Understanding Garden Design: a book review for bookpleasures.com

Understanding Garden Design: The Complete Handbook for Aspiring Designers, Vanessa Gardner Nagel, APLD, Timber Press,                 

In spite of the rise in the number of independent-minded gardeners, who care little what others think, most people expect that their garden will not only make themselves happy but will also please their visitors. To accomplish these goals, fundamental principles of design must be respected. These principles are not based upon social or aesthetic convention, as so many free-thinking gardeners believe. When planning any garden, the author suggests that people ought to understand why a landscape needs to be designed, in the first place.

In this publication, the reader will learn that design principles reflect the need to engage the brain in a pleasurable sensory experience that allows one to perceive a garden as beautiful and fulfilling. Furthermore, when a landscape layout meets people’s physical and psychological needs, it helps them to function better. Sometimes it encourages an interaction with nature.

According to the author, the intelligent use of space is another benefit of proper garden design. Regardless of its size, a garden may serve very special purposes for a home owner and unless such needs are satisfied, the garden cannot be deemed to be a success. To achieve that level of satisfaction, Ms. Nagel suggests that advance planning is required before the first line of the garden can be drawn. Listed in that preparation are considerations for a play area for children, pets, outdoor work, the drying of laundry, storage, growing food, traffic patterns, entertainment, and a place to be alone.

Dealing with the topic of beauty in the garden, the author introduces the reader to basic design principles and suggests that, when they are incorporated into the planning, they are responsible for creating an aesthetically pleasing landscape. These basics are color, line, shape, form, space, proportion, mass, focal point, repetition and rhythm, movement, sequence, texture, variety, contrast, balance and unity. All of these concepts are elaborated upon in sufficient detail to enhance the reader’s knowledge of them.

Each of the twelve chapters of this book deals chronologically with the process of creating a successful garden. The first chapter is the eye opener. It establishes the framework for accomplishing one’s goal both philosophically and realistically. First, it discusses the rationale for a well designed garden and touches on issues such as hobby, health, and personal expression. Then, it alerts the aspiring designer to preliminary projects that must be undertaken before the first shovel is dug. These include, the gathering of data about the physical property, making preliminary decisions, measuring and photographing the site, drawing base plans, developing a concept on the plan, reviewing and deciding upon plants and hardscape materials, assembling costs and budget review, preparing the final master plan, and, finally, an evaluation of contractors and their qualifications. The author suggests that this advance planning, which can take up to six weeks, will allow for better decision making throughout the construction period.

Subsequent chapters elaborate upon the master plan and extend the conversation to include topics such as finishings, irrigation, lighting, and working with contractors. In the final chapter, titled “After Construction”, the author writes about completing the garden installation with garden art, furniture, containers, and outdoor entertaining. Readers will find enjoyment in the last section as it discusses such matters as creating ambience, crowd control techniques, and open garden etiquette. Here the author suggests that gardens need not be perfect or complete before visitors are invited in, as a garden in process is a learning opportunity.

Ms. Nagel reminds us that most landscaping books begin in “the middle” .i.e. with a discussion of basic design principles. The author affirms that something has to happen in the minds of gardeners before they tackle such concepts. Certain questions need to be answered first:-

Why design? What are the measurements that define the value of design? How does a landscape design benefit the homeowner?

By elaborating on these issues, prior to introducing design concepts, the author has added realism to the study of garden design. Her thoughtful guide is practical, and easy to follow. The extensive collection of photographs, selected to illustrate the text, are spot-on appropriate, surprisingly beautiful, and quite inspiring.

Is There a Broadway Musical Growing in the Daisy Garden? I Hope So!

Wild Daisies, courtesy of http://wallpaperforiphone.com/nature/wild-daisies/I have a love-hate relationship with daisies. I saw too many of them while growing up and now I am reluctant to use them in my garden. Yet, plant them I must because my wife loves daisies. My dislike is influenced by a recurring childhood experience. Each summer my parents would rent a summer cabin in the Laurentian Mountains, north of Montreal, where surrounding meadows would be abloom with wild daisies. That is the only flower that I remember seeing, when we arrived. It would not be until later in the summer when insipid, wild Asclepias, and equally ugly wild Eupatorium would begin to bloom in roadside ditches.

Shasta Daisies, courtesy of http://www.mauways.co.nz/product_info.php?products_id=406&osCsid=ifvnmuqkimc70n1aa7taf9svo6Today, I grow one Shasta daisy plant only for my wife. I have been unable to use it in garden compositions partly because I still find it tiresome to look at and partly because it is messy. Not only do daisy plants self seed but, mid way into their growing season, they begin to flop. Staking is not realistic; by the time they need attention, I am too busy with other projects.

Leucanthemum x superbum "Broadway Lights", image courtesy of http://www.mijntuin.org/plants/158-MargrietRecently, I stumbled upon a site that highlighted a new variety of daisy. Its selling features are that its stems grow erect from a mound and that it produces various shades of yellow, cream and white flowers on the same plant, at the same time. Its additional claim to fame is that it will bloom all summer, but that will only occur in warmer climates. In USDA Zone 4, aka Canadian Zone 5, where I garden, it will only bloom in July and August.

I have been inspired to experiment with it because when fellow blogger, Freda Cameron, at Defining Your Home, Garden, and Travel, honored several perennials with a “Best Performance” award for 2010, she also gave Leucanthemum x superbum “Broadway Light” an award for Best Make Up. With such qualifications, this variety of daisy deserves a chance to show its stuff in my garden. I will use mulch to prevent self seeding, even though the grower suggests that dead heading will be just as effective. But who has time to dead head at the height of the gardening season, any way?

Two aspects about this plant that I cannot ignore are 1] it requires good drainage and 2] in Zone 4, aka Canadian Zone 3, it will not survive without layers of snow as winter protection. Otherwise, it is an easy care perennial. Some nurseries recommend using it in containers as a thriller, in the center or back of a pot. However, that only makes sense for gardeners living in warmer climates, where this daisy blooms all season.

Leucanthemum x superbum "Broadway Lights", image courtesy of WhiteFlowerFarm.comThere was a lot of fanfare when this variety was first introduced. Proven Winners’ publicity for this plant was as dramatic the variety's name:-

A big show off. That’s me. I put on a performance that lasts from summer through fall without a single intermission. For my opening act, I rapidly grow 18-24 inches tall and form a tight mound of upright stems. Next, an entire troupe of flower buds appears as if by magic. One by one they gradually open to reveal a circle of pale butter yellow petals, inside of which is a big, bright golden center. Like in one of those old movie musicals. Then, in the light of full sun to part shade, my petals gradually begin to change colors. Butter yellow turns vanilla, and for the finale, the petals turn pure, glowing white. The timing is different for every flower. Instead of a boring, single color Shasta daisy production, Broadway Lights is a three-act hit.

If my garden is a stage, then this plant should be a Broadway musical. I hope that it will live up to its hype.

The Gardener as Elegant, Soaring Albatross: the Story of a Cyberspace Community of Garden Bloggers

Image by wildlife and conservation photographer Roy Toft. Click on the image to visit his site.Gardeners who feel misunderstood can take heart that this sensitivity was identified by poets, as far back as the 19^th century. In the poem, L’Albatros, Charles Beaudelaire, described the muses among us who soar gracefully with pride when they are being creative but experience humiliation when they return to earth. We gardeners are like that poetic bird. We soar euphorically when we are in the garden but muddle around when we lay down our trowels. That is because there are so few around us who appreciate what we do or understand why we do it.

In spite of the fact that millions of people all over the world garden for pleasure, sustenance or both, gardening is a relatively solitary activity. It does not lend itself to social banter. It is nothing like a quilting bee, a corn husking party or a barn raising. All these activities were undertaken as social gatherings with much verbal interaction among the participants. By comparison, gardening takes place in the minds of gardeners and in their back yards. Up until a few years ago, horticultural accomplishments remained private and unappreciated.

The Internet changed that. With the help of computers, gardeners began interacting with their peers throughout the world, at all hours of the day and night and without ever meeting. In a revolutionary manner, the Internet zapped all of the traditional societal obstacles that prevented some from interacting with others: socio economic levels disappeared, age was no barrier, gender became unimportant, politics and religion stayed in the background, distance and location were irrelevant, ethnicity turned invisible, and both skin color and sexual orientation were wiped away. The support and camaraderie among on line friends became a remarkable phenomenon and turning point in our culture. Some, who never met in the flesh, and who may never get the opportunity to do so, have become good friends.

How did this happen? A cyberspace community was created with the help of the garden blog clearing house, Blotanical. Through that site, passionate gardeners began to share experiences and garden images with their contemporaries around the globe - experiences that their own friends and relatives could rarely understand or appreciate. In time, the banter between the bloggers took on a life of its own. Gardeners left uplifting messages in the comment section of each others blogs, earned deeply felt validation for their efforts in the garden or with a camera, and received precious encouragement when their projects failed.

Sometimes, a writer’s focus would be deflected by more pressing issues and the blog site would become a comfortable venue for sharing a personal burden. One writer posted a eulogy upon the death of a parent; another informed about the tragic death of a child. A grower wrote how the devastations in the nursery industry were impacting personal life. An eloquent plantsman, suffering from cabin fever, posted a rant expressing unbearable emotional turmoil brought on by the hardships of winter. Another erudite blogger, who suspended posting in order to assist caring for a newborn child, was mentioned several times by blogging colleagues who missed him.

The need to reach out to like-minded people and to stay connected with them has been clearly identified with the help of technology. This social networking has become the new reality. Possibly, for some very private or isolated gardeners, this remarkable association may be the only venue where one is able to express one’s feelings and where one is comfortable unburdening oneself. We gardeners have created a veritable on line community, ostensibly because we share a love for our hobby. However, in reality, it satisfies a yearning to be part of a supportive social group that swarms around its members when they need to be comforted, validated or encouraged.

No longer are gardeners like the ungainly albatross; no one need be alone or feel misunderstood, anymore. With the help of technology, an environment has been created where gardeners can soar elegantly and with pride.

The Seeds of Spring, Lessons from the Garden: a book review for bookpleasures.com

The Seeds of Spring; Lessons from the Garden by Steve Bates, published by CreateSpace,

I have just taken a philosophical journey through the mind of a gardener over the span of one growing season. In this collection of inner dialogues, Steve Bates shares the thoughts that ruminate through his mind as he gardens and toils. This is not an instructional book. Rather, it is an intimate conversation with self that begins with the ordering and sorting of seed packets, and continues through the planting of the garden, its care and maintenance, the pests and obstacles that must be overcome,  the disappointments and the rewards, the harvest, and ends with the onset of the winter frost. Every decision, strategy, concern, and disappointment that the author experiences, becomes fodder for philosophical musing. With each challenge that he faces, he discovers a little bit more about the power of nature, about life and human nature and ultimately, about himself.

This is no ordinary gardening book. Its premise is that even the most routine activities in the garden can provide deep insight into happiness, love, humility, pride, life and death. While the author has a narrative to offer about nature’s sustainability, what speaks most to this reviewer is the exquisite use of poetic language used to describe gardening and the human response to the rhythms of nature. The author has at his disposal, a bushelful of adjectives and metaphors that succinctly convey that very personal pleasure and disappointment that we gardeners experience. Many of us try to put that feeling into words when we blog. No one has yet done so as successfully as Mr. Bates. A book lover might decide to read this publication a second time, to appreciate the subtle beauty of the writing.

From the author’s experiences, we learn that there are powerful lessons about life to be gleaned from gardening. That, in essence, is the theme of this intimate book. If we follow Mr. Bates on his philosophical journey, we discover that our gardening education begins with a sense of wonderment about nature, and continues with the development of pride and satisfaction in one’s work, followed by the building of confidence in decision making, a tolerance for imperfections and a new patience for acts and behavior that are beyond our control. We learn about the double edged sword of anticipation, hoping that something good will happen, yet prepared for the worst. We come to understand that the true meaning of compromise is that sometimes we will make the right decisions and sometimes the wrong ones and that every disappointment is a learning experience. Above all, we realize that there will always be a second chance in life to recover and to try again.

About Nature and Michael Pollan's Grandfather

A long time ago, during weekends at the beach, I had the luxury of reading the entire Sunday edition of the New York Times. The Adirondack Park location, where I vacationed, was run by the State of New York which supplied three qualified life guards to survey the swimmers. Since the beach was relatively small, I knew that my children would be carefully watched and that I could take my eyes off them to read and relax.

The fascinating thing about committing oneself to a hefty Sunday paper is that one usually ends up learning about topics that are, otherwise, irrelevant. From time to time, I would discover articles that held no interest for me, yet I found my eyes riveted to their pages simply because they were so well written. When finished, I would return to the opening paragraph to check out the name of the author. Time after time, the name Michael Pollan appeared. Eventually, I learned that anything this journalist wrote deserved to be read - he was that good.

When I first began to read TNYT, it was a balanced, almost scholarly newspaper that dealt with subjects in an even handed manner; it displayed intellectual integrity. With changing times, its high standards slipped to a point where I no longer enjoyed it. In addition, the focus of its magazine articles, which once had a smattering of international appeal, had become too local. Eventually, there was nothing in that paper to motivate me to buy it. Thus began my hiatus from reading articles by my now favorite journalist.

One weekend in June, in the early 90’s, I received as a Father’s Day gift, a copy of Mr Pollan’s first published book, Second Nature. My children believed that I would enjoy it because it was about gardening. Little did they know how excited I was to re connect with a writer whom I admired.  By now, Mr. Pollan had moved on from the New York Times and was about to begin a career that would not only bring him to national prominence but would also reward him with many professional accolades.

The gift that I had received was a collection of essays on gardening, many of which had originally appeared as magazine articles. Even though the flow of the book was a bit disjointed, and the author’s knowledge about gardening, at that time, was less than authoritative, I was drawn into the text by Mr. Pollan’s writing, his humor and the manner in which he personalized his philosophical yet infectious relationship with nature. In many circles, this book became a must read.

The author begins with the role played by his grandfather in inspiring the young grandson to take an interest in gardening. Eventually it moves on to describe how, as an adult, Mr. Pollan reconnected with nature after he moved his family to the Housatonic Valley in Connecticut.

The grandfather had been a successful New York businessman, who enjoyed gardening and gentleman farming on weekends. Now the stereotype of “successful New York businessman “is diametrically opposed to the stereotype of “weekend gardener” because each conjures up cultural images that are contradictory. Juxtaposed against each other, they created reader fascination. Mr Pollan had unintentionally stumbled upon an effective literary device which contributed to making the narrative, of quality time spent with a grandfather, all the more interesting.

During the years that followed, I noticed how the author adopted as his themes, various layers of nature - related topics. Subsequent books, all best sellers include,  Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual (2010); In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (2008); The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006) and The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001).Today, Mr. Pollan is Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism, and lectures widely on food, nutrition, agriculture, health and the environment. That is quite a feat for someone whose background is English literature and not medicine or science.

Nevertheless, I am going to always admire Mr. Pollan, not for the essence of his first book or the popularity of the later ones, but for the manner in which he described his relationship with his grandfather. In Second Nature, the discerning reader will notice, stealthily woven into the essay, an invisible thread inferring how much this author loved and admired his grandfather. He never states that out rightly. Yet, it is imbued in every word, phrase, sentence and paragraph that he wrote. I found the inferred affection, of grandson for grandfather, to be so touching that this aspect alone made reading the book a memorable experience.