Landscape, Plants, Hardscape & Decks
From the moment I set foot on this site perched on the bluffs at Del Mar, Calif., I just knew I would be the designer chosen to develop the garden: I was energized simply by being there and, more important, was at ease with the owners from the start. Immediately noticeable was the way the whole property sloped down from street level to the top of
On just about any site, we run into hidden obstacles - everything from underground pipes or leftover debris from other construction to myriad other surprises - and many of them are easily dealt with either by removing the barriers or redirecting things around them. But what happens when the obstacle is alive and growing and you can't remove it or escape from it? In these situations, you have to do your research, get creative and, above all, take the matter seriously. Case in point is a garden I'm designing for a project with David Tisherman - the one discussed previously where I'm developing a white
On just about any site, we run into hidden obstacles - everything from underground pipes or leftover debris from other construction to myriad other surprises - and many of them are easily dealt with either by removing the barriers or redirecting things around them. But what happens when the obstacle is alive and growing and you can't remove it or escape from it? In these situations, you have to do your research, get creative and, above all, take the matter seriously. Case in point is a garden I'm designing for a project with David Tisherman - the one discussed previously where I'm developing a white
It was an unusual time to be thinking about work, but there I was on a late-August morning, and Peak's Island off the coast of Maine was in glorious summer form. Small enough to walk around in an hour or so, the island is filled with delightful, charming summer cottages - not a "McMansion" in sight. In the early light, my thoughts had been silenced as I savored the beauty of the coastal wetlands and meadows filled with wildflowers, grasses and sedge. I was totally absorbed by the
We landshapers can and should attach a dollar figure to our knowledge, experience and integrity. That's a lesson I had to learn the hard way. About fifteen years ago, I was in need of a new dump truck for my growing business. I wasn't rich, so I decided to buy a used vehicle and found one in the local truck-trader newspaper. After looking at the truck with my trusty mechanic, I made an offer to my fellow landscape contractor, and he accepted. As we entered his office to complete the necessary paperwork, I came face-to-face with a landscape plan that looked very familiar: It was one I had drawn for potential clients. In fact, it was the colored plan I had presented to them only a few weeks earlier. I felt violated: That was my plan sitting on his desk. I asked him where he'd gotten it - an obvious and unnecessary question - and he told me that
Successful design is, I think, most readily achieved by linking a landscape to the architecture it accompanies. During my years as a landscape designer, however, I've seen far too many places where the landscape was apparently designed in a vacuum, displaying little to no connection to the home or any other structures on site. To the contrary, our job as landshapers is to
I'm not a big believer in conformity, strict rules and absolutes, but sometimes in my travels I'll come across something that, well, is just wrong. These aren't matters of taste, style, or visual appeal: What I see is just plain wrong! Whether we classify ourselves as watershapers or landscape professionals, we collaborate with our clients to create spaces that appeal to them both visually and emotionally - environments that fit sets of needs and wants they have conveyed to us. Generally, we will find that there are certain colors that appeal to them, design styles they prefer, budgets they can afford, physical limitations to the site and codes by which they must abide. For all that, it's our professional responsibility to guide them within those parameters to a design that
With greater force than ever before, water conservation is back on the minds of governments, landscape professionals and property owners these days - and for good reason: The combination of growing demand and recurring periods of drought has sensitized people in many parts of the country to the fact that water isn't an infinite resource. Even this new magazine is part of the dialogue: In the September/October 2006 issue of LandShapes, James Minnich defined the need for landshapers to become more
We live in a multi-dimensional world. Most people understand that space has three dimensions: height, width and depth. But relatively few people look at color in the same way - that is, as a three dimensional phenomenon. Understanding these three dimensions of color can become the key to unlocking your creativity as a designer. We began our study of color in LandShapes' May/June issue ("Designing in Color," click here), where we explored the scientific nature of color and its first dimension - hue, the name of a color (red, yellow, blue, orange, green or violet) - and learned that each hue has a temperature range (from warm to cool). We also learned that all six hues may be organized and better understood through the use of a helpful tool developed by color scientists called the color wheel. We will now continue our study of color by exploring the second and third dimensions of color and then by discussing contrast, analogous and complementary colors and color harmony. This will enable us to begin applying these fundamentals as landshapers and see in practical terms how understanding these fundamentals can help us become better
Integrated pest management - or IPM, as it has become widely known -- is a concept that emerged about 20 years ago when landscape professionals and others involved in the management of plants and the land began incorporating its techniques into their landscape installation and management projects. Unfortunately, however, the concept of pest management is all too often seen as the exclusive province of those engaged in landscape maintenance: As a rule, designers and design/build contractors rarely pay more than lip service to pests in general and give even less attention to considering them as part of an integrated approach. At the risk of being labeled a "tree hugger," I believe it's time for everyone involved in the various landscape professions to embrace IPM. The simple truth is that, as landshapers, we need to pick up on the lessons of our collective experience. As the saying goes, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it - as we have, over and
