Gardening Gone Wild » Designing Thoughts

Gardening On My Rooftop….6 Months Later

Fran Sorin — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 06:30:00 +0000

I originally wrote about Starting Over in the context of creating a new rooftop garden this past spring in Tel Aviv. At that time, I had a few containers, views of others rooftops, some pretty hefty rain storms, and a desire to design a private haven. Back then, I promised that I would keep you [...]

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Looking for Photos

Saxon Holt — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 09:15:01 +0000

Come in to my garden while I look for photos: Some days you just know the garden needs to be photographed but can’t quite find the photo or don’t know quite where to start. The first and most important lesson to taking a good photo is ….. grab the camera and go to it. You [...]

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More on Garden Tones–and Bones, in Black and White

Steve Silk — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:50:31 +0000

I’d like to add a coda to Nan’s most excellent post on using black and white photography to evaluate the role of tone, or value, as an element in creating pleasing combinations. I’ve got a whole other diagnostic use for black and white, but more about that in a moment. First I’d like to try [...]

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Gardening in Black and White

Nancy J. Ondra — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:59:24 +0000

Like most of you, I’m sure, I’ve collected quite a few gardening books over the years – enough to fill a few bookcases. But a few of those books rarely spend much time on a shelf; instead, they’re usually in a pile somewhere near my desk, so they’re within easy reach when I need to [...]

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Growth and Inspiration

Adam Woodruff — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:14:25 +0000

In working on a follow-up post to A Garden You Can Bank On, I’ve been reviewing photos of the gardens from the past several seasons looking for successful plant groupings. There has been a particular evolution in the gardens between 2006 and 2008, and in me as a designer. Garden design is a process of [...]

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Making Waves

Steve Silk — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:29:32 +0000

Geometry comes in really handy if you’re a gardener. All those neat shapes-circles, squares, rectangles and onwards-make great design motifs in a garden. I’ve got a number of circular areas, and another spot (in front of my shed) where I made a four-square garden (except it’s four rectangles). In any case, the repeated elements bring cohesion [...]

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More Great Big Leaves

Steve Silk — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:47:31 +0000

I wrote last month about my affinity for big leaves. I love the really massive ones, like the butterburr above. Those that create instant focal points, that raise the bar for potentially dramtic foliage groupings and that add the tropical pizzaz I’m after to transform my gardens into the landscape of my imagination. Last time out, I [...]

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Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Steve Silk — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:08:09 +0000

I loved Fran’s post about seasonal rituals. I celebrate many, one of my favorites being my wife’s family’s tradition of an outdoor Thanksgiving. We-about 50 friends and relatives attend each year–have feasted on turkey and all the fixins’ on warm sunny days, in pouring rain, and with a foot of snow on the ground. Late November [...]

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Great Big Leaves

Steve Silk — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:51:03 +0000

Great big leaves! I love big leaves! Maybe I’m just a chlorophyll-o-phile, but as a foliage-fiend building a garden leaf by leaf, I’m forever tinkering with plant combinations based upon foliage associations. I work with contrasts and harmonies in sizes, shapes, textures–even colors. And the bigger the leaf, the more I can do with it. After all, a big leaf [...]

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Out With The Bold, In With The New

Dan Benarcik — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:51:07 +0000

The danger of frost past, full energies devoted to the changeover from spring’s frost tolerant displays to summer’s heat loving luxuriant textures and colors. Don’t forget your vegetables! Was never directed at me at the family dining table. My siblings, yes, my father, likely, but not me. Besides being a nearly flawless child, I loved my [...]

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