my favorites.  Note the beautiful swirls and do not, by any means, compare it with Thuja , or arborvitae.  There is no comparison.

At first glance you'd probably not be able to name the colorful specimen above, which is another underutilized plant that I love for its colorful leaves that are attractive all season.  St. John's Wort is easy to grow but again, underutilized .

Rhododendron 'poukhanense ' or Korean azalea is one of the beauties of the Spring garden with its pale lavender bell- shaped blooms.  Azaleas in general are underutilized in the Chicago area because some have proven difficult to grow in our harsh climate. This azalea grows in Korea's rugged Poukhan mountain region with only mother nature as her keeper.  Enough said.

A camellia tree in Chicago? Be still my heart ! Actually its a Stewartia pseudo camellia and it comes in Chinese, Korean and Japanese versions.  A much over-looked under utilized tree, it's beautiful camellia-like blossoms appear in July and its stunning Fall color and beautiful exfoliating bark make it an ideal small ornamental tree of about 30 feet in height. 

The list of underutilized plants is endless but it must end here for the sake of brevity.  Please visit the Garden Designers Roundtable to read the posts of members who are writing on the subject for this month's theme. 

Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago All rights reserved

GARDEN DESIGNERS ROUND TABLE : THE FINE ART OF FOCAL POINTS

Sweet Home Chicago

 I'm as excited as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs to be doing my first post as a member of the Garden Designers Round Table.  A warm welcome to the followers of our Facebook page and garden lovers everywhere.

Remember how you were told as a kid that if you didn't quit making faces it would stay in that position permanently ?  Well I'm afraid that my fingers may someday become permanently frozen in the frame position that I constantly use as my focal point finder. 

I am going to use my own garden and paintings to illustrate how focal points create interest in these arts.

First and foremost, the primary focal point of the landscape is the front entrance.  No other part of the landscape is viewed as often so having an attractive focal point in this area creates the curb appeal you hear so much about.

My century-old American Foursquare above is located on a small urban lot surrounded by a wrought iron fence.  It has a short wide walkway that leads to a grand staircase and front porch.

Sweet Garden Chicago

To enhance my primary focal point or entrance,  the area next to the staircase is planted with a specimen tree, shrubs, perennials and colorful annuals .  Planters with seasonal color for Spring, Summer and Fall , hanging baskets  and planter boxes add a welcoming touch.

 

Acer Shirasawanum 'autumn moon '

A single specimen shrub or tree such as the one above located on the right side of my front porch makes an outstanding focal point . Autumn Moon's chartreuse leaves are a real show- stopper all season long and in the Fall it turns a bright red . A specimen used as a focal point should be striking and have a long season of interest.

Red Fox Curly Sedge is a focal point in my perennial bed and one that keeps its shape and reddish-brown color year round.   Just as a container is planted for seasonal interest , so too can a garden have changing focal points with colorful plants.

 

The  focal point above,  a copper rain chain that my engineer- hubby connected to a re-circulating pump was a big hit at the Chicago Springfling gathering in my garden of 50 garden bloggers across the U.S last year.  Now I have rain on demand which is both tranquil and soothing on a hot summer day.   This rain-collecting system has been used in Japanese temples for thousands of years.

Drama queens as focal points :  My gigantic  Plume Poppy next to the fish pond. 

 Be cautious in having too many drama queens in a small space or there will be a royal fight for attention.  Her majesty wishes to be the sole center of attention .  As a designer of small urban spaces I find it best to limit focal points as too many can make for a dizzy design.

Art is always a great subject for a focal point.  Again, caution is urged for small gardens.  This very youthful, slender Buddha sits serenely in a vignette that a talented designer at the garden center arranged.

The focal point in my painting above uses the 1/3-2/3 technique, or the rule of thirds which places it off-center, works in garden design as well. Color is another important aspect which draws the eye. Although the vase above is a subdued color, surrounding it with a complimentary, or opposite color, highlights the focal point and draws your eye to it.

In this painting of my daughter walking our collie I have used one of the most effective ways to create a focal point : Contrast. The cool blue foreground contrasted with the complimentary colors of the background is a technique employed by one of the greatest of focal point masters -Leonardo himself. In garden design, plantings of blue and gold or chartreuse and maroon are good examples of this as is contrasting foliage by using narrow against smooth and round or bold against fine.

Flow and balance is illustrated in this wildflower garden which has no focal point.

  I realize that there's always an exception to every rule and some may ask if they have to have a focal point.  Well no, not really, all you have to do is pay taxes and die, but what fun is that ?  Creating focal points is one of the most highly effective principles of garden design and art . Sans a focal point, flow and balance in garden design and art will direct the eye somewhat, but seldom has the same dramatic impact.

In conclusion, almost anything can be a focal point -a bench, a tree, a path, a borrowed view.  It's important to keep in mind that proper placement and scale are crucial to its effectiveness -too large and it overwhelms, too small and it won't be noticed, too many and it's dizzy.

 I could go on and on ...but I think you get the point.  The focal point, that is.

Please visit these round table designers to get their take on focal points :

Andrew Keys @ Garden Smackdown
Debbie Roberts  of Garden of Possibilities
Laura Livengood Schaub of Interleafings
Leslie Hegarty &  Robert Webber of the Hegarty & Webber Partnership
Pam Penick of Digging
Rebecca Sweet of Gossip in the Garden
Susan Cohan of Susan Cohan Gardens
Susan Schlenger of Landscape Design Viewpoint
Tara Dillard of Tara Dillard Landscapes

GARDEN DESIGNERS ROUND TABLE

At the suggestion of Pam Penick of Digging ( thanks, Pam !) , Scott Hokunson of Blueheronlandscapes.com invited me to join with 22 other garden and landscape designers from across the USA to " discuss and explore the world of garden design. "

You will recognize many of the members of the round table because they are not just well-known designers but garden bloggers as well.

I'm honored to be a part of such a great group and hope you'll join us each month at Garden Designers Round Table .





Written by Carolyngail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago
All rights reserved