Each Little World

Understanding Garden Design

Over the years I have read so many garden books that I am always surprised when I discover something new. In this case it's something I've thought about but rarely seen discussed: why design a garden at all? Vanessa Gardner Nagel doesn't pull any punches in "Understanding Garden Design," another great new title avialable from Timber Press. Nagel worked as a commercial interior designer before she switched gears and moved outdoors. How to talk to clients and break down a project from initial questions through concepts to finished projects is her forte. While this book is inteded as "The Complete Handbook for Aspiring Designers" it is useful for those of us trying to design our gardens on our own.

Among the very useful topics Nagel (pictured below) details are the critical practicalities that must be attended to if your garden is to succeed: how to measure your slope, how to calculate how many gallons of water come off your roof for harvesting, how high and deep outdoor steps should be to name a few.

She also suggests that one make a "scope statement" which describes and ennumerates all the things you want your garden to be and do. This is a generalized list of items like creating a space for evening activities or allowing room for pets. Nagel creates a "scope statement" for a hypothetical property and then uses that imaginary home as an on-going example as she goes through the design process step-by-step. 

Nagel also includes a section on plants, considering them from a structural perspective and cataloging them as "thrillers, spillers and fillers." You get the picture. Once you've created your plan, she gives advice on working with contractors, including how to find and screen candidates.

And lastly she deals with post-construction issues: adding furniture and art and dealing with guests. This may be the first garden design book I've ever read that squarely offers "crowd control techniques" and strategies for having a successful garden party and open garden events. Nagel brilliantly ends with a list of protocals she calls "garden etiquette for the unintitiated." The question is, would it be rude to hand out this list to the next group that visits the garden?

. . . 

Vanessa Gardner Nagel's "Understanding Garden Design" is available through the Wisconsin South Central Library System.

Shopping in Spring Green

Last Saturday we went to the 18th Annual Fall Art Tour that snakes through the open studios of artists in Southwestern Wisconsin. It was a gorgeous day; I'm sure exactly what the organizers hope for each year. In addition to looking at (and buying) art, we made a point of stopping at the new independent bookseller in Spring Green: Arcadia Books. It's located on the ground floor of a beautifully restored 1872 post office building. And it has everything you want in a good bookstore: a wide array of subjects and titles, pleasant staff, framed New Yorker posters about books and reading, high ceilings and uneven old wood floors, food, coffee, and wine and beer. I could practically live there! 

While the food is geared to carryout customers, there were two soups and fabulous mini quiches (Caprese and Lorraine the day we were there). You can also pick an entree from the cooler, they heat it up for you and everything is served warm and toasty. I had curried carrot soup with the Caprese quiche and Mark had chicken fried rice. Everything was delicious. Also on the menu are sandwiches, wraps, salads, and desserts. Then we grabbed lattes to drink while we browsed.

I found the new Jane Hirshfield poetry book, "Come, Thief," which I had read about in the New York Times but did not have much hope of finding in Madison. Mark got a book on philosophy and another on science. As someone with lots of books on cooking, gardening and interior design I thought the selections in those categories were excellen; they included titles both familiar and new. Even though the garden and design sections were not large, they should appeal to a varied audience.  

Former Cap Times reporter Joe Schoenmann will be reading from his new book, "Vegas Rag Doll" — a true life account of the spouse of a Vegas hitman — at 7 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 21. Too bad I can't make it as I could trade stories about the wife of a NJ mobster that I once knew.

The store is named for owner James Bohnen’s favorite play, “Arcadia,” by Tom Stoppard, and I noticed a copy prominently on display. Bohnen recently stepped down as founding artistic director of Chicago's Remy Bumppo Theatre Company. This past summer, he directed Shakespeare's "The Tempest" for nearby American Players Theatre. You can find out more about Arcadia Books, including ordering books, at their aptly named web site: read in utopia. 

We ran into a friend on the Art Tour who told us about Convivio, otherwise we might have missed it — even though it is visible from Arcadia Books. While they had some lovely art for the Tour weekend, it was their wonderful array of kitchen and tabletop items that make it worth driving from Madison to visit this shop. Dishes, linens, glassware, baskets, jewelry, wines, and elegant comestibles fill the space. As they note on their web site: "From rowdy conversation with friends to relaxed family interludes, the best times in life happen around your table." You know it's true; that's the allure of this kind of business!

Madison has lost a host of similar stores in the last few years — Fleurishes, Spirals, Gatherings to name a few favorites. Convivio has that same sense of personal style and attitude that characterizes the best shops. I have lots of reasons to return: French and Scandinavian linens, colorful pressed glassware, giftwrap with large scale patterns, stunning woven ribbon by the yard. Add two terrific newer destinations to stalwarts like the Jura Silverman Gallery, Nina's Department and Variety Store, nearby Global View and Taliesin, and it's clear that a quick return to Spring Green is a must! 

Arcadia Books: 102 E. Jefferson St. 608-588-7638

Convivio: 122 N. Lexington St. 608-588-2351

The long view

All gardens benefit from planning with the long view — meaning long term planning and design — in mind. But there is another kind of garden long view, one that most of us can only dream about. I mean, literally, the long views of allees, pergolas, reflecting pools and green walls that take the kind of space that most home gardeners don't have. The ability to experience and enjoy those long views are one of the reasons to visit public gardens like Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison where Mark took all these images. We've been members of Olbrich for probably close to twenty years and have watched the development of many of these gardens from their creation. Seeing them in all their glorious maturity is even more enjoyable since we remember them in their infancy and know how far they've come!

Pyradmid scheme

More ideas and images from Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison:

Gardens have so many curvaceous forms that a little geometry is always an effective visual foil. In this scene the pyramid of bamboo stakes in the foreground is a simple device to help the gardener prune this shrub into that particular geometric shape. Behind it is a tuteur, a structure designed to support climbing plants, with a rooftop echoing the shape in the rear.

This pyramid is a dramatic way to locate a bat house at the necessary height without it being obscured by foliage. A practical piece of large scale sculpture.

The rooftop of the tower in Olbrich's rose garden provides another pyramidal exclamation point. The tower's viewing platform offers a dramatic view out to Lake Monona and is the one spot where the elegant overall design of Olbrich is visible. The tower lets you experience Olbrich in a completely different way than walking its myriad paths and garden spaces. 

Blogger meet-up in Madison

Mark and I did not attend the most recent garden blogger meet-up in Seattle. We'd taken a trip to Seattle and points north and south of that city a number of years ago to see Asian gardens. Though we hadn't visited private gardens on that trip, we decided that the timing just wasn't right for us to head west this year. But, as it happens, Seattle came to us last week — in the person of Daniel Mount (below, with Joan Severa in her Madison garden).

Daniel Mount — garden designer, writer and blogger — stayed with us on a flying visit to Madison Monday and Tuesday. He was here to scout out local gardens for a 2012 tour of this area by Pacific Northwest gardeners. As the "Seattle Fling" blogger gathering suggests, usually gardeners are flocking to see those temperate northwest gardens rather than the other way round. (Those of you who were at the Seattle meet-up may remember seeing Daniel at the Epping and Lane gardens and Bellevue Botanic). 

Daniel is a Wisconsin native with family still residing here and he knows what we have to offer: Chicago public gardens like the CBG and the Lurie and Olbrich Botanical Gardens and the UW-Madison Arboretum here. Our Arboretum is home to the world's oldest restored prairie as well as an outstanding collections of trees and shrubs. Many of them were introduced by Emeritus Horticulture prof Ed Hasselkus, and are now consumer favorites like Whitespire birches, Columbus strain redbuds, and Northern Glow maple. Among the many highlights at Olbrich is the Thai Pavilion, or sala, a common structure in Thailand typically used as a shelter from rain and heat. Olbrich's structure is gorgeously ornate with teak, ceramic tile and gold leaf and is one of only four in the world located outside Thailand.

Late summer in the Midwest offers scenes and plants that differ widely from those in the Pacific Northwest and Daniel wanted to refresh his memory of what our region looks like at this season. So Mark and I chauffeured him to eight private gardens — the first two on Monday evening. It was a long day considering he'd spent the morning with Jeff Epping, Director of Horticulture at Olbrich, and the afternoon with Ed Hasselkus at the Arb. 

We were off to an early start Tuesday with six gardens on the agenda. I had to be the tough task master since we only had an hour per garden — and that included travel time. The gardens ranged from Middleton to Oregon with the majority in Madison. With the assistance of Jane LaFlash of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society, I lined up gardens of all sizes and types for Daniel to visit. We saw landscapes with sun and shade, ponds and prairies, chickens and bees, native plants and the latest exotic introductions.

Despite our recent high temperatures and lack of rainfall, all the gardens were looking lush and lovely. Daniel got a chance to meet the gardeners who briefed him on their highlights. Staying on schedule was not easy as all these gardens had so much to offer in both design and plants. A number of them have been open to visitors as part of Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society tours of member gardens or Olbrich's annual Home Garden Tour. 

Jane LaFlash (above right with Daniel and me) has a garden tucked behind her house on a busy thoroughfare that is so secluded it's hard to realize it's smack dab in the city. We spent lots of time looking at her Japanese maples. Jane has had great success with them compared to most of us with sad stories about our attempts to grow them. 

At the garden of Tom and Rosemary Kleinheinz, we saw a plant that Tony Avent was touting at his recent appearance at the Wisconsin Master Gardeners state conference held in Madison. Tony put "Syneilesis aconitifolia (with feathery leaves above) on his list of "100 Favorite Perennials for Wisconsin Gardeners" — and I had just planted one.

The picture above gives you a sense of what it's like to see a bunch of gardens in quick succession. Mark snapped the photo while I am on the far left taking notes, and Daniel is bemused, befuddled and trying to take notes and keep it all straight as Jane LaFlash and Tom and Rosemary Kleinheinz make sure he doesn't miss anything. A long, confusing, exhausting, memorable day!

Thank you ...

. . . to everyone who came to hear our talk, "Asian Serenity in a Midwest Garden," on Friday at HopsiceCare, Inc. as part of Olbrich Botanical Gardens' annual Home Garden Tour. And to those who came down to MMoCA early Saturday morning for our presentation on "Collecting as a Couple." We especially want to say how surprised — and pleased — we were to note a number of our friends in the audiences; folks who already are familiar with our house and garden and who actually paid money to hear our presentations! We even re-connected with the realtor who sold us our house, thus making the garden possible.

We also want to let everyone at Olbrich and MMoCA know how honored we were to be asked to be part of the program for such respected Madison institutions. Both days, everything was organized and ran smoothly, and all the people we dealt with were helpful, thoughtful and friendly. It made our events more fun than work.

On Friday, I said that big trees, shade and lots of green are the ingredients I consider necessary to create a serene garden. At the time, I did not realize how many of the gardens on the Olbrich tour embodied that statement. 

We loved the garden that celebrated Black Walnut trees with breathtaking specimens whose limbs almost touched the ground. These gardeners had no trouble creating an oasis under such majestic beauties and we had a great time talking with them about the best way to build a teahouse/meditation space. We discovered the perfect house color to complement orange daylilies and I was entranced at the gardeners who went to the effort of creating beautiful table settings and bouquets for the dining areas of their decks. 

We had a lot of lively conversation with collectors of every age and interest while we all partook of a summery buffet breakfast before the Art Fair on Saturday. We're looking forward to more talk about textiles, teabowls and collecting with you at MMoCA's First Fridays and upcoming openings.

Thanks again for making our marathon weekend such a success and a pleasure. But now that it's over, we're looking forward to getting back to the garden and feeling free to spend an afternoon daydreaming!

See you at Olbrich's Home Garden Tour

Olbrich’s 2011 Home Garden Tour

The Garden as Sanctuary

Friday, July 8 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m

Saturday, July 9 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

THE TOURS

This is your annual chance to benefit Olbrich Botanical Gardens while you enjoy private home gardens in Fitchburg and west Madison neighborhoods. While the gardens on the tour are are all different — ranging from Eastern meditation gardens to native Wisconsin woodlands — they're united by a sense of peace and harmony with nature, which refers to this year’s theme of “the garden as sanctuary.” 

A SPECIAL TOUR

This year's Olbrich Tour includes the gardens at HospiceCare, Inc. in Fitchburg, which are normally not open to the public. They feature seventeen acres of both naturalized areas and ornamental gardens surround the facility. They are available to Hospice patients, staff, and visitors as a place of solace and renewal.

NEW: FREE GARDEN LECTURES

This year you'll also have a chance to see our garden on Olbrich's 2011 Home Garden Tour — but only on Friday, July 8th at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. You'll be able to walk through it — visually, rather than in person. Mark and I will be giving a presentation about the garden in the Ruth Solie Dining Room at HospiceCare, Inc., as part of a new feature of this year's Tour — free garden lectures both days.  

Our topic is "Asian Serenity in a Midwestern Garden" and we'll offer a visual lecture that shows how two amateur gardeners turned a half-acre urban lot into a retreat of year-round beauty. We'll offer our thoughts on what helps to create a serene environment and we'll show you before and after and step-by-step images that will give you an idea of how a garden develops over time.

On Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., local gardener Anne Walker will present "Creating a Garden Sanctuary" including ideas gardeners can use to create a sense of sanctuary in their own gardens. The lectures both days are free, but seating is limited on a first-come, first-served basis. Tour patrons must present their Home Garden Tour ticket for admission to the lectures.

TOUR CENTER  

The Agora Pavilion in Fitchburg is this year’s Tour Center. It offers a one-stop location for restrooms, refreshments including box lunches, gift shop items, and parking. It’s also the main trolley stop between the Agora Pavilion, HospiceCare, Inc., and a private home garden. It's located at 5500 E. Cheryl Parkway in Fitchburg, an easily recognizable landmark with its large, white teepee shape.

TICKETS

Advance purchase tickets (available until Thursday, July 7) are $10 for the general public and $12 for Olbrich members. Tour-Day Tickets are $14 for the public and $12 for Olbrich members.

Tickets are available at Olbrich's Growing Gifts Shop or Felly's Flowers (205 E. Broadway, 2701 University Ave., 7858 Mineral Point Rd., 6353 Nesbitt Rd., all in Madison); Klein's Floral & Greenhouses (3758 E. Washington Ave., Madison). Cash, check or credit cards are accepted at Olbrich's Growing Gifts Shop. Cash & check only at Felly's Flowers and Klein's Floral & Greenhouses.

Tour-Day Tickets will be available July 8 & 9 at the Agora Pavilion at the Fitchburg Center.

PHOTOS: Photographs by Missy Keegan, Katy Plantenberg, Sharon Cybart and Elizabeth Ogren Erickson, courtesy of Olbrich Botanical Gardens.

The gravel garden

My former co-worker and gardening mentor Doris Lang will be bringing the members of her garden club on a tour of our garden Monday evening. When a group makes a reservation a year in advance, you want everything to look its best. So we've spent the last few days weeding, pruning, deadheading, mowing the grass and just generally sprucing up the garden.  

The last thing Mark always does before we have garden visitors is to rake the gravel into patterns. It looks best in the early morning or late afternoon when the low angle of the sun highlights the texture of the gravel, emphasizing the high and low areas of the design. So their early evening tour will show this area at its best.

Front yard inspiration II

Here is another garden that was not on the recent WHPS tour but nevertheless caught my eye. We are looking for a simple structure to put along the back edge of our driveway border and snapped this picture for our idea file. We want something to hide our neighbor's drive and also provide a place for climbing plants. I am not sure if this simple wall/trellis is used for climbers, but it does a nice job of adding interest to the space and a bit of privacy without detracting from the dooryard garden. I can easily imagine two or three of them marking the back of our driveway border. But given Mark's garden projects list, I am sure they will not make an appearance at our house anytime soon.

Front yard inspiration I

We still get a home-delivered daily paper at our house. Mark typically reads it first and will often point out an article he thinks I will enjoy and then hands me the page so I can read it. I glance at the story and think that it looks interesting — but proceed to read almost every other story on the page first! This is typical behavior for me, and I am not really sure why I do it or what it means.

But I was reminded of it on last week's tour of gardens belonging to members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society. As we were leaving our second garden on the tour, I spied a garden half way down the block that was not on the tour but looked too interesting not to investigate.

We walked over and took a few photos of this lovely example of how to turn your front yard into a fairly low-maintenance work of art. Anyone who would not only get rid of all the grass, but replace it with gravel and re-make a flat front yard into a multi-layered landscape is one adventurous gardener. 

I plan to return to see it without all the recently fallen leaf litter, and perhaps I'll ring the bell this time and ask for a proper tour — and suggest the gardener join WHPS!