texture
It's unusual to think of such a wonderfully decorative watershape in this way, but the one featured in this edition of "Details" was the result of a client's desire for a measure of safety for the front of his home. The house is located on an intersection in a hilly part of Manhattan Beach, Calif., where the steep, downhill orientation of the streets occasionally lead cars to make turns at unwisely high speeds. Given the orientation of his front door, my client was concerned that, with a bit of very bad luck, he might someday find an out-of-control-driver's car in his foyer. As is the case with many
In preparation for creating plant palettes for my projects, I typically spend hours poring over my Sunset Western Garden book. I thrive on finding plants I haven't tried before, and I look especially for those I haven't seen in anyone's garden. Before I'll try any of these discoveries out on someone else, however, I'll pick up a sample plant and bring it home to my own garden - part science project, part proving ground to see how the plants perform away from the nursery. I've had many successes through the years and probably as many failures, but I learn something from every attempt. What I sometimes find are plants that are
When I first walked the four acres of wooded ravines of what would later be christened "The Garden of Wind and Pine" at the heart of the Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Ark., I was both delighted and daunted by the experience. The delight came in the site's sublime natural beauty, which reminded me of tromping through the woods as a child - an activity I enjoy to this day. As for my sense of unease, I don't know which was more significant: the expansiveness of the dry drainage ravines that were to be converted to ever-varying cascades and streams, or the omnipresence of ticks and poison ivy. When I made my first visit in the fall of 1999, the site was part of an undeveloped 210-acre woodland parcel on the shore of Lake Hamilton given to the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville by Verna Garvan. She had long seen the peninsula as the ideal setting for a botanical garden and had spent two decades developing her vision, planting camellias and azaleas and a rose garden and commissioning a pavilion by the architect Fay Jones and his partner, Maurice Jennings. I had worked in Fayetteville before, crafting a
If I were to ask the average watershaper to name the most versatile element in any landscape, he or she would probably reply by talking about water or plants or some other equally prominent component. If you asked me the same question, however, I'd almost always say rocks. Some of you might be thinking I have a few too many of them rolling around loose in my head, but there's a good explanation for my response. First, rocks come in an infinite number of forms, shapes, compositions, colors, textures and sizes. Second, they can be used to sit on, walk on, retain hillsides or create small mounds. Third, they add dimension to designs and contribute in countless other ways to the
Since the dawn of civilization, it has stood as the single most enduring of all artistic media: From representations of mythological characters and historic events to applications as purely architectural forms and fixtures, carved stone has been with us every step of the way. As modern observers, we treasure this heritage in the pyramids of Egypt and Mesoamerica. We see it in the Parthenon in Athens, in the Roman Colosseum and in India's Taj Mahal - every one of them among humankind's finest uses of carved stone in the creation of monuments and public buildings. As watershapers in particular, we stand in awe before the Trevi Fountain in Rome, the glorious waterworks of the Villa d'Este and the fountains of Versailles, three of history's most prominent examples of carved stone's use in conjunction with water. But you don't need to
Out of all the varieties I mentioned in last month's discussion of maples, my favorite was (and still is) the variegated maple. Beyond the simply spectacular nature of that particular tree, what I love most about them is their variegated leaves. This is clearly a personal preference. In fact, I've come across many clients and friends who have a specific disdain for variegated
We live in a wonderful era of creative development in a variety of watershaping trades and are truly blessed, it seems, with an ever-expanding generation of talented artists and a sense that our most dynamic creations are yet to be built. For all of this forward momentum, however, I find myself surprised and dismayed all too often by the lack of creativity that goes into our work below the water's surface. To my eyes, pool and spa interiors in particular are simply bland and boring. I'm oppressed by six-inch waterline tile surmounting a field of
Images of waterways almost anywhere in the world are filled with gentle sweeps of free-flowing grasses swaying in the breezes or simply lazing by the water's edge. From a watershaper's perspective, these grasses are arguably the most versatile of all plant materials. In one form or another, they exist and thrive in almost every environment in the world. They can be used by themselves to lend a natural feeling to a stream or pond, next to a contemporary watershape to make a bold statement or nestled among almost any other plants in any landscape style to soften and add texture. One of the best things about grasses (particularly the taller ones) is how gracefully they wave in the wind, adding an element of
There's never been much of a tradition in this country when it comes to beautiful stonework, especially when it comes to flat stone surfaces. What you usually see is the same few stone types used over and over again in the same sorts of applications. To see a contrasting heritage, just travel in Europe and some parts of Asia, where you'll see a far greater variety of flat stone used in creative ways to create pathways, walls, decks, patios and a host of architectural features, including pilasters and finials. Of course, the Old World had a long head start on us, but even so, we've been slow in the New World to catch up with the masonry and quarrying trades as they've been practiced abroad for centuries. Fortunately, that's starting to change. My firm, Malibu Stone & Masonry of Malibu, Calif., supplies stone (flat and otherwise) to a host of contractors, landscape architects and designers. What we're seeing is a two-stage process: Professionals are surprised
I feel like I'm working backward: First, I told you about a gargantuan water lily and its very specific requirements, then I offered a more general look at water lilies that will thrive in almost any pond. Now I'm going to give you some ideas and tips for designing with all types of water plants. It might have been more logical to approach things the other way around, but the important thing is that we're ready to complete the package and talk about ways of incorporating lilies and water plants of other sorts into beautiful, overall planting designs. As always, I will avoid getting too specific with recommendations. Instead, I'll stick to basic
