Tag Archives | garden design

Anchoring Vignettes with Tropical Foliage

For the past several weeks, I have been poring over photos of the Gardens at the Bank of Springfield, scrutinizing this season’s plant combinations and working on my spring planting plan. I’ve come to appreciate the large percentage of annuals and tropicals used on the site. They are essential to the success of this 55-mph (Zone 5) landscape. Annuals ensure consistent bloom and vibrant color. In addition, the use of annuals provides me an opportunity not typically afforded designers of commercial landscapes: I am able to evaluate, revise and improve upon my design each season. Continue Reading →

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Gardening in Black and White

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 take a break from the computer. One book I always keep nearby for inspiration and pure viewing pleasure is Andrew Lawson’s The Gardener’s Book of Color. I happened to pick it up the other day and was flipping through the Understanding Color chapter when I ran across a topic I hadn’t much thought about before: the role of tone in creating plant combinations. Continue Reading →

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Growth and Inspiration

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. Continue Reading →

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A Garden You Can Bank On

 

Tom Marantz, Bank of Springfield’s Chairman & CEO, and Adam Woodruff

Tom Marantz, Bank of Springfield’s Chairman & CEO, and Adam Woodruff

Recently, we noticed comments from a new visitor to GGW, Adam Woodruff of Adam Woodruff Landscapes, LLC, in Clayton, Missouri. We visited his blog and were impressed by his design work, so we invited him to join us as a guest contributor to share his experience with gardening on a grand scale.

All too often, commercial landscapes consist of uninspired swaths of turf and shrub masses with pockets of color to accent corporate signage and key entry points. Weed barriers and rock are favored over blooming groundcovers; diversity is forfeited for ease of maintenance. However, a well-designed garden meant to enhance the site and architecture of a building can do much more for a business than may be obvious. Continue Reading →

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Breaking The Rules

Having worked on the same piece of land, a steeply sloping and oddly shaped one half acre lot for a quarter of a century (which I am in the process of selling), I have a made a multitude of mistakes and experienced enough ‘ah ha’ moments that the joy of digging, observing and connecting to nature has never ceased to amaze me.

Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned in observing the transformation of my landscape over this extended period of time. Continue Reading →

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