Once again the bloggers at Garden Designers Roundtable bring you a series of networked bogs around a common theme and have asked members of the Lawn Reform Coalition to join forces. As a member of LRC, I chose to blog on my home turf, here at Gardening Gone Wild. Many more posts will be [...]
Written by Michael King I first became aware of Michael’s work when I read the book Gardening With Grasses that he co-wrote with Piet Oudolf. It literally shifted my thinking about the composition of perennial gardens. Michael has been living in the Netherlands for the past 20 years where he works as a garden designer, author and garden [...]
I’m one of those who believe the basic language of visual design applies to almost any topic or media. The ideas that make a successful garden vignette could also be employed to create a pleasing painting, a tempting textile, a beautiful building, or a fine photograph. There is a design language, and it does boast [...]
Structure, to me, is all important in garden making. Without it, a garden usually looks wimpy, mushy, and kind of inconsequential. There are exceptions, of course, but I’m just saying. Anyhow, I like using manufactured items from time to time, but feel as if the basic bones of a garden should come from its plants. So [...]
Garden photographers just love focal points designed into gardens. In great gardens though, they present dilemmas. What is the best angle ? Let’s take a stroll around one of the rooms in Gary Ratway’s own garden: Gary is one of those exceedingly rare landscape architects who knows more than 25 plants. Not only does he [...]