I’m a fan of pea gravel in garden design. It's an attractive hardscape cover with an element of sound and it's a permeable surface to manage stormwater.
Read MoreHOW TO USE GRAVEL IN THE GARDEN
GENDER IN DESIGN
When seeking a professional to design a garden or residential landscape, does it matter what gender a landscape designer is?
Read MoreRUSSELL PAGE on GARDEN DESIGN
Russell Page (1906–1985) is known for the development of master design plan for a site by applying principles of classical style to the gardens he designed.
Read More5 FAVORITE SHRUBS FOR WINTER INTEREST
Winter may be the most challenging season, but also the season that tests one's talents as a garden designer!
When doing a planting plan many garden designers, landscape designers, landscape architects design for the winter landscape first, then orchestrate their plant palette for the remaining three seasons afterwords.
Here are five favorite shrubs for zone 7 New York City gardens. Do you agree? Which shrubs would you add to this list?
Read MoreHORTUS CONCLUSUS
Hortus conclusus is an enclosed garden or walled garden. It protected the private from public intrusion, creating a barrier, that brought nature within its walls.
Read More5 BEST SHRUBS FOR FALL COLOR
The beauty of fall color surpasses all other seasonal highlights. It's a joy to create a colorful nyc garden design among the grey buildings and early winter skies. Here are my five favorite shrubs for fall, whether I've planted them on a roof garden, brownstone yard, residential property or college campus landscape. A late-season garden is best described by a landscape designer friend.. "with all the plants flopping over, somewhat disheveled from their perfect summer form, it's as if we're at a party where everyone stayed a bit too long!"
Read MoreMY MOTHER TAUGHT ME TO STEAL. SEEDS.
If you're interested in garden design, consider the illicit pastime of stealing seeds.
I have marigolds from Kew Gardens, wisteria from Dumbarton Oaks. Two days ago, I was at Wave Hill, in front of a border where I saw a spent flower head that dried up, fallen to the ground with a capsule of seeds. My daughter watched me look left, then right. No one was watching (nor there to ask) so I bent down and nonchalantly picked it up and put it in my pocket.
Years ago I wanted to taste a pawpaw fruit (Assimina triloba). I read it was one of the largest fruit in North America, the fruit was custardy, tasted like a pear/apple/banana, somewhat tropical. Early in the year I noticed a couple of these trees at a public botanical garden and planned to return later in the year after the plant had fruited. I arrived a little later than I had planned and found a couple of these pawpaw fruit had fallen to the ground. At that point I figured (or rationalized) it was either me or the rodents that are eating this. “Survival of the fittest” set in.
At the risk of being ostracized by my peers, I ask how other gardeners or plant geeks act in these situations. Have YOU been guilty of these temptations?
If you liked the above anecdote, you may also enjoy my related blog post.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST IN THE GARDEN
“The greatest service which can be rendered to any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.” –Thomas Jefferson
The Darwinian approach of Natural Selection asserts that species adapt to various environments. Selection is the process by which the organisms that are best adapted to their environment tend to be the ones that survive to reproduce and pass on their genes to the next generation, hence the term ‘survival of the fittest.’ The environment is the ‘genetic sculptor’ which can, over time, change the characteristics of the organisms within a population.
Read MoreSTREET ART IN BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
A simple design solution. Great urban sculpture. Witty and inventive. Possibly low cost.
The median strip is the reserved area separating opposing lanes of traffic. In many municipalities they function as green belts, a landscape design with trees, beautiful plantings, lawn grasses, etc. In locations such as New York City's Park Avenue there is a mixture of garden art, landscape sculpture, seasonal plantings. But this site specific landscape installation works with the grit of the city. The humor of the twin yellow lines somewhat symbolic of the bumpy ride on city streets, the stoping and starting of city traffic.
Read MoreTHE MOST FAMOUS GARDEN IN THE UNITED STATES?
If leadership is the process by which one influences and motivates the behaviors, attitudes, and thoughts of others... then Is this the most influential garden in the United States since Jefferson created Monticello?
Perhaps the perfect site to create a garden design for a jardin potager?
